He was born in 1924 at Villemomble, France and began ballet lessons at the age of nine at the Paris Opera's School of Dance. After World War II, Petit started several ballet companies in Paris, as well as creating 11 ballets for the Paris Opera. He worked in Hollywood for four years and choreographed the 1953 ballet "The Lady in the Ice" with Orson Welles. He also worked on movies including "Hans Christian Andersen" starring Danny Kaye (1952), "Daddy Long Legs" with Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron (1955) and "Anything Goes" with Bing Crosby and Zizi Jeanmaire (1956).