Paris National Opera

School

  
Who little girls have never dreamt of it? But, to enter in this emblem of the dance, it is not so easy…

First of all, the selection is made according to your mensurations:

o For girls
8 years old: min 1,32m and 22 kg / max 1,35m and 25 kg.
9 years old: min 1,35m and 25 kg / max 1,38m and 27 kg
10 years old: min 1,38m and 27 kg / max 1,42m and 29 kg
11 years old: min 1,42m and 29 kg / max 1,50m and 34 kg

o For boys (no maximum body height)
8 years old: min 1,34m and 25 kg / max 28 kg
9 years old: min 1,38m and 28 kg / max 31 kg
10 years old: min 1,40m and 31 kg / max 37 kg
11 years old: min 1,45m and 37 kg / max 40 kg
12 years old: min 1,50m and 40 kg / max 42 kg
13 years old: min 1,56m and 44 kg / max 47 kg
Then, you must make training for six months to one year and at the end, it is the last choice to enter the School. Then, the evolution is from 6th division to 1st division. You can double; treble or jump years but you can also get the sack. In the first classes, there is a score of students whereas, in the last division, there are only five to ten students. Girls and boys are not mixed.

At the end of the first division, you pass the examination to enter the “corps de ballet”. It is the company which allows you to dance classic ballets all over the world.
The results are given according to your talent but also according to the number of places available. If you fail, most of the time, you go in another company, abroad.

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Then, there are five echelons: “quadrille”, “coryphée”, “sujet”, “premier danseur” and the supreme title “étoile”. All are given after an examination, excepted the “étoile” title which is given during a representation by the Opera director after a proposition of the headmistress of the dance. This annual examination dates from 1860.

There is a secret ballot papers vote. The note is compound of 10 points for the attentiveness and the professional conscience all along the year, and 20 points for the performance at the moment of the examination day. There is an imposed variation and one free. This which is free must belong to the Paris Opera repertory and is worked individually with the “étoiles”.

A change of level means an augmentation of 15% for the salary. For example, a young “quadrille” makes 2248€ (about £1474) gross, whereas a “sujet” at the end of his career makes 4587€ (about £3008).

The schooling in a dance school is a little different from “classic” schools.
First of all, horary is laid out to be able to link dance courses with the other subjects. In fact, in the morning, students receive lectures and in the afternoon, they dance for 2h30 at the minimum. This, from Monday to Friday.
Classical dance is the most important element of the school but contempory dance, jazz, choral, pantomimes or history of dance… are also taught.

The teaching is free, half-boarding is compulsory and boarding possible. There are about 140 dancers in the school with a majority of boarders. The school is closed during the week-ends and holidays, so pupils must have a correspondent in the Parisian region.

To enter the “corps de ballet”, pupils have to pass the exam of the end of college studies (“Brevet” French exam). All don’t pass the A-level (“baccalauréats” French exam) because they are hired before but the only field for secondary education is literary with scientific option.

Each year, representations are organised for Christmas and the end of the year.

Tutus are still made in the opera’s workshops as they were made in the XIXe century.

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