Claire Motte, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, at the circus

Claire Motte, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, died when she was just 48. She was a striking beauty and possessed a strong personality, such that Roland Petit created Esmeralda for her in his ballet Notre Dame de Paris.

Motte came through the school at the Paris Opera with teachers Carlotta Zambelli and Serge Lifar. Her strong technique permitted her to join the company when she was just 14, she became a première danseuse at 18, and étoile from 1960 until 1979.

Among the many ballets in which she created roles were Lifar’s Chemin de la Lumiere in 1957 and Roland Petit’s Turangalila in 1968.

She was seen on television in the title role of Stravinsky’s The Firebird in 1972, and again in Phedre in 1973, the Jean Cocteau ballet based on the Greek tragedy.

Rudolf Nureyev, who had been befriended by Motte before his defection from the Kirov Ballet in 1961, appointed her ballet mistress of the Paris Opera Ballet immediately after he became its artistic director in 1983.

These two photos underline her strident personality: she walked the tightrope in a gala in Los Angeles in 1976, and a year later she was on horseback in Paris with fellow étoile (and future director of the company’s ballet school) Claude Bessy.

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.