The Opéra National de Paris celebrates the opening of the 2017/2018 dance season

Today, the event is an essential part of Parisian cultural life. Only a handful of privileged people can claim to have been invited to the annual opening gala of the dance season at the Opéra national de Paris. Under the sublime vaults of the Palais Garnier, the 2017/2018 season was inaugurated by this great gala at the initiative of Stéphane Lissner and Aurélie Dupont, directors of Dance. It was a unique opportunity to see the Étoiles Marie-Agnès Gillot, Dorothée Gilbert and Germain Louvet, as well as the whole of the Corps de Ballet, performing “Diamants” (George Balanchine), “Trois Gnossiennes” (Hans Van Manen) and “Faun” (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui) on stage last night. After a dinner orchestrated by Le Fooding, the evening continued into the depths of the night in the Rotonde des Abonnés. While the Stars mingled with prestigious guests, from Emmanuel Perrotin to Sofia Sanchez and Alexandre de Betak (to whom we owe the flowery scenography), from Christine & the Queens to Clémence Poesy, classical music has given way to more commercial sounds, so much so that some were surprised by this incongruous meeting near the bar – although welcome on this festive occasion. This is also what makes the beauty of the gala, the mixing and the encounters. Thus one could see the sublime Marisa Berenson giving the arm to Haider Ackermann, whereas Lenny Kravitz did not leave her dark glasses even in the ambient darkness. In this place full of history and immeasurable prestige, one could not help feeling the sensation of a forbidden brave, as if one had penetrated, the time of a golden parenthesis, in the home of a great man. Charles Garnier’s.