The son of two Étoile dancers, Mathieu Ganio seemed destined for a stellar career. A distinguished danseur noble, he is renowned for his elegance and partnering skills. This documentary delves into his close bond with his mother Dominique Khalfouni, his sister Marine Ganio and his emblematic partners including Isabelle Ciaravola, Dorothée Gilbert, Ludmila Pagliero, Amandine Albisson...A touching story that offers an intimate glimpse into a family legacy and takes us behind the scenes of the Paris Opera Ballet. Coproduction: Delange Production, Opéra National de Paris and Wowow Inc Directed by: Marlène Ionesco

MATHIEU_GANIO

Mathieu Ganio, a romantic Étoile_trailer

Mathieu Ganio, a romantic Étoile

Le Parc (saisin 20/21) - 5

[PLAYLIST] Mathieu Gano, Étoile dancer

The son of two Étoile dancers, Mathieu Ganio seemed destined for a stellar career. A distinguished danseur noble, he is renowned for his elegance and partnering skills. This documentary delves into his close bond with his mother Dominique Khalfouni, 

Marlène Ionesco

1992 - 1999 : He trains at the École Nationale Supérieure de danse in Marseille, where Roland Petit chooses him for his version of The Nutcracker.1999 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2001 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.2003 : Promoted to "Coryphée". 2004 : Promoted to "Sujet".

2005 : Prix Benois de la Danse (Moscou)Mathieu Ganio is made an "Étoile" on May 20th 2004, following the performance of the ballet Don Quichotte (Rudolf Noureev) in which he danced the role of Basilio.As part of the Paris Opera Ballet's official tours, Mathieu Ganio has performed in Switzerland (Geneva, 2009), Japan (Tokyo 2010, 2013 and 2020/ Nagoya, 2013), Australia (Sydney, 2012), the United States (Chicago/ Washington/ New York, 2012), and Malaysia. (Singapore, 2012), United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, 2019). 

Mathieu Ganio was named Officier des Arts et Lettres.Mathieu Ganio will bid farewell to the stage on Saturday March 1st, 2025, following the performance of John Cranko's ballet Onegin in which he portrays the title role.

Ganio Mathieu

2002: Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.

2005: Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

2011: Promoted to "Coryphée".

2012: Promoted to "Sujet".
2025: Promoted to "Première Danseuse".

GANIO_Marine-05

dominique khalfouni

agnes letestu

isabelle ciaravola

1999 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.

2006 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

2009 : Promoted to « Coryphée ». Prix du Cercle Carpeaux.

2010 : Promoted to « Sujet ».

2013 : AROP Dance Prize.

2014 : Promoted to « Première Danseuse ». 

2021 : Benois de la Danse Award.

On March 5th 2014, Amandine Albisson is made an "Étoile" following a performance of Onegin (John Cranko) in which she performed the role of Tatiana. 

As part of the Paris Opera Ballet’s official tours, Amandine Albisson has performed in Spain (Madrid, 2019), the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, 2019) and Japan (Tokyo, 2020). 

Amandine Albisson was named Chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite.

Albisson Amandine

1995 : Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.

2000 : Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet.

2002 : Promoted to "Coryphée".

2003 : Promoted to "Sujet". Receives the AROP Dance Prize.

2004 : Receives the Prix du Cercle Carpeaux.

2005 : Promoted to "Première danseuse".2006 : Receives the Leonide Massine award (Positano/Italie) and the Ballet 2000 award (Cannes).

2022 : Receives the le Best choreographic performer award from the Syndicat professionnel de la Critique Théâtre, Musique et Danse.

Dorothée Gilbert is made an "Étoile" on November 19th 2007, following a performance of The Nutcracker (Nureyev) in which she dances the role of Clara for the first time.

As part of the Paris Opera Ballet's official tours, Dorothée Gilbert has performed in Australia (Brisbane), the United States (San Francisco, Los Angeles), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia), China (Beijing, Shanghai), Russia (Moscow, Novosibirsk), Japan and elsewhere. (Tokyo), Spain (Madrid) and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi).Dorothée Gilbert was named Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Gilbert Dorothée

1993/1999 : Pursues her studies at the Colón Theatre Superior Institute of Art in Buenos Aires, Argentina.2000 : Joins the Santiago Ballet of Chili.2002 : Promoted to a soloist.2003 : Receives the Igor Youskevitch Award and at the 7th New York International Ballet Competition, she earns the Silver Medal as well as an engagement at the American Ballet Theatre. She joins the Corps de ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet.2007 : Promoted to « Coryphée ».2008 : Promoted to

 « Sujet ». 2009 : The Konex Award (Argentina). 2010 : Promoted to

« Première Danseuse ». 2017 : Prix Benois de la Danse (Moscou)2019 : The Konex Platinium Award (Argentina)2021 : LATFRAN Award of Excellence (France)Ludmila Pagliero was named "Danseuse Étoile" on March 22nd 2012, following a performance of the ballet La Bayadère (Rudolf Nureyev) in which she performed the role of Gamzatti.As part of the Paris Opera Ballet’s official tours, Ludmila Pagliero has performed in Russia (Moscow, 2013; Novosibirsk, 2018), Japan (2017), Spain (Madrid, 2019), France (Brest, 2016; Mulhouse 2020).

