At this announcement made on stage, the two dancers were given a standing ovation by the public and the ballet corps.
Marc Moreau, very moved, burst into tears.
Hannah O'Neill, 30, is now one of a handful of foreign dancers who have risen to stardom, such as South Korean Sae Eun Park recently.
Trained in Tokyo and especially in Auckland (New Zealand) where she grew up, she is the daughter of a former New Zealand rugby player and a Japanese mother passionate about ballet.
Her teacher was Marilyn Rowe, who worked with Rudolf Nureyev.
She won the most prestigious international dance prizes (Lausanne, the Youth American Grand Prix) before entering the Opera as a supernumerary at 18, without speaking a word of French.
Marc Moreau, 36, entered the Paris Opera School of Dance in 1998, joined the corps de ballet in 2004 at the age of 17, before being promoted to First Dancer in 2019.
The dancer Marc Moreau, September 11, 2020 in Paris © JOEL SAGET / AFP/Archives
These two appointments were made by the director of the Opera Alexander Neef, on the proposal of the director of dance, José Martinez.
© 2023 AFP