• Ekaterina Bréau, Française (École de Danse de l’OnP*)
• Camille Couton, Française (CNSMDP**)
• Liberty Fergus, Australo-britannique (Ballett Dortmund Junior Company)
• Nuria Fernandes, Portugaise (Conservatório internacional de Ballet e Dança Annarella Sanchez)
• Anastasia Gallon, Franco-russe (CDD dans le Ballet de l'OnP*)
• Prune Kaufmann, Française (École de Danse de l’OnP*)
• Elisa Grassi, Italienne (Scuola di Ballo dell'Accademia Teatro alla Scala)
• Maya Konagai, Japonaise (Acri Horimoto Ballet Academy)
• Irina Olaru, Française (Théâtre national croate de Zagreb)
• Katie Shi, Néo-Zélandaise (École nationale de ballet du Canada)
• Lucia Abril Marcucci, Argentine (École de Danse de l’OnP*)

• Leonardo Baghin, Italien (danseur surnuméraire du Ballet de l'OnP)
• Giovanni Bellucci, Italien (Scuola di Ballo dell'Accademia Teatro alla Scala)
• Marc-Anthony Betta Ndabo, Français (École de Danse de l’OnP*)
• Shaun Blondel, Français (École de Danse de l’OnP*)
• Tiziano Cerrato, Italien (American Repertory Ballet)
• Milo de Meulenaere, Belgo-américain (City Ballet School, San Francisco)
• Hyuma Gokan, Japonais (CDD dans le Ballet de l'OnP*)
• Nathan Guerlavas, Français (CNSMDP)
• Benjamin Imerovski, Italo-macédonien (École de Danse de l’OnP*)
• Jorge Lamelas, Espagnol (danseur surnuméraire du Ballet de l'OnP)
• Alejandro Tino Baudesson, Espagnol (danseur surnuméraire du Ballet de l'OnP)
• Matt Vuaflart, Français (CDD dans le Ballet de l'OnP*)
• Carlo Zarcone, Italien (École de Danse de l’OnP*)

^{* Opéra national de Paris
** Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris}  

The Junior Ballet project meets the Paris Opera's ambitions in terms of attractiveness and professional training. Conceived as a nursery for young talent, entry to the Junior Ballet offers dancers two years' qualifying training, financed and supervised by Afdas, enabling them to achieve a level equivalent to that of Quadrille and contributing to their employability. A genuine pathway to professional integration, the young talents will have the opportunity to join the Paris Opera Ballet on the basis of a competitive examination, or to pursue their careers in other national and international companies on completion of their training.

By giving a chance to talented dancers from all over the world, the Junior Ballet aims to diversify the profile of the dancers who perform on the stages of the Paris Opera, in line with the company's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

The Junior Ballet also represents an opportunity to confirm the links between the Ecole de Danse and the Ballet, and will provide additional training for Ecole de Danse students who are unable to join the Ballet at the end of their studies due to the highly selective internal and external entrance competitions.

The Junior Ballet's ambition is to train a generation of dancers in the Paris Opera's choreographic heritage through dedicated programming. The works on the Junior Ballet's program, drawn from a varied repertoire, will enable young dancers to strengthen their technique and the quality of their interpretation.

This special program enriches the Paris Opera's choreographic season by offering the public a technically lighter program, made up of repertory entries and contemporary creations specially devised by established artists or young creators. To encourage the virtuous circle of transmission and creation, retired dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet will be invited to create each year for the Junior Ballet.  

The Junior Ballet's vocation is to contribute to the reputation of the Paris Opera through collaborations with cultural institutions in France and abroad. With its light, flexible structure, the Junior Ballet provides an opportunity to tour theaters and festivals.

Conceived as a tool for opening up to new audiences, Junior Ballet actively responds to the challenges of disseminating and mediating choreographic offerings. Thanks to its nationwide presence, attractive pricing policy and tailored programming, Junior Ballet aims to bring artists closer to a wider audience. In addition to its touring activities, Junior Ballet will offer artistic and cultural mediation initiatives throughout France (meetings, workshops, on-stage classes).

These encounters with young audiences in local areas will help to encourage vocations, enhance the School's appeal and diversify its recruitment pool.   

For the 26/27 season, the Junior Ballet comprises 24 dancers aged 17 to 25. They benefit from a two-year professionalization contract.

Nine dancers were recruited into the Junior Ballet following the 2025 external Ballet competition, and fifteen dancers following the 2026 external Ballet competition.

• The period from August to December will be a period of intensive training, with daily dance classes, learning sessions on works from the Junior Ballet repertoire, artistic workshops led by various dedicated contributors (pointe work, adage classes, choreographic workshops, improvisation workshops, various contemporary dance techniques, etc.) as well as themed training sessions.
  
  
• This first quarter will be followed, from January to April 2025, by a period of immersion in the Ballet during rehearsals and performances of The Sleeping Beauty (season 24/25), Giselle and La Bayadère (season 25/26).
  
  The dancers of the Junior Ballet also gain professional experience through performances given during tours.

• Each Junior Ballet dancer is accompanied throughout his or her training by a pedagogical college made up of the Director of Dance, the Junior Ballet masters and a tutor. To monitor progress, each dancer is assessed three times during the season, in the presence of the Dance Director and Junior Ballet's Ballet Masters.
  
  
• Junior Ballet dancers have access to personalized medical care provided by the Ballet's Medical Center team throughout their training. During their training, they have access to a daily care center, as well as physical preparation sessions several times a week before or after dance classes, to work on muscle strengthening, cardio-respiratory training, warm-ups and recovery.  

The Junior Ballet program is designed to provide progressive training for the dancers involved. Programming is by its very nature evolutionary, and will therefore be fine-tuned over the first few months to enable dancers to acquire the experience they need to take part in Ballet productions and go on tour in the second half of the season.

Studying the Paris Opera repertoire is an essential step in familiarizing dancers with the choreographic know-how of the Paris Opera, and will enable them to learn to work as part of a collective as soon as they arrive.

The Junior Ballet would not have been possible without the support of generous patrons. The Association pour le Rayonnement de l'Opéra national de Paris (AROP) and the Paris Opera would like to extend their warmest thanks. Their contribution enables the institution to give life to a large-scale project, driven by the conviction, shared by these patrons, that everyone has a place at the Opera, and that it belongs to everyone.