Highlights - The Ballet School - Artists - Opéra national de Paris

Paris Opera Ballet School & Royal Danish Ballet School
by Hippolyte, 4th division

This week, some students from the Royal Ballet School travelled all the way to the Paris Opera Ballet School. The first division of our school had previously been to Denmark just before the Christmas holidays. While spending the week with them, I have learnt a lot about their school, but also about them and their habits.

WHAT WERE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES YOU NOTICED BETWEEN YOUR TWO SCHOOLS?

These people told us “We come in peace” right upon their arrival. They are pupils, just like us, who also learn ballet to become dancers in the future. Their everyday life is organized in a very different way from ours: in the morning we go to our academic classes and in the afternoon we have our ballet classes, while they begin the day with one ballet class, then attend the academic classes and finish with ballet again. Their year ends with a decisive exam.

WHAT ARE THEIR SCHOOL’S HIGHLIGHTS?

They told me that only the pupils living on the Danish island where the school is built don’t live in the boarding house of the school, which represents twelve students. Just like us, they take part in many performances, but the performances never encroach on the school exams. At the Royal Danish School, pupils attend adage classes, contemporary classes, Pilates classes, gymnastic classes for the boys while girls take pointes classes, “Bournonville Technique” classes, some time for their “Company B” and of course, ballet classes.

WHAT IS “BOURNONVILLE TECHNIQUE”?

In “Bournonville Technique” classes, pupils learn to dance in the same way as August Bournonville (a Danish choreographer from the 19th century). This technique is not learnt to be danced during ballet class. It has the same symbolic meaning as our baroque class, it allows pupils to understand how others were dancing before us.

WHAT ABOUT THE “COMPANY B”?

The “company B” is a group of pupils of the last two ballet years. They perform shows in which they create all the costumes, settings, lights and even sometimes the choreography. They don’t really create everything they need, but they are in charge of all the decision making.

WHAT WILL YOU REMEMBER FROM THIS EXCHANGE?

Meeting these pupils was very interesting for me, I hope a new school exchange will be organized in the future. We spent a whole week with them and they shared with us a very enriching experience. It would not have been the same without their enormous kindness towards me and towards all the Paris Opera Ballet School pupils.

Hippolyte, 4th division