Recognition. The Paris Opera on Saturday named Frenchman Guillaume Diop as principal dancer after a performance of Giselle in Seoul, granting the supreme title for the third time since José Martinez took office in December as dance director. Guillaume Diop, born in 2000, has become the company's young hopeful for more than a year, and is one of the five black and mixed-race authors in the manifesto De la question race à l'Opéra, written in 2020 in the wake of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

His nomination was announced on the stage of the LG Arts Center in Seoul, where the dancer, to a standing ovation, had just performed for the second time the role of Albrecht in the romantic ballet of Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. Very rarely, Guillaume Diop has reached the title of star without going through the box "first dancer", a previous rank, like a handful of predecessors, including Laurent Hilaire in 1985, Manuel Legris in 1986 or Mathieu Ganio in 2004.


#Étoile
By delegation of Alexander Neef, José Martinez (@josecmart2504), appointed Guillaume Diop Danseur Étoile at the end of the performance of #Giselle by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot where he interpreted the role of Albrecht at the LG Arts Center in Seoul, this 11/03. 👏 pic.twitter.com/soe2BuVhFc

— Ballet Opéra Paris (@BalletOParis) March 11, 2023

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Several star roles to his credit

His appointment comes just over a week after those of New Zealander Hannah O'Neill and Frenchman Marc Moreau, promoted after a performance of George Balanchine's "Ballet Impérial" at the Palais Garnier in Paris. It was announced on the delegation of Alexander Neef, the general director of the Paris Opera, who could not be present in Seoul, on the proposal of the director of dance, the Spaniard José Martinez, appointed in 2022 to replace Aurélie Dupont.



Guillaume Diop has already been entrusted with several star-studded roles, dancing the male lead roles in La Bayadère, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. Introduced to dance at the age of four, before beginning his apprenticeship in 2008 at the Conservatoire du 18e arrondissement, he will soon be performing in Maurice Béjart's "Chant du compagnon errant" at the Opéra Bastille between April 21 and May 28.

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