He was a “ballet archaeologist”: Pierre Lacotte, French dancer and choreographer, who died at the age of 91, devoted his life to reconstructing 19th century ballets which he brought back to life on the biggest stages in the world.
He said he owed this passion to one of his dance teachers, the Russian Lioubov Egorova (1880-1972), who was prima ballerina of the Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg and who had worked with Marius Petipa, creator of the most famous academic ballets.
She “said to me one day: + I am going to leave this world. Swear to me that you will not let this heritage fall into oblivion +”, told Pierre Lacotte in 2014 to the daily La Croix.
He was born on April 4, 1932 in Chatou in the Yvelines (west of Paris). A weak child, he took refuge in music. When her parents take her to see ballets at the Paris Opera, it’s love at first sight.
He joined the Ecole de l’Opéra in 1942 and despite his fragile health, joined the corps de ballet then became first dancer in 1951. He was 17 when Serge Lifar chose him to perform his creation, “Septuor”, with Claude Bessy, the future director of the School of Dance.
Pierre Lacotte took an early interest in choreography and his first creations were rooted in his time: “Exodus” (1953) takes place during the Second World War, “La nuit est une witch” (1954) is based on a music specially composed by jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet.
He resigned from the Opera the following year, founded the Ballets de la Tour Eiffel company and then, from 1959, led a career as a dancer and independent choreographer.
In the early 1960s, Pierre Lacotte was one of the protagonists in the resounding defection of Rudolf Nureyev who fled to the West.
During a tour of the Kirov (name of the Mariinsky in the days of the USSR), the young prodigy discovered Paris, with Pierre Lacotte and other dancers.
On June 16, 1961, at Le Bourget airport, just before a panicked Nureyev boarded the plane that was to take him back to Russia, Lacotte had the idea of contacting Clara Saint, ex-fiancée of a son of André Malraux, then Minister of Culture.
Once there, she asks for the help of the French police and the dancer will make his high profile leap to the West.
In 1968, an ankle injury forced Lacotte to slow down. He goes to the library of the Paris Opera and immerses himself in the archives. He discovered, there and in private collections, a quantity of documents on the first ballet sur pointes in history, “La Sylphide”, created in 1832 for the Paris Opera by Philippe Taglioni (1777-1871) for his daughter, Marie, the “sensation” of the time.
And why not recreate this ballet? Begins a meticulous work of reconstruction, three years which take him to several countries and even to the cellars of the Louvre in search of documents to find dance steps, images of costumes and sets.
“When I recreate a ballet, I am looking for the flavor of the time”, he said.
“La Sylphide” was captured for television in 1972. Then he went to the Paris Opera, with Ghislaine Thesmar – wife of Pierre Lacotte since 1968 – then named star.
The choreographer became a specialist in forgotten ballets from the Romantic period, which fascinated him with their “undeniable purity of style”.
“I love rummaging through the archives of the Opera library-museum, I feel like a child discovering his grandparents’ letters in the attic,” he confided to La Croix.
He revives “Coppélia” (1870), “Le Pas de six de La Vivandière” (1844), “La fille du Pharaon” (1862), “Paquita” (1846) for the greatest stages in the world.
Pierre Lacotte has held several positions in dance houses, including the Ballet de Nancy et de Lorraine (where he succeeds Patrick Dupond).
In 2021, at almost 90 years old, he created his last ballet for the Opera, “Le Rouge et le Noir”, adapted from Stendhal.