LUDMILA PAGLIERO_2019_08_OPERA_DE_PARIS_11_0005 bis (c) Matthew Brookes OnP

She has since added to her repertoire: Symphony in C, The Four Temperaments, Concerto Barocco,Tchaikovsky-pas de deux, Agon, Serenade (George Balanchine), Nouredda in La Source (Jean-Guillaume Bart),the title role in Giselle (after Jean Coralli and JulesPerrot), Pulcinella (Douglas Dunn), Woundwork 1 (William Forsythe),the title role of Paquita (Pierre Lacotte after JosephMazilier and Marius Petipa), Etudes (Harald Lander), the Moon in Caligula (Nicolas Le Riche), Suite en blanc (Serge Lifar), Nathalie in Les Enfants du paradis (José Martinez), The Anatomy of Sensation (Wayne McGregor),The Accused in Fall River Legend (Agnes de Mille),Chloé in Daphnis et Chloé (Benjamin Millepied),the title role of Sylvia, Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony, the title role of La Dame aux camélias (John Neumeier),Aurore in The Sleeping Beauty, one of the sisters and the title role in Cinderella, Juliette in Romeo and Juliette, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake (Rudolf Nureyev), The Young Girl in Le Loup (Roland Petit), Le Parc (Angelin Preljocaj), the title role of Psyché (Alexei Ratmansky).

Pujol Laetitia

Pierre Lacotte was born in 1932 and trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School most notably, under the guidance of Gustave Ricaux. At the same time, he also took private classes with Lubov Egorova and Carlotta Zambelli. After joining the Corps de ballet in 1946, he was selected by Serge Lifar to be the soloist in Septuor alongside Claude Bessy. Promoted to the rank of Premier Danseur in 1951, he performed the works of the repertoire, often finding himself partnered with Yvette Chauviré, Lycette Darsonval and Christiane Vaussard. In 1954, one of his first choreographic works, La Nuit est une sorcière (The Night is a Sorceress) set to music by Sydney Bechet, won an award from Belgian Television which spurred him to leave the Paris Opera in order to give free rein to his creativity as a choreographer. In 1955, he founded his own company, Les Ballets de la Tour Eiffel which performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (his works there included Solstices – with music by Daniel Wayenberg, Gosse de Paris – with music by Charles Aznavour, and Concertino – with music by Vivaldi). At the same time he continued to pursue a career as a performer. He was invited to dance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera with Melissa Hayden; he also made guest appearances in London and partnered with Violette Verdy in the Benelux countries, West Germany and Switzerland. He was sought by numerous Festivals, several of which commissioned ballets from him including Such Sweet Thunder (Duke Ellington) in Berlin (1959), the choreography for Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) at the Festival du Marais (1960), and Il Combattimento di Tancredi (Monteverdi) for the Aix Festival (1961). In 1963, he became the director of the Ballets des Jeunesses Musicales de France during which time he created numerous works, including Bifurcations, Hamlet, Penthésilée, and la Voix (in collaboration with Édith Piaf). In 1968, while he was writing a book on romantic ballet he stumbled upon some documents pertaining to Philippe Taglioni’s 1832 production of La Sylphide which enabled him to restage the work. Initially produced for television (in 1971), La Sylphide was ultimately performed on stage, after the Paris Opera asked the choreographer to present the work at the Palais Garnier. The première took place on June 9, 1972 with Ghislaine Thesmar and Michaël Denard who had originally danced the lead roles in 1971. Pierre Lacotte went on to restage La Sylphide in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Prague, New York, Monte Carlo, Novosibirsk, Rome, Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro and more recently, at Milan’s La Scala (2005) and the Canton Ballet (2007). Henceforth hailed as the “specialist” when it came to reconstituting works from the romantic repertoire, he restaged Coppélia and revived the pas de six from La Vivandière (Arthur Saint-Léon), together with the pas de deux from Papillon (Marie Taglioni’s sole choreographic work) for the Paris Opera and the Kirov Ballet in Saint Petersburg. He also revived Philippe Taglioni’s La Fille du Danube for the Théâtre Colón in Buenos Aires; Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot’s Giselle (with sets and costumes based on the original production of 1841) for the Ballet du Rhin, the Ballets de Monte Carlo and the Ballet National de Nancy; Nathalie ou la laitière suisse (Taglioni) for Ekaterina Maximova and the Classical Ballet of Moscow (1980); Marco Spada, after Joseph Mazilier, for Rudolf Nureyev at the Rome Opera in 1981 and the Paris Opera in 1984; La Gitana (Taglioni) at the Warsaw Ballet (1993); L’Ombre (Taglioni) at the Ballet National de Nancy (1993); Le Lac des fées (Taglioni) at the Berlin Staatsoper (1995); Swan Lake (Petipa and Ivanov) in Nancy (1998), La Fille du Pharaon (Petipa) at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (2000), The Nutcracker (Petipa and Ivanov) at the Athens Opera (2000) and Paquita (Mazilier and Petipa) at the Paris Opera (2001). In 2002, he restaged his own version of Coppélia for the Shanghai Ballet. In 2006, at the invitation of the Mariinsky Theatre, he presented a new production of the Jules Perrot ballet Ondine. That same year, he went on to create a new choreographic version of La fille du Danube for the Tokyo Ballet. In addition, he also restaged the works of Mikhail Fokine: the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor for the Ballets de Monte-Carlo (1986), Firebird for the Paris Opera Ballet School (in 1991 and 2000) and Le Spectre de la rose for the Paris Opera (1997). In 1985, after having taught at both the Conservatoire National Supérieur and the Paris Opera, Pierre Lacotte together with Ghislaine Thesmar became co-director of the new Ballets Monte Carlo. (Whilst there, he created a choreographic work based on Georges Bizet’s Te Deum and a ballet based on Stefan Zweig’s 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman set to music by Hervé Niquet). He would leave the company in 1988 to join the Verona Opera Ballet. From 1991 to 1999 he was the artistic director of the Ballet National de Nancy et de Lorraine. A Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, he is the co-author (with Jean-Pierre Pastori) of the book Tradition (Éditions Favre, 1987).

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[PLAYLIST] Mathieu Gano, Étoile dancer

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[PLAYLIST] Mathieu Gano, Étoile dancer