The great living female dancer alive, Sylvie Guillem, announced her intention to retire from dancing, in a year.

Nureyev’s former protégé has put her own stamp on ballet with her personal style, believing in the “single and indivisible word of the dancing art”, managing to balance  herself admirably between classical ballet and modern dance.

She stated:

“After 39 years of practice, I have decided to take my final bow,” she said. “Next year, 2015, will be my last world tour as a dancer, with a brand new production to say goodbye with gratitude and a great deal of emotion. I will present new works by Akram Khan and Russell Maliphant, and existing pieces by Mats Ek and William Forsythe.
“I have loved every moment of the last 39 years, and today, I am still loving it in the same way. So why stop? Very simply, because I want to end while I am still happy doing what I do with pride and passion.
“Also, I have a friend, a sleeper agent, to whom I gave a ‘licence to kill’ in case I tried to continue longer than I should! And frankly, I’d like to spare him this task.”