Fabrice Calmels (born 18 September 1980)[1] is a French ballet dancer and model who performed as a lead dancer with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, Illinois.[2]
Early life and education
editBorn and raised in Colombes, France, Fabrice Calmels began ballet training at three years old. At age 11, Calmels entered the Paris Opera Ballet School. During his seven years there, Fabrice worked with dance masters such as Serge Golovine, Gilbert Mayer, Max Bozzoni, John Neumeier, Jirí Kylián, Violette Verdy, and performed at the Palais Garnier theatre. It was during his last years of schooling that Calmels went through significant growth spurts to his current height of six feet six inches tall. He ultimately did not join the Paris Opera Ballet as his stature did not blend with the ensemble. Therefore, upon graduation from the Paris Opera School with a degree in Anatomy and the history of dance, Calmels moved to the United States to pursue his dance career.[3]
In the United States Calmels furthered his training by joining The Rock School, and danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet and also the Balanchine style at The School of American Ballet. Later, he joined Boston Ballet, under the direction of Anna-Marie Holmes, where he learned the Russian technique with ballet masters Tatiana Terekhova and Sergei Berezhnoi.[citation needed]
Career
editIn 2001, due to difficulties regaining his visa, Fabrice took advantage of a year back at home in Paris, France to perfect his pas de deux skills performing the acrobatic pas de deux for the famed Lido de Paris.[citation needed]
In 2002, Calmels established himself in Chicago with the Joffrey Ballet, under the direction of company co-founder Gerald Arpino.[citation needed]
In 2004, Calmels became a lead dancer at the Joffrey Ballet, markedly through his Principal role as Apollo. He was also coached by Sir Anthony Dowell for the title role of Oberon in Frederick Ashton's A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
In 2009, he performed the title role in the Joffrey Ballet's premiere of Lar Lubovitch's Othello, which he reprised in 2013. Calmels performed the Othello pas de deux for the 2016 Benois de la Danse Gala at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia.[4]
In 2014 and 2016, Calmels was a guest judge on the Fox television show So You Think You Can Dance.[citation needed] In September 2014, Calmels established and set a Guinness World Record for Tallest Ballet Dancer in the World with an official height of 199.73 centimetres (6 feet 6.63 inches).[5][6]
In 2015, Calmels was featured in the “Into the Galaxy” multi-media campaign for Samsung Electronics. Calmels appeared alongside supermodel Karlie Kloss in the Versace 2016 Fall/Winter campaign shot by famed photographer Bruce Weber.[citation needed]
In 2016, Calmels signed on to be represented by IMG Models.[7][8]
In 2021, Calmels appeared as "Claude" in the Fox television show The Big Leap.[9]
In his spare time, Calmels focuses on developing and producing his own multi-media dance based productions and is a member of the board of directors for the DizzyFeet Foundation.[10]
Filmography
editFilm
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet | — | |
| 2008 | The Dark Knight | Bodyguard | Uncredited |
| 2011 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Tourist | |
| 2012 | Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance | — | |
| 2021 | Original Sin – The Seven Sins | The Angel | Short |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Empire | Dance Director | Episode: "False Face" |
| 2021–present | The Big Leap | Claude | 3 episodes |
References
edit- ^ Swatman, Rachel (22 February 2019). "A history of record-breaking giants 100 years after the tallest man ever was born". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
The tallest ballet dancer is Fabrice Calmels (France, b. 18 September 1980)...
- ^ "Moments Before Curtain: Fabrice Calmels". Chicago Tribune. Illinois. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
- ^ "World's tallest dancer, Fabrice Calmels: Height is only a number". Dance Informa Magazine. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
- ^ "Fabrice". www.fabricecalmels.com. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
- ^ "Tallest ballet dancer". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
- ^ Erbentraut, Joseph (2014-11-19). "The World's Tallest Ballet Dancer Wasn't Going To Let Height Stop Him From Pursuing His Dreams". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
- ^ Hughes, Aria (2016-10-12). "IMG Signs the World's Tallest Ballet Dancer". WWD. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
- ^ IMG Models Fabrice Calmels Portfolio Video https://www.imgmodels.com/fabricecalmels
- ^ Hurtado, Alexandra (2021-09-14). "Piper Perabo Talks Taking Chances and Dancing on Zoom for Her New Feel-Good Show, The Big Leap". Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
- ^ admin (2014-04-17). "Board Members". Dizzy Feet Foundation. Retrieved 2017-07-20.