Inside the Paris Opera Ballet’s Opening Gala With Chanel

Arriving at the Palais Garnier is an almost ecclesiastical experience on any given day, but especially so on the night of the opening gala for the Opéra National de Paris’ dance season. On Friday, guests ascended the grand marble staircase, a piece of theater in itself, which along with its 30 meter-high vault, was dressed in a cascade of satin ribbons identical to the ones used to tie ballet shoes—scenography designed by the Opera Ballet’s patron Chanel.

The return to live dance performance after 18 months of interruptions due to the pandemic added to the air of anticipation in the auditorium as the audience took their seats under the Marc Chagall-painted ceiling. Just two nights earlier, the newly appointed musical director, 

Gustavo Dudamel inaugurated his first season at the Palais Garnier by taking the audience—French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte among them—on a journey through over a century of opera, from Georges Bizet’s Carmen to John Adams’ Doctor Atomic. 

As the director of dance Aurélie Dupont told me later in the evening, the atmosphere backstage was a combination of excitement and nervousness. “Film has been a great way for the public to see our performances,” she says. “But dancers are born to be on stage with a live audience. If you don’t have the reaction, if you don’t have the orchestra, if you don’t have the lights, it’s not the same. And when it ends, you will never see that exact same performance again.”

Dressed in Chanel jewelry and a black cotton gilet and matching trousers from the spring 2021 collection, Dupont welcomed guests to the gala from the stage alongside director general Alexander Neef and introduced the evening’s program. Staying true to tradition, the opening act was the défilé du ballet, a procession bringing together all of the company’s dancers, from the school’s pupils to the étoiles. The prima ballerinas wore tutus, corsets, and tiaras that were made in collaboration between Chanel, the Opera’s ateliers, and the embroiderers Lesage; continuing the couture house’s long affiliation with dance, which began in 1920 when Gabrielle Chanel helped Serge Diaghilev revive The Rite of Spring (1913). 

Two contemporary works commissioned by Dupont followed. The first was Brise-lames (Breakwater) by Damien Jalet, who recently premiered his latest work Planet [wanderer] at the Théâtre National de Chaillot. During France’s second lockdown, the Belgian-French choreographer realized this complex sequence of fluid, interlacing movements for nine dancers inspired by the crests and troughs of the ocean. Brise-lames, as Jalet wrote in the program is “a metaphor for the resilience, force, and vulnerability of the front line.”

The second work, Clouds Inside by Tess Voelker, made for an uplifting halftime performance. At 24-years-old, the American choreographer is something of a supernova in the dance world, and through this tender and playful duet, she wanted to reflect the sense of nostalgia for childhood naivety with the soundtrack, Cello Song by British singer-songwriter Nick Drake evoked.

Having entered the Paris Opera’s repertoire in 1952, the late Danish choreographer Harald Lander’s Études once again made a return to the stage. In this effervescent one-act ballet, dancers ritualistically rehearse simple movements such as pliés and tendus until they are equipped to take flight and launch themselves into more elaborate jetés and sautés. By closely examining these building blocks of classical ballet, Lander sought to demonstrate both the technical and physical prowess as well as the passion and dedication it takes to be a ballet dancer.