“My mother really pushed me when I was young. I didn't want to go to dance classes, but for some reason, when I was there, I didn't want to come back.”

French ballet dancer

Sylvie Guillem is a French ballet dancer, best known for her career with the Paris Opera Ballet and later as a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. She was born in 1965. From 1984 to 1989, Guillem was the top-ranking female dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet. She later expanded into contemporary dance as an Associate Artist of Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. Among her best-known performances are Giselle and Rudolf Nureyev's stagings of Swan Lake and Don Quixote. In November 2014, she announced that she would retire from the stage in 2015.