Paris Opera's star ballet dancer Aurélie Dupont to take her final bow

[Surya Gayatri]

“Each time I died at the end, I loved it!” Dupont said, laughing. “I completely become the character. I am Manon. I am Juliette.”


Aurélie Dupont in Birgit Cullberg’s Mademoiselle Julie. Dupont’s last performance as principal ballerina will be in L’Histoire de Manon. Photograph: Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty

Aurélie Dupont, a principal ballerina for the Paris Opera, will step down from the starring role next month at the age of 42 after performing L’Histoire de Manon, which will be shown in hundreds of cinemas across Europe and North America.

With an emotional smile, Dupont said on Wednesday that she was moving on after 32 years – 17 of them as principal dancer – to become the Opera’s ballet mistress, teaching the company’s classes and running the dancers through their rehearsals.

Her final Paris Opera performance as principal on 18 May will be beamed live to 350 cinemas across Europe. The recorded version will later be shown in some 100 cinemas in the US and Canada.

Benjamin Millepied, director of dance at the Paris Opera – and also the husband of the actor Natalie Portman, whom he choreographed in the film Black Swan – called Dupont “the best of the Paris Opera’s dance school”.