Mademoiselle Jeanette Louise Marie Deveraux née Olivier

22 June 1964

Roman Catholic

Mademoiselle Jeanette, as she insists her students call her, is a Parisian ballerina who studied at L’École de Danse de l’Opéra de Paris and performed with various ballet companies including the Opéra National de Paris until after the birth of her second child when she elected to begin teaching instead.

In the late nineties Gabriel, her husband, was offered a promotion that caused the family to locate to Tacoma. Undaunted, Mademoiselle bid adieu to her French students and had an appointment with a real estate agent to look for a location for her new school scheduled the very day after her plane landed in Seattle.

She is a quirky woman who loves to laugh and to see her students laugh. While her English is letter perfect, and if she cares to she can speak with a nearly Oxfordian English accent, she does not make the conscious effort that such a feat requires for her, and has been known to exaggerate her native Parisian accent to various levels just to see the smiles it elicits.

Hers is a repertory school, Jeanette having never lost her love of the stage, and combines her favourite class of students:  children. As a result she accepts experienced students between the ages of eight and eighteen.  Though many of her students give up dance after graduation, a fact that she is quite philosophical about, those who have gone on to careers as dance instructors or performers have been successful, a fact that she is quite proud of.

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