Emerging Voices at the Paris Opera Ballet

Since the 1970s, the Paris Opera Ballet has cultivated a distinctive tradition of nurturing its own dancers as emerging choreographers. This initiative took root in 1975, when then-director Rolf Liebermann invited Carolyn Carlson to establish the Groupe de Recherches Théâtrales de l’Opéra de Paris (GRTOP), a pioneering space for contemporary creation within the institution. That spirit of artistic incubation has endured through programmes such as Danseurs Chorégraphes—launched in the 1990s, paused for a decade, and revitalised in 2024 under the leadership of José Martinez.

Performance

Paris Opera Ballet: Danseurs Chorégraphes

Place

Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen, Opéra Bastille, Paris, France, May 9, 2025

Words

Elsa Giovanna Simonetti

Letizia Galloni in “0'00” by Axel Ibot. Photograph by Julien Benhamou | OnP

Notable alumni include Jean-Guillaume Bart (participant in 1997 and 1999), Bruno Bouché, and Sébastien Bertaud (both in 2003, 2006, and 2011). Bart is acclaimed for his refined neoclassical style and his reconstructions of historical ballets, which both preserve and reimagine the French tradition. Bouché, artistic director of the Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin since 2017, has cultivated a voice of introspective, poetic modernism. Bertaud, now working independently, is recognised for contemporary works that are visually sophisticated and frequently developed in collaboration with visual artists and fashion houses.

This year, the tradition continues with three performances—one on the evening of Friday, 9 May, and two on Saturday, 10 May—featuring five new ballets by emerging choreographers.

The first of these, “Il en va de nous” (“It’s Up to Us”) by Rubens Simon, offered a meditation on love—a theme always danced, never reflected upon. The piece was accompanied live by pianist Hélène Tysman, performing music by Arthus Raveau, while off-stage male and female voices discussed, in seemingly spontaneous fashion, the meaning of love. This spoken element sought to modernise the performance but risked becoming overblown; delivered entirely in French, it felt ill-suited to the Opéra’s international audience. The concept revolved around love as an evolving spectrum—from the essential, abstract, and metaphysical to the earthly, everyday, and even prosaic. Yet this meditation unfolded solely through movement rather than narrative. Three couples embodied this exploration. Hortense Millet-Maurin and Micah Levine, in yellow, danced with speed and lightness, embracing a neoclassical style marked by elegant lifts and academic phrasing. The atmosphere turned more introspective and dramatic with Apolline Anquetil and Corentin Dournes, dressed in blue, who performed emotionally charged choreography filled with complex turns—evoking the tragic romance of Marguerite and Armand. The highlight, however, came from Tosca Auba and Manuel Giovani, whose performance boldly deconstructed classical vocabulary. Their choreography introduced unpredictable off-balances and striking innovation—beautifully danced and genuinely moving.

Tosca Auba and Manuel Giovani in “Il en va de nous” by Rubens Simon. Photograph by Julien Benhamou | OnP

Another standout piece was “À perte de vue et au-delà,” (“As Far as the Eye Can See and Beyond”) a deeply poetic dialogue between choreographer Maxime Thomas and guest artist Gladys Foggea. Set initially to “Les Goémons” by Serge Gainsbourg, then starkly interrupted by Gabriel Fauré’s Élégie in C minor, Op. 24, the work struck a resonant emotional chord. Gladys Foggea emerged as a commanding stage presence and a symbolic heir to her compatriot Maryse Condé, the Guadeloupean writer and Nobel laureate who passed away a year ago, to whom this creation is dedicated. Like Condé, Foggea engages themes of womanhood, post-colonial identity, and self-examination—while also asserting the legitimacy and expressive potential of bodily difference in performance. This was a pas de deux with a twist—an inversion of traditional roles. The woman, in her wheelchair, embodied both strength and grace, lifting, turning, and supporting the man. She became at once partner, pillar, mother, and interlocutor. The duet was intensely moving: fluid, tender, and raw in its expressivity. The final image—Foggea’s empty wheelchair rolling in from the back of the stage onto a bare set—offered a haunting reflection on the fragility of the body and the ephemeral nature of dance itself: an art form grounded in the impermanent, fallible human form.

