The gratitude. The Paris Opera named Frenchman Guillaume Diop star dancer on Saturday, after a performance of Giselle in Seoul, granting the supreme title for the third time since José Martinez took office in December as director of dance. Having become the company’s young hope for more than a year, Guillaume Diop, born in 2000, is one of the five black and mixed-race authors of the manifesto From the racial question to the Operawritten in 2020 in the wake of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
His appointment was announced on the stage of the LG Arts Center in Seoul, where the dancer, given an ovation, had just performed the role of Albrecht for the second time in the romantic ballet by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. Very rare fact, Guillaume Diop reached the title of star without going through the “first dancer” box, the previous grade, like a handful of predecessors, including Laurent Hilaire in 1985, Manuel Legris in 1986 or Mathieu Ganio in 2004.
Several star roles to his credit
His appointment comes just over a week after those of New Zealander Hannah O’Neill and Frenchman Marc Moreau, promoted after a performance of George Balanchine’s “Imperial Ballet” at the Palais Garnier in Paris. . It was announced on the delegation of Alexander Neef, the general director of the Paris Opera, who could not be present in Seoul, on the proposal of the director of dance, the Spaniard José Martinez, appointed in 2022 to replace Aurelie Dupont.
Guillaume Diop has already been given several star roles, dancing the male lead roles in The Bayadere, Don Quixote, Swan Lake And Romeo and Juliet. Introduced to dance at the age of four, before beginning his apprenticeship in 2008 at the Conservatory of the 18th arrondissement, he will soon be performing in Maurice Béjart’s “Song of the Wandering Companion”, at the Opéra Bastille between April 21 and May 28.