In homage to Patrick Dupond, who passed away in 2021, the Paris Opera Ballet celebrates the artist who, throughout a dazzling and luminous career, embodied the face of the Ballet Company on every continent.
Internationally renowned, trained at the Opera’s Ballet School, dancer Étoile in 1980, then Director of Dance at the Paris Opera from 1990 to 1995, Patrick Dupond danced and shone for the major choreographers of his time.
Tribute to Patrick Dupond
from 21 to 23 February 2023 at the Palais Garnier
The Paris Opera Ballet pays tribute to Patrick Dupond through emblematic works that have marked his career: Maurice Béjart's Le Chant du compagnon errant, John Neumeier's Vaslaw, and Harald Lander's Études.
Discover an overview of the main roles performed by Patrick Dupond during his career at the Paris Opera, from the great classics to contemporary ballets.
A world-famous dancer
Patrick Dupond entered the Paris Opera’s Ballet School in 1969 at the age of ten for the three-month preparation course and continued his training there whilst also taking private lessons under the guidance of Max Bozzoni.
He joined the Paris Opera’s Corps de Ballet in 1975 and became a Quadrille in 1976. That same year, he won the Gold Medal and the Grand Prize at the Varna International Ballet Competition. In 1976, Roland Petit gave him his first role as a soloist in Nana.
Promoted to Premier danseur in 1979, he danced Maurice Béjart’s Boléro. He was elevated to the rank of Étoile dancer at the Paris Opera in 1980 for his performance in Vaslaw, a piece created for him by John Neumeier.
He enjoyed considerable success in France and abroad and was solicited by many of the great choreographers of the era, including Maurice Béjart (Salomé), John Neumeier (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Rudolf Nureyev (Romeo and Juliet), Alvin Ailey (On top of the Precipice), Roland Petit (Le Jeune Homme et la mort, Le Fantôme de l’Opéra), Robert Wilson (Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien), Alwin Nikolais (Schema) and Twyla Tharp (Push comes to shove, Grand pas).
He left the Paris Opera in 1987, returning as a guest Étoile prior to taking over as Artistic Director of the Ballet Français in Nancy.
"Patrick Dupond, the absolute dancer”
Patrick Dupond se maquille pour Proust, ou les Intermittences du coeur de Roland PetitFrancette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond dans Salomé de Maurice Béjart Francette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond dans Le Lac des cygnes de Vladimir BourmeisterFrancette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond dans Les Mirages de Serge LifarFrancette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond dans Le Jeune Homme et la Mort de Roland Petit Francette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond dans Le Fantöme de l'Opéra de Roland Petit Francette Levieux
Patrick Dupond dans Le Fils prodigue de George Balanchine Francette Levieux
Patrick Dupond dans Le Corsaire de Marius Petipa Francette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond dans Le Chat botté de Roland Petit Francette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond dans Don Quichotte de Rudolph Noureev Francette Levieux / OnP
Patrick Dupond Francette Levieux / OnP
Aurélie Dupont et Patrick Dupond répètent Le Loup de Roland Petit en 1996 Jacques Moatti / OnP
Photo album "Patrick Dupond at the Paris Opera"
On the occasion of the Tribute to Patrick Dupond, the Paris Opera publishes a book that retraces the career of the dancer and Director of Dance.
Throughout more than 70 photographs, texts and testimonies of personalities from the world of dance and culture, a look back on an outstanding personality of the Paris Opera Ballet.
Available in the Opera's bookstores - 122 pages / €29
At the head of the Paris Opera Ballet
From 1990 to 1995, he held the position of Dance Director of the Paris Opera. During his five-seasons tenure at the Paris Opera, he presented numerous choreographed works by figures from the vanguard of “Young French Dance”, including Odile Duboc, Daniel Larrieu, Joëlle Bouvier and Régis Obadia.
He also revived the great classical ballets which Rudolf Nureyev had restaged (Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère, Don Quichotte), and brought MacMillan's Manon into the repertoire, as well as numerous ballets by Jerome Robbins and Roland Petit. He also invited Mats Ek for the entry to the repertoire of his Giselle and Angelin Preljocaj for the creation of Le Parc.
Moreover, he invited some of the great dance companies, including the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Béjart Ballet Lausanne, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal, the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rosas Company.
