Jean-Paul Gravier was director of the Rhin National Opera in 1990, in Mulhouse. He succeeded Peter Van Dyk, and his direction was followed by Bertrand d'At's in 1997.

Source: Rhin National Opera

Bronislava Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Bereda Niżyńsky. Her brother was Vaslav Nijinsky. She was just 4 years old when she made her theatrical debut in a Christmas pageant with her brothers inNizhny Novgorod. In 1900 she and her brother were accepted at the Imperial School of Ballet in St. Petersburg on a 7-year scholarship from the State of Russia. From 1900 - 1907 she studied dance and music at the Imperial School of Ballet, graduating with honors as a ballet dancer. After graduating in 1908, she then joined the Maryinsky Ballet.  She and her brother joined Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1909. Some of the roles she created were in Fokine's Carnaval (1910), and Petrushka (1911). Vaslav was dismissed from theMaryinsly Ballet in 1911, Nijinska insisted that she also be dismissed, and she was forced to forfeit her title "Artist of the Imperial Theatre." Nijinska danced in her brother's short lived ballet company in London in 1914. In 1915, she returned to Russia. Nijinska danced in Kiev, opening a school where she trained her most famous student, Serge Lifar. In 1921 Nijinska rejoined the Ballets Russes. While a dancer with the Ballets Russes, she also became the chief choreographer of the company.  One of her first pieces was Three Ivans for Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty. Her first ballets were Igor Stravinsky's Renard in 1922 and Les Noces 1923. The following year she choreographed Les Biches, Les Fâcheux and Le Train Bleu. Bronislava later choreographed for the Opera de Paris, Opéra Russe à Paris, and her own company. Ocassionally she taught at the American Ballet Theatre School in New York City. From 1927 - 1929 Bronislava Nijinska worked for the Ballet of Paris, then in 1928 - 1929 she worked for the Ballet of Ida Rubinstein. During the seasons of 1930 and 1931 she worked with the Russian Opera in Paris, 1932 - 1934 directed her own ballet company, called Polish Ballets of Paris, then, in 1935 worked with the Ballet Russe of Monte Carlo. In 1935 Nijinska made her film debut as a choreographer in Max Reinhardt's film version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935).  In 1938 Nijinska moved to America, settling in Los Angeles. There she opened her own school of dance. She established herself as a reputable teacher and choreographer, and worked with the touring company called Original Ballet Russe.  She was married twice. Her first husband was Alexander Kochetovsky, a fellow Ballet Russes dancer by whom she had two children-a son, Leo Kochetovsky, who was tragically killed in a car accident and a daughter, Irina Nijinska, a ballet dancer in her own right.  The true love of her life, but to whom she was never married, was the great Russian bass singer Feodor Chaliapin. Bronislava died of heart failure on February 21, 1972, in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California.

Source : Russian Ballet history

More information : http://www.russianballethistory.com/ 

(1901-1979)

A natural leader and independent thinker, Jooss (1901–1979) helped develop what is now known as German Tanztheater, an expressive dance style that combined movement, text and drama. For Jooss, movement and words were inextricably linked; their connection was key to making performances as powerful an experience as life itself. Unlike expressionist choreographers of his time whose dances spoke to emotional themes, he sought to reveal the fallibility of the human condition. He created dances about urban alienation, social injustice and post-war trauma.

Born near Stuttgart, Germany, Jooss grew up studying piano, voice and drama but was drawn to dance from an early age. In 1919, he met Rudolf Laban, who was creating mass movement choirs danced by both professionals and amateurs, including Jooss. Although he had little dance training, he became Laban's student and choreographic assistant. That same year, Jooss presented his first evening of dance, "Two Male Dancers", with fellow student Sigurd Leeder, who became his longtime collaborator. Soon after, Jooss started his own company and created stage works for trained dancers. In 1927, he began his tenure as the first head of the dance department of the Folkwang School in Essen, Germany, which he co-founded that year. After WWII ended, Jooss returned to Germany and resumed his position as dance director of the Folkwang School, and he remained there until 1968.

Source : Dance teacher

More information

dance-teacher.com

Heddy Maalem is sometimes rather withdrawn, a man of silence. 