“Jupiter” by Manuel Garrido offered a striking stylistic contrast, plunging the audience into a circus-like, playful atmosphere with echoes of Maurice Béjart’s theatricality. Performed by Clara Mousseigne, Elizabeth Partington, Rémi Singer-Gassner, and Garrido himself, the piece unfolded in vivid orange unitards that heightened its bold, kinetic energy. Entirely abstract yet richly evocative, “Jupiter” was described by the choreographer as autobiographical—full of jumps, turns, and the use of a hoop, inspired by childhood memories of rhythmic gymnastics. Set to “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” suite, the work radiated joy and exuberance, and was met with warm enthusiasm by the audience.

Gladys Foggea and Maxime Thomas in “À perte de vue et au-delà” by Maxime Thomas. Photograph by Julien Benhamou | OnP

Axel Ibot’s “0’00” offered a surreal reimagining of “The Dying Swan,” set to a warped electronic remix by Paul Fleury. Fokine’s iconic solo was deconstructed into robotic, wave-like motions, while the music morphed into a glitchy, syncopated soundscape. Whether danced by Letizia Galloni or Enzo Sugar (the latter impressively en pointe), the swan appeared more alien or cyborg than creature of nature—sparkling and nearly nude in metallic silver. Ibot described the piece as a tribute to ancient muses, filtered through the flamboyant language of cabaret. Thanks to Galloni’s fierce and fully committed performance, the gamble paid off: strange, hypnotic, and utterly unlike anything else on the programme.

The final work, “Minuit” by Yvon Demol, set to music by Evgueni Galperine, ventured into the realm of nocturnal terror. “Nightmares that haunt us,” explains the choreographer—and indeed, with its cast of six dancers (three men and three women) dressed as what appeared to be sadomasochistic nuns, the piece conjured a dark, grotesque vision. Intentionally provocative and stylistically experimental, the work echoed familiar choreographic territory—particularly that of Alexander Ekman—and could not entirely escape a sense of déjà-vu. Still, the dancers embraced the material with full commitment, clearly relishing its intensity and theatricality. The doom-laden score, stark lighting, and surreal imagery yielded some genuinely fresh choreographic ideas, though the piece might have benefitted from greater concision.

Seojun Yoon and Naïs Duboscq in “Minuit” by Yvon Demol. Photograph by Julien Benhamou | OnP

A self-evident—even lapalissian—critique is the regrettable absence of women. Historically, despite the participation of many talented female artists in these workshops—from Florence Lambert in 1997 to Béatrice Martel and Myriam Kamionka in later editions—long-term choreographic recognition has disproportionately favoured men. Apart from ventures such as Marie-Agnès Gillot’s “Sous Apparence” (created for the company in 2012), the Paris Opera continues to lack a sustained internal choreographic voice from its female dancers. This imbalance is a global issue, not unique to the Paris Opera. It reflects broader structural problems around access, visibility, and long-term support—among other persistent barriers.

What stood out, however, was the generosity of the dancers, who embraced and embodied their colleagues’ visions with conviction. Thoughtful costume design and lighting also played a crucial role in elevating the overall quality of the evening. Yet one cannot help but question the continued use of the Amphithéâtre Olivier Messiaen at the Opéra Bastille as the venue: despite its intimacy, it lacks the spatial depth and visibility required to fully appreciate choreographic work. It even appears physically unforgiving for jumps—an ironic limitation for a programme intended to foreground innovation in movement and staging.

Elsa Giovanna Simonetti

Elsa Giovanna Simonetti is a Paris-based philosopher researching ancient thought, divination, and practices of salvation at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. With over a decade of ballet training, she studied History of Dance as part of her Philosophy and Aesthetics degree at the University of Bologna. Alongside her academic work, she writes about dance.

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