Professional dancer and ‘Mortal Combat’ choreographer shares knowledge with young dancers

Students from Danza Academy performed for dancer and martial artist François Petit, who gave them useful individual tips for bettering themselves as dancers.

Mr Petit trained at the World renown Paris Opera Ballet School and ihs family have a great dance heritage.

Mr Petit’s uncle was the legendary Roland Petit one of the greatest choreographers of the last century and sentimental partner of Rudolf Nuteyev possibly the greatest dancer of all times.

In his youth Mr Petit had the pleasure of taking classes with Nuyrev and the Bolshoi.

Son of a famous ballerina in the Paris Opera and grandson of Madame Repetto who devised her own ballet shoe brand Mr Petit grew up surrounded by the best of dance at the time.

Later in his career Mr Petit choreographed for Martial Art films being himself Martial Arts Champion and portrayed the original role of Sub -Zero in the film ‘Mortal Combat’ 1995.

Throughout his career Mr Petit trained many actors including The Rock and Schwarzenegger. He also worked as doctor for The World Wrestling Federation in the 90’s.

Mr Petit who has judged top classical events around the world gave feedback to all dancers who had the pleasure of dancing for both him and his wife Dragon.

“Having François at the studio was like a breath of fresh air,” said Danza Director Anne-Marie Gomez.

“Nowadays through the influence of competitions choreographies tend to be based on athletic tricks. François bought us all back to basics to the beauty of expression and artistry and how all moves should have a purpose in a choreography and should be danced to convey a message.”

“François has obviously always been surrounded with the best elite dancers of the world, top martial artists and actors. It was an innovative experience for him to work with young dancers from an extremely committed dance school in tiny Gibraltar.”

“In his late 60’s François entered the studio jumping into splits still training approximately three hrs a day. He conveyed the importance of achieving with passion, dedication and extremely hard work.”

“He attributed the success in his career from the discipline he acquired from his ballet training. François will be back to share his wealth of knowledge with our students who were so tremendously inspired and greatly appreciated his visit.”