Sofiane Sylve (born 1976) is a French ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer and ballet master with the

Dresden Semperoper Ballett The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the T ...

and the artistic advisor and school director of Ballet San Antonio; she is set to run the latter's new school. She was previously a principal dancer with

Dutch National Ballet The Dutch National Ballet ( Dutch: Het Nationale Ballet) is the official and largest ballet company in the Netherlands. Its forerunners were Ballet Der Lage Landen, Ballet of the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam Ballet, and Netherlands Ballet (Nederl ...

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

and

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Fra ...

Biography

Sylve was born in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Patricia Neary Patricia Neary (born October 27, 1942) is an American ballerina, choreographer and ballet director, who has been particularly active in Switzerland. She has also been an ambassador for the Balanchine Trust, bringing George Balanchine's ballets to ...

cast her as the lead in the

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

ballet ''

Allegro Brillante ''Allegro Brillante'' is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3. The ballet is danced by a principal couple and a corps de ballet of eight. Balanchine said it "contains everything I knew about classic ...

''. Neary then recommended Sylve join

, which had more Balanchine repertoire. At age 17, she danced the title role in ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

.'' She was promoted to principal dancer and was offered a lifetime contract at age 20, and danced roles including Aurora in '' The Sleeping Beauty'', as well as works by Balanchine and

Frederick Ashton Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton (17 September 190418 August 1988) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He also worked as a director and choreographer in opera, film and revue. Determined to be a dancer despite the oppositio ...

. In 2003, the New York City Ballet invited Sylve to join the company, and she accepted the position several months lateer. Sylve joined the

as a principal dancer in 2008. In 2020, Sylve joined

as principal dancer and ballet master. In 2020, she was also appointed Artistic Advisor of Ballet San Antonio. And as of 2022, Sylve became both Artistic Director of Ballet San Antonio and Director of the School of Ballet San Antonio. Sylve completed and received her Management Essentials and Leadership Principles certificates from the Harvard Business School Online.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sylve, Sofiane San Francisco Ballet principal dancers New York City Ballet principal dancers Dutch National Ballet principal dancers Living people People from Nice French expatriates in the United States French expatriates in the Netherlands French expatriates in Germany 1976 births French prima ballerinas 21st-century French ballet dancers 20th-century French ballet dancers Dancers from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur