Act I

Act II

Portrait Alexander Ekman

Interview with Alexander Ekman

"I like creating worlds that have never been seen before." - Alexander Ekman A sparkling personality on the contemporary dance scene, Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman has been invited for the first time to work with the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet.Trained at the Swedish Royal Ballet, he danced with the Nederlands Dans Theater and the Ballet Cullberg before turning to choreography. His language, both visceral and tinged with humour, combines theatricality and classical and contemporary vocabulary alike.Best known for the spectacular quality of his pieces with their dreamlike imagery, he fills the stage of the Palais Garnier with metallic structures, dancers suspended in space, elevations… A surprising production carried along by enticing rhythms and communicative energy. The Étoiles, the Premiers Danseurs and the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet Voice of Alan Watts from recordings on the Tao of Philosophy courtesy of alanwatts.orgA production of the Paris Opera, Bel Airt Média and SVT With the participation of France Télévisions and the support of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animéeDirector: Tommy Pascal © Opéra national de Paris - Bel Air Media - SVT - 2018Picture: © Ann Ray / OnP

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Play from 7 December to 4 January at the Palais Garnier

"I like creating worlds that have never been seen before."- Alexander EkmanA sparkling personality on the contemporary dance scene, Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman has been invited for the first time to work with the dancers of the Paris Opera 

Alexander Ekman

Alexander Ekman is an international choreographer/director creating pieces for theatres, opera houses and museums. He also directs films and creates live performances/events in pop up locations around the world. Ekman has created and collaborated with around 45 dance companies worldwide including the Royal Swedish Ballet, Cullberg Ballet, Compañia Nacional de Danza Goteborg Ballet, Iceland Dance Company, Bern Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance, Ballet de l’Opéra du Rhin, The Norwegian National Ballet, Boston Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Sydney Dance Company, The Royal Ballet of Denmark and Vienna Ballet. He has also created for festivals the French Europa Danse and the Athens International Dance Festival. In 2005, at the International Choreography Competition of Hannover, Ekman was awarded first prize by the critics, and won second prize with Swingle Sisters (one of the ballets from his Sisters trilogy). During 2011 Ekman also worked as a teacher/choreographer at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City. Ekman’s 2010 work Cacti has become a worldwide hit and has been performed by 15 dance companies including Sydney Dance Company. The work was nominated for the Dutch Zwaan dance prize in 2010, the National Dance Award (UK) in 2012, and also for the prestigious British Olivier Award. In 2009 Ekman created the dance film 40 Meters Under for and with Cullberg Ballet, which was broadcasted on national Swedish television. That autumn he collaborated with the renowned Swedish choreographer Mats Ek on video projections for Ek’s play Håll Plats. Ekman also created an installation for the Modern Museum in Stockholm with dancers of Cullberg Ballet. In 2012 he collaborated with Alicia Keys and incorporated her into his work Tuplet. In 2014 Ekman created his own version of Swan Lake, a new take on the most famous ballet of them all. A Swan Lake received enormous attention worldwide and returned to the Oslo Opera House in 2016. Ekman filled the stage with 6,000 litres of water creating a real lake on stage. A Swan Lake is available on DVD and the documentary Rare Birds by TM Rives shows the process of how it became possible to create a lake inside an opera house. In 2015 Ekman created his own version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal Swedish Ballet. In September of that year he received the Swedish Medea Award for “Inventor and renewer”. In 2016, he received the German theatre award “Der Faust” for his ballet COW for the Semperoper Ballet.

1994 Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.
1997 Joins the Corps de ballet.
2001&nbsp; He becomes a “Coryphée”.
He performs the&nbsp;The Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky).&nbsp;

2003&nbsp; He is made a “Sujet”. Prix AROP de la Danse.&nbsp;

2008&nbsp; He is made a “Premier danseur”.&nbsp;On June 2nd 2010, Stéphane Bullion is made an « Étoile » following a performance of La Bayadère (Rudolf Nureyev).He makes his official farewell to the stage of the Paris Opera on Saturday 4 June 2022, in Mats Ek’s pas de deux Another Place.

