Guillaume Diop

Guillaume Diop
Born2000 (age 24–25)
Paris, France
EducationParis Opera Ballet School
Occupationballet dancer
Years active2018–present
Career
Current groupParis Opera Ballet

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

Early life and education

Diop was born in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, to a French mother and a Senegalese father.[2][3][4] His father works for Aeroméxico, and his mother for the local council in Gennevilliers, a suburb of Paris.[5]

Diop began dancing at age four.[2][5] He started training at a local conservatory at age eight, then a regional conservatory at age ten.[6] At age twelve, he entered the Paris Opera Ballet School, where he trained for six years and graduated first in his class.[4][7][8]

When he was 16, Diop attended a summer intensive at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York.[3][9] As a teenager, Diop battled with anorexia.[4][5]

Career

In 2018, Diop joined the Paris Opera Ballet.[4][10] 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 raciale à l'Opéra de Paris", which questioned certain practices within the opera house and called for urgent changes to address racial discrimination.[7][9][11] 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.[12][13] 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.[11]

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.[9][10] He also danced the Wedding pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty, for the company's Young Dancer programme.[10]

In 2022, Diop was promoted to coryphée.[7][14] He took on more lead roles including Basilio in Don Quixote, Solor in La Bayadère and Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake,[14][3][15] filling in for more senior dancers who were indisposed.[16] He also appeared in Gerard & Kelly's video Panorama.[17] Diop was promoted to sujet, third of the five ranks, in 2023.[14]

In March 2023, the 23-year-old Diop was promoted to étoile, the highest rank at the Paris Opera Ballet,[4] 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 dancer with black ancestry to reach this rank in the company's history.[1]

In 2024, Diop performed in the Olympic Opening ceremony in Paris, where he danced a solo on the rooftop of the Hôtel de Ville.[18][5] He also served as an episodic guest judge on Drag Race France, and starred in a campaign for Jacquemus' collaboration with Nike.[5]

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.[7][19]

In 2022, Diop was listed among "30 under 30" by the French edition of Vanity Fair.[8] In 2023, he was one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch".[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d "Introducing Our 2023 "25 to Watch"". Dance Magazine. 16 December 2022. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e Sulcas, Roslyn (16 December 2024; Updated 19 December 2024). Guillaume Diop, Paris Opera Ballet's First Black Etoile, Is Lighting Up the Stage. New York Times.
  5. ^ a b c d e Pithers, Ellie (27 August 2024). Guillaume Diop is dancing with joy. The first Black étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet talks racism, regimens and recognition. Financial Times.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ a b c d 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.
  8. ^ a b 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.
  9. ^ a b c 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.
  10. ^ a b c Cappelle, Laura (1 August 2021). "France/Dance". Dancing Times.
  11. ^ a b 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ a b c "Guillaume Diop". Opéra national de Paris. Archived from the original on 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  15. ^ Noisette, Philippe (13 December 2022). "Les cygnes retrouvent leur prince". Les Echoes. ProQuest 2753432433.
  16. ^ "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.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ "JO 2024: la prestation de Guillaume Diop, danseur étoile, sur le toit de l'Hôtel de Ville". RMC Sport Jeux Olympiques (in French). Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  19. ^ "Prix de Danse". Cercle Carpeaux. Archived from the original on 27 January 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
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