He is wary of fakers, pretenders, those who fiddle with things that should be exact. Like him, his dancing is simple, blunt, seeking interior change without ostentation or ornament.
The secret tension simmering beneath the surface can be felt both in his work and in his person. A man who technically is from two countries, France - he clarifies: from Languedoc - and Algeria, Heddy Maalem prefers to think of himself as a son of the Mediterranean, this sea trying valiantly to fill the gap separating the two peoples. You have to nudge him, and when you do, Heddy Maalem actually tells us one of his boyhood memories, precise, emblematic: “In Algeria, we lived in the Aurès, in Batna. We lived in the ‘black quarter,' where the black Africans lived. The country was at war, and we were constantly hearing drums playing, accompanying the dances of the immigrants from the South. Since then, war and dance have always been linked in my mind.”
The choreographer emerged from this violence, this separation. He came to it rather late, after several years studying Oriental languages, traveling, odd jobs and especially amateur boxing, until he was 28. His encounter with dance was accidental, achieved mostly through teaching aikido for many years. He perceived dance as something unexpected, clear, a way of moving, of being, of working with his memories, historic, ancestral, personal.
“Having survived the tearing apart of my two countries, I sometimes feel like a stranger. In dance I am not borrowing from any existing school of thought, I must invent my own language, an ‘unmarked' language.”
Heddy Maalem spent a great deal of time researching the workings of his own body, asking himself simple questions: why and how to move? How do I use the floor? How do I run, walk? Little by little he found a style, movements which begin from the center of the body or from the floor, movements which cut into space or touch a partner, without lyricism but with a certain aesthetic, a pure physicality.
His approach also deals with time, using the body as a poet uses language, as material. His intent to stand apart from the current frenzy is his commitment to a kind of radicality.

Source : the company Heddy Maalem 's website 

More information

heddymaalem.com

Maryse Delente studied at the Conservatory of Bordeaux, then became a dancer at the Capitole in Toulouse, the Royal Ballet of Wallonia and a soloist at the Lyon Opera Ballet. She was honoured with the first prize in the Cologne Competition in 1982. She founded the Maryse Delente Company in 1985 and established herself in Vaulx-en-Velin. 

Her creations have been performed both nationally and internationally. She has helped direct and has choreographed lyrical works (for the Lyon Opera and the Rennes Opera). She was the general director of the Ballet du Nord between 1995 and 2003, where she was in charge of artistic creation and the theatre calendar (Cullberg Naharin, Galili, Carlson, etc.).
Nominated for the International “Benois de la Danse” Grand Prix at the Berlin Opera in 1999 and made a Knight of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1999, she celebrated the 20th anniversary of her career at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris in 2003 with her creation "A la recherche de Mister K" which was presented by her new independent company.
The company established itself in Roanne. Here, she created the “Usine”, a choreographic residence. 

Source : Danser Mag

French dancer and choreographer (1940-1989)

He began dancing at the age of 18 after completing his secondary education. He trained in Yves Brieux's class at the Conservatoire National de Paris and joined the corps de ballet of the Paris Opéra after auditioning in 1963. His participation in Ballet-Studio, a contemporary group set up within the Opéra by Michel Descombey in 1968, opened up new horizons. He then trained in Alvin Ailey and Merce Cunningham's techniques during trips to the United Sates. Driven by a desire for freedom, with a group of friends, he founded the Groupe des 7 and with it, produced his earliest choreographies, performed at the Festival of Avignon (1970-1971). With Brigitte Lefèvre, he left the Opéra and set up the Théâtre du Silence in 1972. He returned to the Opéra in 1981 to form the GRCOP research group.

Whether as performer or choreographer, he expresses the search for an internal rhythm, paying special attention to the quality of movement and music in “Aunis” (1981) or “À Cœur Ouvert” (1984), a pas de deux composed for Ghislaine Thesmar and Michaël Denard. He obstinately promotes modern composers including K. Stockhausen (“Kontakle”, 1975), Bruno Maderna (“Quadrivium”, 1975), Steve Lacy (“Score”, 1979). A natural leader, he calls upon the “American Masters” as well as young choreographers, contributing by his generosity to the rise of French dance.”

Source: Dictionnaire de la Danse (Larousse, 1999)