Patricia Ruanne, a British national, is a former Royal Ballet and London Festival Ballet Principal Dancer and Ballet Mistress of the Paris Opèra. After beginning her professional training at the age of 13, she entered the Royal Ballet Company at Covent Garden at age 17.

Ruanne would go on to perform roles in Don Quixote, La Sylphide, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Cinderella, and The Sleeping Beauty.

 She created the role of the Siren in Barry Moreland’s Prodigal Son in Ragtime, The Lady in Red in Ronald Hynd’s Sanguine Fan, and also danced the London premiere of Hynd’s Rosalinda.

Rudolf Nureyev created the role of Juliet for his production of Romeo and Juliet on Ruanne, who retired in 1985.

After touring the world with Nureyev and enjoying a distinguished career she became the ballet mistress at the London Festival Ballet from 1983 – 1985.

Then on request to join Rudolph Nureyev at the Paris Opera Ballet in 1986 as ballet mistress once again. After spending 10 years in Paris working with Nureyev and her husband, Frederic Jahn, both Ruanne and Jahn moved to La Scala where she was acting director from 1999 to 2000.

In 2012 Jahn and Patricia Ruanne worked with Metamorphosis Dance Company to create and premiere a local version of the classic ballet, Giselle. Pulling from island folklore and history he created a contemporary Caribbean ballet based on the musical score of Giselle and accompanied by a live steel orchestra.