Babille, Jean

Born in Paris in the family of a doctor, in 1936-1940 he studied at the ballet school of the Paris Opera . Having started performing, he quickly gained fame thanks to his stamina and his high jump ^{[1] [2]} . After the outbreak of World War II, his career was interrupted: Father Babille was a Jew , so he fled from Paris in 1940, when German troops were already approaching the city, but still returned in early 1942 and danced at the Paris Opera, barely escaping shipment to Auschwitz during mass arrests in Paris on July 16, 1942. At the beginning of 1943, Babille again fled from Paris to avoid being forcibly sent to work in Germany. He joined the Resistance Movement and fought in the ranks of the poppies until the end of the war ^[3] .

After the war, he resumed the career of a dancer; for a number of reasons, he took his mother’s maiden name ^[4] . He achieved the greatest success by performing with Roland Petit in the , where he was a leading dancer in 1945-1950, and then in the Ballet of Paris . In 1946, Petit staged for Babille and his wife Natalie Flippar one of his best ballets, “ Young Man and Death ”. In 1949 and 1953 , Babille was a guest soloist of the Paris Opera, in the 1950s he also danced at the American Ballet Theater (New York). He later formed his own troupe, Les Ballets Jean Babilée . In 1972-1973 he was the director of the ballet troupe of the Rhine Opera in Strasbourg. He performed on stage until 61 years old. He played in the drama theater (with Peter Brook and others), starred in films and on television (including Georges Frangue and Jacques Rivett ).