| Jean-Michel Guilcher | |
| Birth Date: | 24 September 1914 |
| Birth Place: | Saint-Pierre-Quilbignon, Finistère, France |
| Death Place: | Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine, France |
| Education: | Lycée de Brest |
| Alma Mater: | University of Paris |
| Occupation: | Ethnologist |
| Spouse: | Hélène Guilcher |
| Children: | 3 |
Jean-Michel Guilcher (24 September 1914 – 27 March 2017) was a French ethnologist. He was a researcher at the CNRS, and he taught ethnology at the University of Western Brittany. He was the author of eight books about traditional dances.
Jean-Michel Guilcher was born on 24 September 1914 in Saint-Pierre-Quilbignon, Finistère.[1] [2] [3] One of his grandmothers, who was from Aber-Ildut, sang the gwerz.[4]
Guilcher was educated at the Lycée de Brest.[4] He graduated from the University of Paris, where he studied natural history.[4] He also took dance lessons from Alick-Maud Pledge.[4] Later, he was mentored by the ethnologist Patrice Coirault, and he attended classes taught by Jacques Chailley with Constantin Brăiloiu.[4] He subsequently earned a PhD in Dance Studies.[4]
Guilcher worked for Jeune France, a traditional dance organization in Lyon, from 1939 to 1942.[4] During that time, he researched the traditional dances of villages near Lyon.[4] He subsequently worked for Paul Faucher, where he edited Père Castor, a collection of children's books.[4] After the war, he began researching the traditional dances of villages in Brittany.[4]
Guilcher began working for the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1955.[4] He later worked for the Musée national des Arts et Traditions Populaires, where he founded a section about dance.[4] He was a professor of ethnology at the University of Western Brittany from 1969 to 1979.[5] He subsequently served as the director of a research centre at the University of Western Brittany and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.[2]
Guilcher was the author of eight books about the traditional dances of Brittany.[1] [2]
With his wife Hélène, Guilcher had three children.[1] They resided in Meudon near Paris, where he died on 27 March 2017.[2] [3]