Sylvie Guillem

Sylvie Guillem became the Paris Opera Ballet's youngest-ever etoile at 19 and proceeded to demolish every assumption about what a classical ballerina's body and technique should look like. Her extraordinary flexibility -- she could raise her leg to 180 degrees effortlessly -- combined with an intellectual rigour that drove her to collaborate with contemporary choreographers including William Forsythe and Akram Khan throughout a career that spanned four decades. She joined the Royal Ballet as a principal guest artist in 1989 and became the highest-paid dancer in the world, her independent artistic authority unprecedented in the ballet world.