TESTIMONY
It has been almost two years since the star dancer Marie-Agnès Gillot said goodbye to the stage. In reality, she never really left it. Proof of this is with the musical show Les Souliers Rouges which she stages at the Folies Bergères, in Paris. Invited in It feels good , Monday, she returned on her journey by telling about her difficulties to obtain the rank of star dancer.
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Marie-Agnès Gillot hoped for this distinction for several years, to the point of being trapped by the noises that ran through the corridors of the Opera. She remembers a particularly traumatic evening. All were convinced that she would get the sesame. "It was horrible, you go into your dressing room and it is full of flowers. And then you leave with all this when in fact, you have won nothing," laments Marie-Agnès Gillot.
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#repost @kurtfroman ・ ・ ・ I staged and coached the Paris Opera Ballet in Benjamin Millepied's “Triade” a few seasons after it was choreographed. I loved working there and with these beautiful dancers !! Here are @marieagnesgillot and @audricbezard in the first Pas de Deux. #parisoperaballet @benjaminmillepied #triade #nicomuhly #operanationaldeparis #marieagnesgillot #audricbezard #kurtfroman #repetiteur #ballet #balletarchive #hommageajeromerobbins
A publication shared by Marie-Agnès Gillot (@marieagnesgillot) on Jan 5, 2020 at 10:45 am PST
"No, I don't move anymore"
The day she became a star dancer at the Paris Opera, Marie-Agnès Gillot was 29 years old. In 1997, it was the performance of Signes by Carolyn Carlson, a performance which won him the Cercle Carpeaux Dance Prize. But, because of all these rumors, the moment was less magical than expected. "I called my mother and said, 'There may be a chance tonight' and she said, 'No, I'm not moving anymore'. She had more than I had" , says Marie-Agnès Gillot.
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But why did she wait so many years? "It takes a star to leave to have a place and there were only six positions at that time. I waited a long time because the positions were blocked," explains Marie-Agnès Gillot, who describes a hierarchical system in "pyramid" shape.