The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in Jérémie, Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in 1762, the son of the Marquis and Marie-Cessette Dumas, his Haitian slave. In addition to being the father of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, he was the grandfather of playwright Alexandre Dumas, known for "La Dame aux Camélias", the source for Giuseppe Verdi's "La traviata". Dumas was born the son of a renegade French nobleman and his black slave in 1762 in the French sugar colony of Saint Domingue (the future Haiti); at the time of his birth, his father was living on the run from the royal authorities
Agnès Letestu (Petipa/ Nureyev), Glass Pieces (Robbins), Serenade (Balanchine), Le Jeune homme et la Mort (Petit), Bathilde/Myrtha in Mats Ek's Giselle, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Terpsichore in Apollo, The pas de deux in Agon.; Marguerite Gautier in La Dame aux Camelias. Agnès Letestu Agnès Letestu (born 1 February 1971) is a French ballet dancer. She decided to start ballet when she saw her first ballet on TV ("Swan Lake"). Then she had the opportunity to start ballet as a hobby, and her teacher, Mr. Bertin, persuaded her to audition for the "Opéra Ballet School" which she joined when she was 10. She