Noella
Pontois

Jury member of Benois de la Danse

Having studied ballet at the Paris Opera Ballet School, Noella Pontois graduated into the company. In 1965, she was given her first solo role, the pas-de-deux (Act 1) in “Giselle”. In 1966, she danced a lead role for the first time — in the ballet “Arkady” and was appointed first solist. Her international career started in 1967 when she performed the role of Aurora in London. Her partner was John Gilpin.

In 1968, N. Pontois was made Prima and danced the title role in "Giselle- with Cyril Atanassoff shortly after which she danced the pas-de-deux from “Nutcracker“ and „Giselle” with Rudolf Nureyev.

In 1969, she danced the lead roles in the following ballets: “Swan Lake“, “Coppelia“, “Sarabanda“, „The Four Temperaments”, „Suite in White” and „Daphnis and Chloe”.

In 1970, Pontois added the following Balanchine ballets to her repertoire: “Apollon Musagete“ with Jean-Pierre Bonfou, and later with Attilio Labis; “Concerto Barocco“, “Le Palais de Cristal“ and “Serenade“. In subsequent years there was a rapid increase in her repertoire: “Etudes“, “The Patrisian Cathedral of Notre Dame“, “La Bayadere“, “Apres-midi d-un faune“, “La Sylphide“, “The Wolf“, “Les Sylphides“, “Spartacus“, “Nutcracker“, “Don Quixote”, „Romeo and Juliet”, „Ivan the Terrible”, „Mirages”, „Petrouchka”, „The Seasons”, „Sylvia”, „Paquita”, „La Fille mal gardee”, „Midsummer Night▓s Dream”, „Le Corsaire”, „Raymonda”, „Shadow” were just some of the ballets in which Noelle Pontois danced. She was partnered by such outstanding artists as Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Bukhones, Vasiliev, Bortoluzzi, Shaufus, Derevyanko; and at the Paris Opera by Atanassoff, Bart, Labis, Bonfou, Franketti, Denar, Jude, Lormo, Dupont, Legris and Vyu-An.

Noella Pontois has been awarded the Rene Blum and Anna Pavlova prizes as well as the National Grand-Prix „For services to ballet”. She is a holder of the Order of Merit, the Order of the Legion d-Honneur (by way of exception) and of the Order of Literature and Art.

Since 1988, Noella Pontois has been teaching at the Paris Opera.

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