BALLET DE L'OPÉRA NATIONAL DE BORDEAUX

Biography

Director of Dance: Éric Quilleré

A French heritage dating back to the reign of Louis XIV, ballet began to flourish in Bordeaux from the eighteenth century onward, quickly acquiring a prestigious and creative dimension. Since the 1990s, the company has enriched its classical repertoire by opening itself to modernity and commissioning new works from numerous choreographers. Today the company counts around forty dancers.
It has received many awards, including the Herald Angels Award at the Edinburgh International Festival, the prize for Best Foreign Ballet at the Cuba Festival in November 2004, and the prestigious Serge Lifar Prize in 2001 and 2014.
Alongside the great classical repertoire (The Nutcracker, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake…), the company also preserves the precious legacy of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune by Vaslav Nijinsky, Petrushka by Michel Fokine, among others), while presenting works from the neoclassical and contemporary repertoire by choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Carolyn Carlson, Ohad Naharin, and Angelin Preljocaj.
In December 2017, upon the proposal of Maestro Marc Minkowski, Éric Quilleré was appointed Director of the company.

Éric Quilleré

In 1984, after completing his studies at the École de Danse de l’Opéra de Paris, Éric Quilleré joined the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet under the direction of Rudolf Nureyev. He was promoted Coryphée in 1986, Sujet in 1988, and Premier Danseur in 1991 by Patrick Dupond, then Director of Dance at the Paris Opera.
Quilleré performed all the major roles of the company’s classical and neoclassical repertoire. He also took part in the creation of contemporary works, collaborating with choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp, Jiří Kylián, Pina Bausch, Maurice Béjart, and Roland Petit, among others.
From 1995 he danced both in Paris and with the Miami City Ballet, and in 2001 he created a new production of Giselle for the Ballet National de Marseille. In 2003, Charles Jude invited him to Bordeaux as Maître de Ballet and assistant for all new creations.
In December 2017 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Ballet de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux.