The Paris Opera Ballet held the annual Promotion Competition (Concours de Promotion) on Saturday, 16th November 2024, which we may look back as a historic moment.
The internal competition was held on the stage of the Palais Garnier. The results were announced on the same day on its website.
Those who have been promoted from Quadrilles, or equivalent to corps members, to Coryphées are below. Congratulations!
Apolline Anquetil
Claire Teisseyre
Luciana Sagioro
Diane Adellach (image below)
Koharu Yamamoto
Julia Cogan
Rémi Singer-Gassner
Max Darlington
Micah Levine
Milo Avêque
Keita Bellali
Tradition being broken
Concours de Promotion is Paris Opera Ballet’s tradition since 1860. It has also been the tradition that only Étoiles are nominated by the company director. It is the only major ballet company in the world which holds an internal promotion competition.
However, the 164 year-old tradition is being tested. The competition took place only for the lowest ranked promotion this year, following the omission of one higher rank last year.
Internal promotions from Sujets to Premières Danseuses and Premiers Danseurs, and from Coryphées to Sujets will be decided by the Management by 15th December 2024, the Paris Opera Ballet announced in October.
Paris Opera Ballet said, “These transitory and experimental decisions, which follow discussions with the dancers, the management and trade unions, are part of a desire to conduct a mutual reflection aiming to define, before 1 June 2025, a permanent promotion process which will ensure equity and diversity of career paths within the Paris Opera Ballet.”
These changes are being made because the promotion competition is deemed too stressful for dancers. Union representatives for dancers are calling for the abolition of it altogether. On the other hand, supporters of the competition say it provides dancers, especially for quadrilles, an opportunity to demonstrate their skills in the company with 150 plus peers.
The tradition was first broken in 2023, when José Martinez decided to omit the Sujets-to-Premières Danseuses/Danseurs promotion from the competition. The Coryphées-to-Sujets promotion was kept.
Martinez became Artistic Director in December 2022 after Aurelie Dupont left the position in July somehow surprisingly and in a seemingly short notice.
As a reference, the English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer is not a promotion competition but it is aimed to provide opportunities for young dancers to showcase their skills on stage and for more experienced dancers to coach them.
