Louis Mérante

Who was Louis Mérante?

Louis Alexandre Mérante was a dancer and choreographer, the Maître de Ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet at the Salle Le Peletier until its destruction by fire in 1873, and subsequently the first Ballet Master at the company's new Palais Garnier, which opened in 1875. He is best remembered as the choreographer of Léo Delibes' Sylvia, ou la nymphe de Diane. With Arthur Saint-Léon and Jules Perrot, he is one of the three choreographers who defined the French ballet tradition during the Second French Empire and the Third Republic according to Pierre Lacotte, a choreographer trained in the same tradition.