At the Opéra Garnier, a shower of stars to pay tribute to the dancer Patrick Dupond

Former glories of the Paris Opera returned exceptionally to the stage of the Palais Garnier on Tuesday February 21 for a tribute evening to Patrick Dupond, star of the ballet, who died two years ago. Following the traditional parade of the Opera Ballet – a procession on stage from the little rats to the stars – the dance director José Martinez, himself a former star, and Claire Chazal, a great ballet lover, called in turn nearly forty ex-stars to join the troupe on stage.

Loud applause from the audience welcomed the dancers who made the company famous, starting with “the Nureyev babies”: Manuel Legris (current director of the Ballet de la Scala in Milan), Laurent Hilaire (at the head of the Munich Ballet), Elisabeth Maurin and Isabelle Guérin. A notable absence: that of Sylvie Guillem, one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century.

A standing ovation for the old stars

The public also gave the oldest stars a standing ovation: Claude Bessy (appointed in 1958), who reigned over the Opéra’s dance school from 1972 to 2004, and Josette Amiel (appointed in 1958). Very well known to the general public for having participated, like Dupond, in the jury of the program “Dancing with the stars”, Marie-Claude Pietragalla (named star in 1990 by Dupond himself when he was director of the company) was also greeted.

Latest star to date, François Alu, appointed in April 2022 and who left the Opera a few months later without having danced the slightest role with this title, participated in the tribute. Other stars were absent, like the ex-director of dance Aurélie Dupont, who had programmed this tribute before her resignation in the summer of 2022 – she invoked family reasons on Instagram – or even Kader Belarbi , who has just been fired from the Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse.