Guillaume Diop

Guillaume Diop (born 2000[1]) is a French ballet dancer. He joined the Paris Opera Ballet in 2018, and was promoted to étoile in 2023, becoming the first black person to reach this rank in the company's history.

Guillaume Diop
Born2000 (age 22–23)
Paris, France
EducationParis Opera Ballet School
Occupationballet dancer
Years active2018–present
Career
Current groupParis Opera Ballet

Early life and education

Diop was born in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, to a French mother and a Senegalese father.[2][3] He began dancing at age four.[2] He started training at a local conservatory at age eight, then a regional conservatory at age ten.[4] At age twelve, he entered the Paris Opera Ballet School, where he trained for six years.[5][6] He also attended a summer intensive at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York when he was 16.[3][7]

Career

In 2018, Diop joined the Paris Opera Ballet.[8] In September 2020, in response to the Paris Opera's inaction following the George Floyd protests, Diop, along with the four other black dancers of the company, wrote a manifesto titled "De la question race à l'Opéra de Paris", which questioned certain practices within the opera house and called for urgent changes to address racial discrimination.[5][7][9] The manifesto was sent to all of the employees of the opera, and over 400 of them, about a quarter of the employees, signed the manifesto.[10][11] The company responded with a report on diversity at the opera house, which was published in February 2021. Alexander Neef, the general director of Paris Opera, announced actions to tackle racist caricatures in classic ballet.[9]

In 2021, he made his debut as Romeo in Nureyev's Romeo and Juliet, as a replacement for an injured Germain Louvet, and opposite Léonore Baulac's Juliet. At the time, he held the lowest rank of quadrille, and became the first quadrille to dance a lead role in a major full-length work since Mathilde Froustey in 2003.[7][8] He also danced the Wedding pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty, for the company's Young Dancer programme.[8]

In 2022, Diop was promoted to coryphée.[5][12] He took on more lead roles including Basilio in Don Quixote, Solor in La Bayadère and Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake,[12][3][13] filling in for more senior dancers who were indisposed.[14] He also appeared in Gerard & Kelly's video Panorama.[15] Diop was promoted to sujet, third of the five ranks, in 2023.[12]

In March 2023, the 23-year-old Diop was promoted to étoile, the highest rank at the Paris Opera Ballet, after dancing as Albrecht in Giselle during a tour to Seoul, South Korea. Unusually, he skipped the rank of premier danseur. Diop also became the first black dancer to reach this rank in the company's history.[1]

Awards and honours

In 2021, Diop was awarded the Cercle Carpeaux Dance Prize, awarded to outstanding young corps de ballet dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet.[5][16]

In 2022, Diop was listed among "30 under 30" by the French edition of Vanity Fair.[6] In 2023, he was one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch".[3]

References
  1. "Guillaume Diop devient le premier danseur étoile noir de l'Opéra de Paris". Huffpost. 11 March 2023. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  2. Rhrissi, Lina (23 December 2020). ""Mon père voulait que je fasse du foot et disait que la danse était un sport de Blancs" : les mots puissants de Guillaume Diop, 20 ans, danseur à l'Opéra de Paris". Neon. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  3. "Introducing Our 2023 "25 to Watch"". Dance Magazine. 16 December 2022. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  4. Sage, Adam (12 March 2023). "Guillaume Diop: immigrant's son named top dancer at Paris Opera". The Times. Archived from the original on 13 March 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  5. d'Almeida, Pierre (13 April 2022). "Guillaume Diop, l'étoile montante de l'Opéra de Paris". Mixte Magazine. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  6. Laborie, Celia; Wintrebert, Hugo (31 August 2022). "Le palmarès 2022 des 30 nouvelles têtes". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  7. Wintrebert, Hugo (13 March 2023). "Guillaume Diop, portrait d'un danseur prodige devenu étoile". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  8. Cappelle, Laura (1 August 2021). "France/Dance". Dancing Times.
  9. Marshall, Alex (8 February 2021). "Paris Opera to Act on Racist Stereotypes in Ballet". New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  10. Boisseau, Rosita (3 October 2020). "Un manifeste pour supprimer la discrimination raciale à l'Opéra de Paris". Le Monde. Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  11. "Paris Opera vows to address lack of diversity, ban blackface on stage". RFI. 10 February 2021. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  12. "Guillaume Diop". Opéra national de Paris. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  13. Noisette, Philippe (13 December 2022). "Les cygnes retrouvent leur prince". Les Echoes. ProQuest 2753432433.
  14. "Guillaume Diop, more than just the first black star of Paris Opera". France24. 18 March 2023. Archived from the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  15. Giovannini, Joseph (16 November 2022). "Artists Reveal a Dark Side of the Bourse's Crowning Glory". New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  16. "Prix de Danse". Cercle Carpeaux. Archived from the original on 27 January 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
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