DOMINIQUE KHALFOUNI French Star dancer

Disclaimers, I don’t own anything. Dominique Khalfouni, born in June 23, 1951, is a French Star dancer, former star of the Paris National Opera Ballet (1976-1981) and the Marseille-Roland Petit National Ballet. In 1975, while she was still in the Corps, as “Sujet“, she danced the role of Odette-Odile in Swan Lake at the Cour Carrée of the Louvre. In 1976, she was named Etoile on the opening night of Ivan the Terrible (Grigorovich), in which she played the role of Anastasia. Dominique Khalfouni has the very rare characteristic of having become a Star dancer without having been a “Première danseuse“. In the same year, Pierre Lacotte created for her the pas de deux “Le Papillon“ after Marie Taglioni. Her roles at Paris Opera are: Giselle, Adagietto (Araïz), the Crystal Palace (Balanchine’s Symphony in C, original Paris version, 3rd and 1st movements), the Shadow (the Mirages, Serge Lifar), Juliette (Romeo and Juliet by Grigorovitch), Coppélia (Lacotte) , Suite en Blanc (la Cigarette), Nikyia (la Bayadère, En Sol (Robbins), Serait-ce la Mort? (Béjart), le Spectre de la Rose (with Noureev, and Baryshnikov), Aurore (Sleeping Beauty), Métaboles (McMillan), la Sylphide (Lacotte ), the young ballerina (The Phantom of the Opera, by Roland Petit) In the 1980s, she notably worked alongside Roland Petit and Mikhaïl Barychnikov. She left the Paris Opera in 1981 as the management of this theater did not give her the possibility to accept numerous contracts and tours outside that were offered to her (with Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova in works by Roland Petit for example). After working for six months with the American Ballet Theater (Giselle, la Sonnambula) and traveling throughout America, she will settle permanently in Marseille with Roland Petit. She will perform the entire repertoire of the Ballet National de Marseille: (Albertine) Proust or the intermittences of the heart, Carmen, the Young man and Death, Coppélia, the Loves of Frantz, “My Pavlova“ created especially for her, “the Blue Angel“, the Arlesian, the Sleeping Beauty (Small version), the Puss in Boots, Notre Dame de Paris, Le Guépard, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Nutcracker, Chéri, etc. She is the mother of Mathieu Ganio, star dancer at the Paris Opera, as well as Marine Ganio successfully hired in 2008 in the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera. A documentary on her life and that of her son, “Comme un rêve“, was directed by Marlène Ionesco in 2009.