Paris (AFP)

It was the "Truc en plumes" of a dancer at the same time smart and chic. Zizi Jeanmaire died Friday at the age of 96, nine years after the one with whom she had shared so much, the choreographer Roland Petit.

Artist who moved the lines between classical dance and music hall, she had a remarkable longevity career, which led her from the Paris Opera to Broadway, then Hollywood. But always with the rigor of a classical dancer, pegged to the body.

Installed for several years in Switzerland, she "died peacefully that night at her home in Tolochenaz in the canton of Vaud," her daughter Valentine Petit told AFP.

His funeral will take place in private but a tribute will be paid to him in September in the Saint Roch church, the Parisian parish of artists, said his entourage.

"It is with great sadness that we learn of the disappearance of a great lady from the French and international music hall, Madame Zizi Jeanmaire. We will never forget her endless legs, her elegance and of course her feather stuff. . ", commented on Lido on Twitter.

"We will never forget you dear Zizi", reacted the former star of the Paris Opera, Marie-Agnès Gillot, on Instagram, with a video of Zizi, full of legs and feathers singing his most famous hit.

The dancer Marie-Claude Pietragalla for her part hailed the memory of a "magnificent icon of dance and the music hall".

- Carmen with short hair -

It was at the helm of the Paris Opera Dance School that the one who would later be called "Zizi" (born Renée Jeanmaire on April 29, 1924) met the future choreographer Roland Petit. They are only 9 years old.

Entering the venerable house in 1933, she joined the corps de ballet seven years later, then left it after the Second World War.

"Roland wanted to start his own company," she said. It will be the Ballets des Champs-Elysées, then those of Paris.

The troupe will reveal itself in Carmen, which will be played in Paris, London and Broadway. From there, Zizi will go to Hollywood, where he will be hired by producer-aviator Howard Hughes. Sam Goldwyn will advise him to keep his stage name, a nod to the word she repeated, as a child, when her mother called her "My Jesus".

"My stuff in feathers", created in Paris in 1961, lastingly imprints the image of Zizi Jeanmaire, at the same time smart and chic.

His interpretation in "The Young Man and Death", alongside Rudolf Nureyev for a filmed version, is widely praised.

Zizi Jeanmaire's many artistic collaborations will also be remembered: from Raymond Queneau to Serge Gainsbourg, via Barbara and Aragon. Boris Vian said of her: "She has eyes to empty a Trappist convent in five minutes".

Yves Saint Laurent, who dressed her for forty years ((notably for "My stuff in feathers" in 1961), believed that it was enough for him "to enter the scene for everything to come to life, fire and flames".

Endowed with unparalleled energy, Zizi Jeanmaire "was fit, cheerful, as usual" a dozen days ago, told AFP journalist and biographer Ariane Dollfus, who spoke with she.

"She was a woman who loved life deeply." And a hard worker who "took three dance lessons a day until at least 75," she recalls.

The National Ballet of Marseille, of which Zizi Jeanmaire was "an emblematic figure", paid homage Friday to a "great transversal artist who moved fluidly between classical dance, cinema, music hall and contemporary dance, and this, in a flutter of feathers. "

© 2020 AFP