Report from the 10 June 2016

An American summer at the Paris Opera

© Sébastien Mathé
9 June 2016The Palais de Tokyo at the Opera 22 June 2016The Friends of the Opera meet choreographer William Forsythe

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The Paris Opera travels and takes us with it. At the end of 2015/2016 season, several events underline the Paris Opera's regular cooperation with its transatlantic partners: a meeting between the new Director of Dance Aurélie Dupont and "The American Friends" in New York in June 2016, an exhibition devoted to American choreographers soon to open at the Palais Garnier, new Peck / Balanchine and William Forsythe productions on the bill in July 2016 and the visit by the American Ballet Theatre to the Opéra Bastille in September...

Invited by the American Friends of the Paris Opera and Ballet, Aurélie Dupont – who will follow in the steps of Benjamin Millepied as Director of Dance on August 01, 2016 – participated in a gala dinner held on June 09, 2016 at the Consulate of France in New-York. This meeting underlines the fruitful alliance between the Paris Opera and its American patrons initiated in 1984 by Rudolf Nureyev.  


The Opera Ballet in Dances at a Gathering by Jerome Robbins, 1991
The Opera Ballet in Dances at a Gathering by Jerome Robbins, 1991 © Jacques Moatti

The artistic wealth of Franco-American relations will be further explored in the "American Choreographers at the Paris Opera," exhibition held at the Palais Garnier from 16 June to 25 September 2016. Costumes, sets, memorabilia and videos of artists from the Paris Opera and National Library of France (BNF) collections will be on show.  

About the event:

From June 16 to September 25, 2016

Opéra national de Paris - Palais Garnier
75009 Paris


The choreographic creations of Justin Peck and William Forsythe mark the month of July 2016. To music by Poulenc or James Blake in a neo-classical and architectural vein on the one hand, and in a modern one inspired by "poetic disappearance" on the other, American ballet opens up to new horizons.

Moreover, William Forsythe will soon be presenting his film Alignigung to the public of the 3e Scène. The work constructs disarming physical puzzles that blur the boundary between "I" and "the other".


© Alec Soth / Magnum Photos

Finally, to celebrate the return of the American Ballet Theatre at the Paris Opera after more than twenty-five years of absence, the American Friends of the Opera honour the Paris Opera with a visit to Paris on September 02, 2016 on the occasion of the first performance of Marius Petipa's Sleeping Beauty, faithfully recreated from the original version by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky.  

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