Marie-Agnès Gillot

Marie-Agnès Gillot (born in 1975) is a French ballet dancer and choreographer. She danced with the Paris Opera Ballet as an étoile. She is also POB's first in-house female dancer to choreograph for the company.

Early life

Gillot was born in Caen, to an accountant and a physical therapist. She started In 1985, at age 9, she left home to train at Paris Opera Ballet School.

When Gillot was 12, she grew 12 centimetres in a year, and was diagnosed with double scoliosis. Fearing a surgery would leave her disabled, she opted to wear a brace instead. She wore it for 6 years, only remove it when she was dancing, and hid it from her peers.

Career

As dancer

In 1990, at age 15, Gillot joined the Paris Opera Ballet's corps de ballet. She is the youngest-ever dancer to do so. She was promoted to coryphée in 1992. She obtained her teaching certification at age 18. At first, she was only cast in minor, non-dancing role. Therefore, she flew to New York, hoping to audition for New York City Ballet. However, Manuel Legris contacted her, and convinced her to return to Paris. She got more roles after she returned.

Gillot was promoted to sujet in 1994. In 1999, she was named première danseuse. She stayed in that position for five years, but had danced lead roles including the title role in Paquita and Odette/Odile in Swan Lake.

Initially, Gillot wasn't interested in contemporary roles, but choreographers, including William Forsythe and Mats Ek created roles for her when she wasn't cast in classical roles. Eventually, she became the company's exemplar for contemporary works.