Petit, Roland 1924-
French choreographer and dancer

Born in Paris, he began his studies at the Paris Opera under Serge Lifar at the age of nine, becoming the company's principal dancer (1943-44). Following a short period with the Ballets des Champs-Elys�es, he founded his own troupe in 1948, Les Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit. In 1972 he became artistic director of the Ballet National de Marseilles. He created many new ballets including Le Rossignol et la rose (1944, 'The Nightingale and the Rose'), a story by Oscar Wilde set to Schumann's music; Les Forains (1945, 'The Fairground People') with Jean Cocteau; Le Jeune Homme et la Mort (1946, 'Death and the Young Man'), which Cocteau had rehearsed strictly to jazz until the opening night when J S Bach was substituted; Jean Anouilh's Les Demoiselles de la Nuit (1948, 'The Young Ladies of the Night'); Pink Floyd Ballet (1972); Nana (1976) and Marcel Proust Remembered (1980). During the 1950s he was very active in the film industry, creating the ballet sequences in the film Hans Christian Andersen (1952), danced by his wife, Zizi Jeanmaire, and Daddy Long Legs (1954).