On the Eve of the Chanel Show, Chanel Tutus On Stage at the Paris National Ballet’s Opening Night

On the final day of fashion week, on the eve of the Chanel show, the illustrious Palais Garnier played host to Paris’s most anticipated cultural event of the season: the opening gala of the Paris National Ballet. This year’s event felt especially momentous, as it not only marked the 10th anniversary of the annual fundraiser gala but fell on the heels of Paris’s historic summer hosting the Olympic games, putting the city of lights on the world stage, proving—as if there were ever any doubt—that Paris remains the world’s capital of culture.

As glamorous attendees—many dressed in Chanel (one of the evening’s sponsors), settled into their seats, the show began with its traditional Défilé de ballet, a stunning procession that unites the Étoiles (adorned in Chanel tutus and tiaras), Premiers Danseurs, Corps de Ballet, the students from the Paris Opera Dance School and the junior ballet, which was created this year—a clear indication that the Paris ballet is investing in its youth, and thus, its future.

As the crowd roared with awe and jubilation, following this performance posed a singular challenge for the young My’Kal Stromile, whose creation Word for Word, presented for the first time on Tuesday, would serve as the preamble to the larger acts of the evening, including two by his mentor William Forsythe. Suffice to say, this 12-minute performance created by the young choreographer for the Paris Ballet was a felicitous ode to Forsythe, in which Stromile forged his own language articulated through a masterful display of classical ballet victoriously combining it with elements of modern, contemporary, and hip-hop, thanks in part, to the music of Jerome Begin. Surely, this performance felt like anything but a preamble; it was the night’s unexpected highlight, bringing the theater to exultant applause as Stromile took his triumphant bow alongside his dancers– all clad in Chanel.

Next came William Forsythe’s Rearray, a duo created for Sadler’s Wells in London in 2011 that Forsythe reworked as a trio for its Paris debut, though it was the return of Blake Works I, a dance Forsythe created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 2016, in which the night reached its zenith. Forsythe has been an influential figure in the world of dance, known for deconstructing classical ballet and pivoting it into the future with elements of contemporary, which is precisely what Blake Works accomplished in its initial debut for the Paris Opera Ballet, the oldest national ballet company in the world, inspiring a new style of classical ballet for the next generation. Blake Works reveals Forsythe’s untethered approach to dance with a classical arrangement in which fast and joyful transitions flow to the contemporary music of James Blake. The centuries-old theater is perhaps an unlikely tableau for the heady beats of Blake’s electronic, house, and pop music, but the young dancers, who were tasked with the challenge of fast transitions that they executed with technical precision, stretched their talents beyond the limits of academic dance in what proved a clear celebration of youth.