Marie-Agnès Gillot

Marie-Agnès Gillot

Marie-Agnès Gillot (born September 7, 1975 in Caen ) is a French ballerina of the Opéra de Paris ( Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris ), where she achieved the highest status of a dancer (Étoile). She is also a choreographer.

Marie-Agnès Gillot began taking ballet lessons at the age of five and began taking lessons at the Paris Opera Ballet School at the age of nine, where she moved to Paris. When she was twelve years old she was diagnosed with double scoliosis, after which she decided against an operation and for six years she wore a corset except for dance classes, as she hid the diagnosis from her teachers. Despite her length (175 cm), which is unusual for dancers, she prevailed and was accepted into the ballet company of the Paris Opera in 1990, as the youngest dancer ever. In addition to her technique, critics have recognized her emotional intensity, wild energy and athletic expansive representation over the course of her career. She performed once even though she had a 12 cm long fracture in her leg. In 1992 she became “Coryphée” and in 1994 “Sujet” at the opera. In 2004 she became “Étoile” relatively late , as the first dancer for a contemporary piece ( Signes by Carolyn Carlson ). Only then did she get the leading roles in classical ballet. In 2018 she reached the official age at which dancers say goodbye to the stage at the Paris Opera, but continued her career as a dancer.

In addition to Carlson, she worked with well-known choreographers such as Pina Bausch (Orpheus and Eurydike), Maurice Béjart (Boléro), Roland Petit , Mats Ek , William Forsythe , John Neumeier , Wayne McGregor , George Balanchine , Angelin Preljocaj and Rudolf Nurejew .

In 2007 she choreographed her own piece Rares Différences for the first time , an encounter between classical dance and hip-hop, followed by a production in 2011 in the Opera Garnier ( Sous Apparence ), in which not only dancers but also dancers danced en point . She has also performed and taught at fashion shows and music videos.

In 2014 she had a son whom she is raising alone. She continued her exercise until she was seven months pregnant, and appeared again five weeks after he was born.

Gillot is in command of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres , received the Ordre national du Mérite and in 2005 the Prix Benois de la Danse. In 2015 she became a Knight of the Legion of Honor .

A French TV documentary about her was made in 2017 (Marie-Agnès Gillot, l'art du grand écart, directed by Anne-Solen Douguet, Damien Cabrespines).

Web links

• Interview, website of the Paris Opera

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Charlotte Wilkins: The grit and the glory: French ballet star Marie-Agnès Gillot looks back on stunning career France24, March 8, 2018