Trivia

Dancer.

Second husband of Patricia McBride.

After leaving the New York City Ballet, Jean-Pierre Bonnefous became artistic director of the "Charlotte Ballet", which he left in 2017.

In 1952, he was admitted to the Paris Opera Ballet School. In 1957, he joined the company, and his exceptional talents quickly made him noticed, and he was successively named principal dancer in 1964 and Gorges Auric named him Étoile in April 1965.

Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux was a French ballet dancer and instructor.

At 14, Bonnefoux joined the Paris Opera Ballet, and became a star dancer at age 21.

He danced many roles in the repertoire (Études by Harald Lander, Apollon Musagète, Agon and Orphée by George Balanchine, and Giselle by Alicia Alonso) and was particularly noted for his creations of La Damnation de Faust (1964), Noces (1965), and Webern op.5 (1966) by Maurice Béjart.

He served twice as the president of the jury at the Prix de Lausanne (2005 and 2007).

Under the direction of George Balanchine, Bonnefoux became a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.

In 1966, he took part in the television soap opera L'Âge heureux, which told of the lives of young dancers at the Palais Garnier.

George Balanchine hired him in 1970 as Principal of the New York City Ballet, where he danced a vast repertoire for ten years. He danced several works by Jerome Robbins, such as Beethoven Pas de Deux and An Evening's Waltzes in 1973, and ballets by George Balanchine, such as Stravinsky Violin Concerto in 1972 and Sonatine in 1975, alongside Violette Verdy.

He was during different tenures the artistic director of the Charlotte Ballet and the Chautauqua Institution.

In 1965, he created the role of Phoebus in Roland Petit's Notre-Dame de Paris at the Paris Opera.

He retired from the stage in 1980, leaving the New York City Ballet to join his wife, dancer Patricia McBride, as head of the dance department at the University of Indianapolis.

In 1970, Jean-Pierre Bonnefous joined the New York City Ballet as a soloist, where he created many roles for him, including Agon, Waltz, Orpheus, Who Cares? Violin Concerto, Dances at a Gathering. It was then the fairytale wedding with Patricia Mc Bride, which made headlines with this crossing of New York in a horse-drawn carriage. This was in 1973.