Jean Pierre Bonnefour, a star dancer of Paris Opera Ballet and elegantly refined principal dancer in New York City, later trained several generations of dancers as teachers and passed away on April 13 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
His ex-wife, former urban ballet ballerina Patricia McBride, said the cause of his death was heart failure in a lively living facility.
Mr. Bonnehu (pronounced Bonhoo), or the name he used professionally during his dance career, was Etre (the word means “star”) in Paris Opera Ballet when he joined City Ballet in 1970 as a principal dancer.
He worked briefly at Paris Opera in 1963 with George Balanchine, co-founder and leading choreographer of City Ballet. Six years later, Balanchine asked Mr. Bonefor to replace the injured dancer in the title role of “Apollo” that he was staging at the German Opera Ballet in Berlin.
Bonnehu spent four days with Balanchine, coaching him in a role, but it was life-changing. “It gave me the power to go through another decade of dance,” he told Barbara Newman in a 1982 book interview.
Knowing that “someone like that exists somewhere,” he gave him a goal.
Bonnefoux had a reason to take part in City Ballet. He was lying down by McBride when he appeared at the Eglevsky Ballet and Gala on Long Island in 1968. It was “love at first sight,” McBride said. “I never met anyone like him.” They married in 1973.
During his 10-year career at City Ballet, Bonefor has appeared in a wide range of works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and other choreographers.
“He was physically very beautiful,” said Jean Pierre Frorich, a former City Ballet dancer and repertoire director, in an interview. “He was very different from the dancers here, and had a very refined and elegant look.”
Though not considered a Virtuoso Dancer, Bonnefoux brought flashy grace and power to his role, and a keen theatrical intelligence.
Don McDona of The New York Times wrote about her performance in Balanchine's “Bugak” in 1975.
Balanchine created the roles of Bonnefoux in “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” (1972), “Cortège Hongrois” (1973), “Sonatine” (1975), “Union Jack” (1976), “Etude for Piano” (1977), “Vienna Gentilhome” (1977), “Le Bourgeois Genthomy” (1977), “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” (1972) (1973), “Sonatine” (1975), and “Sonatine” (1975) (1975). Robbins created his role in “Beethoven's Pass des des deux” (1973), later known as “The Four Bagatles” and “The Waltz of the Evening” (1973).
In 1977, after realising that there were no dedicated classes for boys at American Ballet School, Bonefour approached Balanchine about his teaching there. “I wanted the young people here to feel like male dancers quickly and understand the technical differences,” he told The Times.
That same year, he tore all the ligaments at his ankle while playing. Encouraged by Balanchine, he began choreography during the rest period that took place afterwards.
In 1978, Bonnefort created “Pasgas” as part of City Ballet's French-themed evening “Tricoroe.” (“I have some things I have to tell you for your next ballet,” Balanchine said after the premiere.) That year, he also created “Quadrill” for students at American ballet schools and “une nuit a lisbonne” for Syracuse Ballet.
“This strange time, when it was supposed to be the end for me,” Bonefour told The Times, “It was finally the richest part of my life.”
Jean Pierre Bonnehu and his twin sister, Dominique, were born on April 9, 1943 in Bourg-en-Bress, eastern France, to Marie Terze (Bouhee) Bonnehu and Laurent Bonnehu and tax advisor Laurent Bonnehu. A few years later, the family moved to Paris, and the twins began taking dance classes.
Jean Pierre's teacher proposed an audition for the Paris Opera Ballet School. While studying there, he pursued acting and appeared in many things. A French film that includes “Les Diaboliques” (1955) by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
“At one point, I really didn't know what to do between dancing and acting,” he told Newman.
He recalled that his parents consulted “Indians, Hindus, people who can see the future.” “He said very good things about what I do in ballet.”
In 1957, at the age of 14, he joined Paris Opera Ballet, and was later directed by Serge Rifle, the Kiev-born star of the ballet Las. He hated Lifar's ballet, but loved his teachers, Gérard Mulys, Raymond Franchetti and Serge Peretti.
Bonnefoux quickly rose in the company, becoming Etoll at 21, and played the lead role in the ballet of Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart in 19th-century classics such as “Swan Lake”, “Giselle” and “Sleeping Beauty”. (Etol is the sole title of Paris Opera given at the discretion of management.)
Bonnefoux danced as a guest artist at the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets. He also became friends with Rudolf Nureyev and was involved in the dramatic exile of a Russian dancer at Le Bourgette Airport in Paris in 1961 (he called Nureyev's friend Clara St to warn him in advance that Nureyev was being sent to Moscow, rather than going to London with the rest of the Kirov London.
However, unhappy with the mediocre ballet and frequent performances at Parisio-Perra, and inspired by Balanchine, Bonnefour decided to set out for City Ballet.
Gradually, he absorbed the city ballet style. He wasn't, he told Newman, “It's a very moving way. It's about contacting music, how you're almost ahead of music.”
Mr. Bonnefour retired from City Ballet in 1980. He achieved the status of ballet master and choreographer at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, then moved to Bloomington, Indiana, and became head of dance at Indiana University.
In 1983 he began hosting summer ballet programs at the Chautauqua Institution, a gated arts community on the northwest corner of New York and the oldest summer art festival site in North America. He took honorable City Ballet alumni such as Ms McBride and Violet Veri, and invited a wide range of choreographers to set the works of Balanchine, form a professional summer company and collaborate with dancers.
“He was a very good teacher and he and Patty were a scary team for Chotouka,” said Christine Redpas, former City Ballet dancer and repertoire director. “That beautiful French training really fed his teachings.”
By the time he resigned in 2021, Bonefour had transformed his summer program into one of the country's most coveted destinations for volunteering as a dancer.
“He had a quiet presence, but behind his soft accent there was clarity, detail, precision and always encouragement,” said Daniel Ulbricht, principal of urban ballet. “He was part of the reason why me and many other dancers were prepared to make that commitment to pursuing a career.”
In 1996, Bonnehu became the artistic director known as Charlotte's North Carolina Dance Theatre, and McBride served as Artistic Arts Director. He stayed there until 2017. The couple transformed the company into a powerful classical group, a vibrant home of modern choreography, adding works by Dwight Roden, Alonzo King, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp and William Forsyth to their repertoire, and to staging works by Balanchine and Robbins.
Mr. Bonnefoux was also choreographed. His ballet included versions of “Carmina Burana,” “Peter Pan,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” and “The Nutcracker.”
In 2010, the company opened Patricia McBride and Jean Pierre Bonnefordance, housed rehearsal and management spaces and a 200-seat theatre. Four years later, the company was renamed Charlotte Ballet.
McBride and Bonnehu divorced in 2018, but were nearby. He is survived by their children, Christopher Bonnehu and Melanie (Bonnehu) decoudres and three grandchildren.
Bonnehu's qualities as a director and teacher have been transformative, said Sasha Janes, a former Charlotte ballet dancer who took over Bonnehu as director of Chatouka's dance school.
“He could see things to people he couldn't see for himself,” Janes added that Bonnehu was ahead of his time. “He wasn't interested in the perfect dancer in Cookie Cutter.
