The Paris Opera is creating training for young dancers to support them in the professional world

With this new training intended for dancers aged 17 to 23, the Paris Opera intends to “diversify the profiles” within its ballet and reach new audiences.

The Paris Opera is creating a “Junior Ballet” from September, two-year additional training for around twenty dancers aged 17 to 23, intended to launch them into professional life, the institution announced Thursday May 30.

Entry into this Junior Ballet, which will be made up of nine women and nine men, is offered “to young dancers from all backgrounds” And “to students of the Paris Opera Dance School” Who “wish to complete their initial training”, specifies the Opera.

They will be recruited “at the end of the external competition” to join the Ballet, a company of 154 dancers, on July 2 and 3. The workforce will be completed by six new dancers from September 2025. For these students, it is a springboard to “pursue their career in national and international companies”.

Among the objectives: that of “diversify the profile of dancers who perform on the stages of the Paris National Opera, in line with the establishment’s commitments in terms of diversity and inclusion”, like the “All at the Opera!” program.

The creation of this junior company “reflects the Opera’s desire (…) to offer innovative forms of creation, training and transmission, while preserving the centuries-old heritage of the establishment”, underlines its general director Alexander Neef.

Placed under the direction of José Martinez, dance director of the Opera, the dancers of the Junior Ballet will be offered “a professionalization contract” of 24 months, training financed thanks to patronage and private foundations, allowing them “to obtain a level equivalent to that of quadrille”, lowest rung of Ballet.

On the menu of their training: deepening the “classic and contemporary Opera repertoire”, with a first quarter of “intensive training”. From January 2025, a “period of immersion within the Ballet, during rehearsals and performances of The Sleeping Beauty”.

Tours will begin in May 2025, according to a schedule in preparation. “The Junior Ballet is already the subject of significant interest from cultural institutions in the region and numerous summer festivals.” Tours abroad are also planned, according to the Opera, which sees it as a “opening tool to new audiences”.