A model, a former trapeze artist forced to give up her profession after a fall, brought them together around the theme of dance. She was appreciated for her flexibility and ability to hold difficult positions. When she posed for Charles Auffret in 1966, the model for La Gymnastique was born. Then, in 1969, René Babin and Gudmar Olovson worked together to create L'Étoile and La Concorde respectively, based on an aerial pose of the gymnast.

On November 11, 1963, nine sculptors—Jean Carton (1912-1988), Paul Cornet (1892-1977), Raymond Corbin (1907-2002), Marcel Damboise (1903-1992), Léon Indenbaum (1890-1981), Léopold Kretz (1907-1990), Gunnar Nilsson (1904-1995), Jean Osouf (1898-1996) and Raymond Martin (1910-1992)—gathered under Auguste Rodin’s statue Balzac in the Boulevard Raspail in Paris. They presented themselves to the press as le Groupe des Neuf (the Group of Nine). The group had been formed that same year, under the initiative of the art critic André Barrère and the poet Juliette Darle, with the goal of defending the independent figurative sculpture that had been handed down to them by their masters, the artists of the Bande à Schnegg.