Paris Opera Ballet’s First Black Star: Guillaume Diop

Paris Opera Ballet, the world’s oldest national ballet company has just promoted the first black dancer to the rank of Etoile, which literally translates to star. Guillaume Diop is 23 years old and the announcement to him and the rest of the world was made by the new artistic director José Martinez onstage after a performance of Giselle in Seoul Korea on Saturday March 11. Diop is an enormously gifted dancer, with the physical beauty and technical brilliance one would expect, along with the artistry and dignified carriage that brings dancers like Roberto Bolle and Marcelo Gomes to mind. Paris Opera Ballet is an institution that has historically set a precedent for norms in the dance world and I could not think of a more deserving dancer to be the face of this one.

Paris Opera is a company to which every ballet company in the world can in some way directly trace its roots. Founded in the 1600s under King Louis XIV, it is where ballet was codified and birthed as a defined form of dance and is still one of the world’s top 3 companies (or the top depending on whom you ask). Most ballet companies in the world have 3 ranks, the Paris Opera has 5 full ranks (plus another beneath the full ranks so technically speaking 6 levels).

Typically a dancer’s ascension through the ranks is based solely on the whims and discretion of their artistic director, this is not so at Paris Opera. They have a completely unique system which dates back to the days of Napoleon and the French revolution, he introduced legislation to the opera to make it a more meritocratic institution (down with the monarchy and inherited status). Each year there is an internal competition with a full panel of judges and dancers choose to compete to get promoted through the ranks, if you don’t compete you don’t get a promotion. This is true for all the levels except for the etoiles. They are hand picked by the artistic director and anointed publicly onstage during the bows in a very emotional ritual for everyone involved, including the audience.

Very few dancers make it to this rank, and most who do spend many years climbing the ladder within the company and may spend only the last few years of their dancing life wearing the crown. Guillaume Diop leap frogged over the rank just under Etoile: Premiere Danseur (where most spend years waiting to be picked for the highest rank).

Guillaume was one of the authors of the manifesto published in 2020 “About the Race Question in Paris Opera”. Paris Opera Ballet’s artistic director José Martinez told the press that he chose Guillaume because of his "artistic qualities, his charisma and his potential. At no point did it cross my mind to appoint him because of the colour of his skin," Martinez said, and added: "It's a very good thing that this has happened."

Clip below of Guillaume Diop in Swan Lake with veteran Etoile Dorothée Gilbert