Frenchman Guillaume Diop becomes the first black star dancer at the Paris Opera

A landmark appointment. The Paris Opera named the Frenchman Guillaume Diop star dancer on Saturday March 11, after a performance of Giselle in Seoul (South Korea). This promotion is a considerable step forward for this institution, which has appointed its first black prima ballerina after more than 300 years of existence. 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.

Star title without going through the “first dancer” box

Since José Martinez took office last December as dance director, he has awarded the supreme title for the third time. Very rare fact, Guillaume Diop reached the title of star without going through the “first dancer” box, previous grade, like a handful of predecessors, including Laurent Hilaire in 1985, Manuel Legris in 1986 or Mathieu Ganio in 2004.

Having become the young hope of the company 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 Opera”, written in 2020 in the wake of the movement #BlackLivesMatter. His appointment comes just over a week after those of New Zealander Hannah O’Neill and Frenchman Marc Moreau, promoted after a performance of Imperial Ballet by George Balanchine, at the Palais Garnier in Paris.

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 at the Wandering Companion’s Song by Maurice Béjart, at the Opéra Bastille between April 21 and May 28.