Élisabeth Platel Étoile

Biography

After winning First Prize at the Paris Conservatoire in 1975, Élisabeth Platel joined the Paris Opera Ballet School. The following year, she was admitted to the Corps de Ballet and was promoted to Première danseuse in 1979. Following her debut performance in Giselle on December 23, 1981, she was named Étoile.

A great performer of the classical repertoire, she was chosen by Rudolf Nureyev—then Director of Dance at the Paris Opera—to create the lead roles in Raymonda (1983), Swan Lake (1984), The Sleeping Beauty (1989), and La Bayadère, his final creation, in 1992. She also participated in numerous additions to the repertoire and was a distinguished interpreter of works by George Balanchine and John Neumeier, while also embracing contemporary creations (including Schéma by Alwin Nikolais, Voluntaries by Glen Tetley, and Before Nightfall by Nils Christe).

In 1998 and 1999, Élisabeth Platel was awarded the Massine and Benois de la Danse Prizes for her entire career and her role as an ambassador of the French school worldwide.

Regularly invited by major international companies and theaters, she danced notably with the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet in Moscow, The Royal Ballet in London, the Hamburg Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, and the Kirov Ballet in Saint Petersburg.

On July 9, 1999, she gave her official farewell performance in La Sylphide, while continuing to perform at the Paris Opera as a guest Étoile (La Bayadère and Raymonda in 2000, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2001, and the tribute to Rudolf Nureyev in 2003).

For several years, she worked as a guest teacher in France and abroad and as a répétiteur, notably at the Rio de Janeiro Theatre alongside Claude Bessy, where she helped restage Suite en blanc (1996), Daphnis et Chloé (1998), and La Sylphide (1997) alongside Pierre Lacotte. In 2001, she assisted Lacotte in his reconstruction of Paquita at the Palais Garnier. In 2002/2003, she taught at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the following season supervised rehearsals for Noces by Bronislava Nijinska.

At the start of the 2004 season, she succeeded Claude Bessy as Director of the Ballet School. In 2008, she restaged La Sylphide with Manuel Legris in Pierre Lacotte’s version for the Hamburg Ballet and again in 2011 for the Vienna State Opera.

Élisabeth Platel is a Commander of Arts and Letters, an Officer of the Legion of Honor, and a Commander of the National Order of Merit.

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