Jean-Marie Didiere – MOBBallet.org

Jean-Marie Didière

Paris Opera Ballet
Karole Armitage Dance Company

Jean-Marie Didière trained for four years at the Paris Opera School before joining the main company. His early roles with the company included those in Carolyn Carlson’s Slow, Heavy and Blue and Density 21.5; Paul Taylor’s Aureole; and Maurice Béjart’s Bhakti III. He created roles in John Neumeier’s Vaslaw, Violette Verdy’s Variations, and Félix Blaska’s Linea. His lead roles with the Paris Opera included those in John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet, Tybalt), Paquita (Don Lopez de Mendoza), Don Quixote (Espada), Maurice Béjart’s The Rite of Spring, Vladimir Bourmeister’s Swan Lake (Pas de Quatre), Rudolf Nureyev’s Swan Lake (Pas de Trois), Raymonda (Abderam), Serge Lifar’s Les Mirages, Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces, La Bayadère (The Rajah), Dark Elegies, Michel Fokine’s Petrouchka, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Schéma, Sleeping Beauty, Before Nightfall, The Nutcracker, The Leaves are Fading, Wuthering Heights, Kenneth MacMillan’s L’Histoire de Manon, In Memory of…, Grande Fugue, George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, Sonata à trois, and Magnificat.

In addition to performing with Rudolf Nureyev for his Rudolf and Friends Abroad program, Didière appeared in Le Don des Etoiles in Montreal, Canada, a “one-night gathering of 22 of the world’s most illustrious ballet stars,” in both 1986 and 1987.

In a 1979 review, London’s The Observer called Didière a “promising youngster.” The Stage said Didière “led the ballet [Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces] with magnetic verve” in 1994.

Didière also performed modern dance, serving as a “leading dancer” with the Karole Armitage Dance Company. Part of his time with the company was depicted in Charles Atlas’ short film Ex-Romance.