ZIZI JEANMAIRE

(29 April 1924 - 17 July 2020)

The French ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire, who has died aged 96, and Margot Fonteyn were among the most famous female dancers of the twentieth century. They were friends but totally different dancers, Fonteyn being strictly classical while Zizi was not only a celebrated classical ballerina but also a popular actress and singer in Parisian nightlife. Born Renḗe Marcelle Jeanmaire, she adored ballet early on and at nine joined the ballet school of the Paris Opera. She left after seven years along with fellow student Roland Petit who created Ballets des Champ-Elysḗes and who eventually became her husband. Later she joined the Ballets de Monte Carlo, De Basil Ballets and eventually Petit’s own company, Les Ballets de Paris. Their greatest venture together was a ballet to Bizet’s Carmen which played London and New York. Back in Paris, Zizi nursed an injury during which time she learned to sing in Petit’s new ballet La Croqueuse de Diamants, the title song of which earned her a Grand Prix du Disque. And then came films, the first of which was Hans Christian Andersen with Danny Kaye in 1952. Then she played Broadway in the musical The Girl in Pink Tights. Her career continued in dance, theatre, operetta, revue and more films and television specials – Henri Decoin’s Folies-Bergère and his Charmants Garçons, Anything Goes with Bing Crosby, Jean Delannoy’s Guinguette and Terence Young’s Black Tights with Roland Petit who also made a TV version of his Carmen ballet with Zizi and Baryshnikov. Subsequently they moved to Marseilles where she carried on dancing, appearing on TV, doing cabaret and making recordings until Petit left the Ballets de Marseilles when they settled in Geneva. Petit died in 2011 and Zizi is survived by their daughter Valentine.

MICHAEL DARVELL