A living legend in the dance world, Marie-Claude Pietragalla is hailed around the globe as one of the greatest and most influential dancers and choreographers of our time. At the age of sixteen, she enters the Paris National Opera and Ballet, and just several years later, she becomes “First Dancer” of this illustrious institution, with the recommendation of the great Rudolf Nureev. In 1990, she is awarded the highest position in the company, “Star Dancer”, a title that will open all the doors to an extraordinary and exceptional career.

At the Paris National Opera, she interprets the ballets of the greatest choreographers of dance history, such as George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Rudolf Nureev, Maurice Béjart, Jiří Kylián, Roland Petit, Mats Ek, William Fortsythe, Jerome Robbins and Carolyn Carlson.

In 1998, she is named Director of the Marseille National Ballet and the Marseille National Dance School. During her tenure in Marseille, she creates no less than nine new choreographies, all hailed by the public and the press. In 2000, she becomes the first dancer to ever perform in Paris’ legendary rock concert hall L’Olympia. In this show, named Don’t Look Back, she performs a dance solo that will later become her international signature, presenting it all over the planet, during the next ten years.

In 2004, Marie-Claude Pietragalla founds, with dancer and choreographer Julien Derouault, the company Le Théâtre du Corps (The Theatre of the Body). Dedicated to innovative contemporary dance and to unusual multidisciplinary projects that bring together dance, music, theatre, video, and visual arts, the company has already created more than twenty new choreographies that have all been presented on tour, in major venues and festivals around the globe.

Marie-Claude Pietragalla has received, during her career, the highest and most illustrious distinctions from the French Republic: she was named Knight of Arts and Letters, Knight of the National Order of Merit, Knight of the Legion of Honor, and Officer of Arts and Letters.