Bullion Stéphane

Main roles: Lise / La Fille mal gardée (Ashton), Emeraudes, Rubis / Joyaux, Agon (Balanchine), Nouredda / La Source (J.-G. Bart), Amour / Orphée et Eurydice (Bausch), Serait-ce la mort ? (Béjart), Isabelle / Wuthering Heights (Belarbi), Glacial Decoy, O zlozony/O composite (Brown), pas de deux des paysans / Giselle (after Coralli and Perrot), Olga / Onéguine (Cranko), White Darkness (Duato), La Ballerine / Pétrouchka (Fokine),The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Approximate Sonata (Forsythe), Pas de trois/Paquita (Lacotte after Mazilier and Petipa), La Lune / Caligula (Le Riche), Sérénade / Suite en blanc (Lifar), La maîtresse de Lescaut / L’Histoire de Manon (Kenneth MacMillan), Triade (Millepied), Prudence / La Dame aux camélias, Mahler’s Third Symphony (Neumeier), pas de trois and danse Napolitaine / Swan Lake, pas de deux de l’Oiseau bleu / The Sleeping Beauty, L’Automne / Cendrillon, La Demoiselle d’honneur, one of the two friends and Kitri / Don Quichotte, Clémence / Raymonda (Nureyev), Créüse / Le Songe de Médée, Yasodhara / Siddharta (Preljocaj), In The Night, Dances at a Gathering (Robbins), Anna II / Les Sept Péchés capitaux (Scozzi), La Fille/Le Sacre du printemps (Taylor).

muriel zusperregguy nb

Main roles: Le Maître de ballet / La Petite danseuse de Degas (Bart), Le Cerbère / Orphée et Eurydice (Bausch), L’Oiseau de feu, one of the two chiefs / Le Sacre du printemps (Béjart), O zlozony / O composite (Brown), Une Sorte de…, Appartement (Ek), Pas./parts, Approximate Sonata, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (Forsythe), Mikado / Kaguyahime, Doux mensonges (Kylián), Iñigo / Paquita (Lacotte after Mazilier and Petipa), James / La Sylphide (Pierre Lacotte after Taglioni), Thésée / Phèdre (Lifar), Lacenaire / Les Enfants du paradis (Martinez), Le Meunier / Le Tricorne (Massine), Le Pasteur / Fall River Legend (Agnes de Mille), Triade (Millepied), Mahler’s Third Symphony, Gaston Rieux / La Dame aux camélias (Neumeier), Danse arabe / The Nutcracker, Le Producteur / Cendrillon, Tybalt / Roméo et Juliette, Basilio / Don Quichotte, Le Prince Désiré / Sleeping Beauty, Drosselmeyer-Le Prince/ The Nutcracker (Nureyev), Répliques (Paul), In The Night (Robbins), Roméo / Roméo et Juliette (Waltz).

vincent chaillet nb

1999 : Trains at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.2002 :&nbsp;Enters the Paris Opera Ballet School.2008 :&nbsp;Joins the Paris Opera Corps de Ballet, at age 17.2013 :&nbsp;Promoted to « Coryphée ».2016 :&nbsp;Promoted to « Sujet ».2017 :&nbsp;AROP dance award.2019 :&nbsp;Promoted to « Première Danseuse ».&nbsp;Marion Barbeau left the Paris Opera Ballet company in 2024.

marion barbeau nb

Born into a theatrical family, Thomas Visser grew up in the Irish
countryside. Visser began working on musical theatre productions at the
age of 18 and before moving into contemporary dance collaborations at age 24. Visser has worked with renowned performing arts companies including Nederlands
Dans Theater, The Royal Ballet, Paris Opera, The Norwegian National Ballet, Les
Ballet de Monte-Carlo, The Royal Swedish Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and Sadlers
Wells to name a few. Visser has created original lighting designs for
choreographers including Alexander Ekman, Johan Inger, Crystal Pite, Stijn
Celis, Medhi Walerski, Lukas Timulak and Joeri Dubbe. Since 2016, Visser has
started creating his own projects including art installations and interactive
media.

Creatives

Cast

Extras

Interview with Alexander Ekman

Play from 7 December to 4 January at the Palais Garnier

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Creatives

Interview with Alexander Ekman

Play from 7 December to 4 January at the Palais Garnier