Paula Callou

Paula Callou, Countess de la Motte-Thierry Naples, FL

Paula Callou, Countess de la Motte-Thierry, passed away on January 31, 2011, at Avow Hospice. Born Paulette Suzanne Calloustian on November 9, 1921, in Paris, France to Yves and Suzanne Guingand Calloustian, the second of five daughters, she began studying ballet at the age of six and entered the Paris Opera Ballet at the age of nine as a "petit rat de l'Opera," the title given to young ballet students. As a dancer, she quickly advanced through the ranks. Her family changed their name to Callou and relocated to Nice in the 1930s, where Paula was appointed the youngest prima ballerina in the Opera de Nice. Her favorite roles were Carmen, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake among the many Classical ballets she performed. Paula also performed to great acclaim as a prima ballerina for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in Monaco. Her ballet career was cut short by World War II and the German occupation. She met her first husband, Robert Corda, who was with the United States Armed Forces, shortly after the war's end.

Callou emigrated to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in Chicago in 1948. After divorcing Corda, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a dancer and choreographer for Columbia University and the Waldorf-Astoria. It was there that she met and married her second husband, Theodore Wienert. The couple soon moved to Baltimore, where Paula opened the Paula Callou School of the Dance. Her students regularly performed for various official Baltimore City functions and for the Art Linkletter Show. She gave birth to Marc Clifford Wienert in 1954, and continued to travel with her family, moving to France and England. During the 1960s, Paula did a world tour accompanied by her son, teaching master classes in locations as varied as India, the then Soviet Union, Thailand, and throughout the Far East. During this time, Paula developed an interest in yoga and liturgical dance.

After her divorce from Wienert in 1972, Callou divided her time between her dance career in Baltimore and her extended family in Nice. She was awarded the highest honor given to performing artists and academics in France, the Palmes Academique, and was subsequently given the key to the City of Baltimore. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, her work with the Baltimore City Schools in advancement of the arts as well French culture resulted in several awards from the office of the Mayor. She was also awarded the Gold Medal of Nice by famed Mayor, Jacques Medecin. As a Baltimore resident, Callou represented the French government at the Memorial for French Sailors buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Annapolis and was charged with receiving eminent French visitors to Baltimore, including ambassadors, officers of the French Navy, and the wife of the president of France.

Callou moved to Naples in 1996 with her dear friend and then companion, Peter Kelly. Here, she established herself as a T'ai Chi Ch'uan master, teaching for the Renaissance Academy of Florida Gulf Coast and at Aston Gardens Pelican Marsh, as well as giving demonstrations on ballet and sacred and secular dance for Alliance Francaise, Etudes de Ballet, and the Naples Players Theatre Guild. She relocated to Nice in 2006, teaching T'ai Chi at the Anglican Church there. Callou returned to Naples permanently in January of 2010, continuing to teach T'ai Chi at Aston Gardens, until she suffered a series of debilitating strokes in September.

Callou is survived by her son and daughter-inlaw, Marc Wienert and Dr. Constance E. Barrett, of Westchester County, NY; her sisters, Denise Generous of Naples and Nice, and Michelle Suderman of Michigan; and several nieces and nephews.

Friends and family of Ms. Callou are invited to a celebration of her life at the ballroom at Aston Gardens, Pelican Marsh, on Friday, February 4th (TOMORROW), from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her name are requested for either St. John's Episcopal Church, 500 Park Shore Drive, Naples, FL 34103, or to the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, 5833 Pelican Bay Boulevard, Naples, FL 34108.