The presentation will be led by Gianluca Bocchino, Professor of Musicology and Performing Arts. The event will feature the book’s author, Carmela Piccione, as well as Monique Veaute, Vice President of Fondazione Romaeuropa.
Translated by Carmela Piccione, journalist, dance critic and scholar, the book tells the extraordinary story of Zizi Jeanmaire, wife and muse of Roland Petit, one of the most prominent choreographers of the 20th century. Her story began at the age of nine, at the Paris Opera, where Zizi Jeanmaire studied in the same class as Roland Petit, and continued on the stages of Hollywood, Broadway and the Casino de Paris, where she became the leading interpreter of the great choreographer’s creations, from Carmen to Mon Truc en plumes.
The biography also offers a glimpse into more than sixty years of history, culture and encounters: from Jean Cocteau to Boris Vian, from Christian Dior to Yves Saint Laurent, from Rudolf Nureyev to Mikhail Baryshnikov. A life inextricably intertwined with dance, theatre and 20th-century culture, captured in the words of poet Louis Aragon: “Without Zizi… Paris would not be Paris.”
This event is particularly significant for the history of Romaeuropa Festival: Zizi Jeanmaire was in fact a guest of the Festival in 1987.
Book cover photo © Piero Tauro
