Karl Paquette

He began dancing with Max Bozzoni before joining the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1987. He joined the “corps de ballet” in 1994, at the age of 17, and rose through the ranks: “coryphée” in 1996, “sujet” in 2000, “premier danseur” in 2001. On 31 December 2009, following a performance of Rudolf Nureyev's The Nutcracker, he was appointed principal dancer.

Throughout his career, he has performed the great roles of the classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertoires. He has distinguished himself in ballets by George Balanchine, Maurice Béjart, Serge Lifar, Jerome Robbins, John Cranko, William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Jiří Kylián, Roland Petit, Angelin Preljocaj and Rudolf Nureyev. His sensitive, embodied interpretation of major roles - from Albrecht to Onegin, from Don José to Quasimodo - has been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. He has also taken part in several entries into the repertoire and premieres at the Opéra, including Le Chant de la terre by Neumeier, La Source by Jean-Guillaume Bart, and Wuthering Heights by Kader Belarbi.

Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, he bid farewell to the stage on 31 December 2018 in Nureyev's Cinderella, on the stage of the Opéra Bastille. The following year, he directed Mon Premier Lac des Cygnes, an adaptation for young audiences presented at the Théâtre Mogador.

Since 2020, Karl Paquette has been passing on his experience to new generations as a dance teacher at the École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris.