How nervous was I when I was about to speak to Dorothée Gilbert, prima ballerina at Paris Opera Ballet? NERVOUS. There’s just something about the Paris Opera Ballet, an aura of untouchable grandeur and mystery. It’s all very French, to be cliched about it.
”Allo?’ her voice crackled slightly on the phone. It was elegant and soft, the aural equivalent of Chanel No 5 (timeless, iconic, powdery, with top notes of bergamot and ylang ylang). “Hi Dorothée! It’s a privilege for me to interview you. Thank you for taking the time,” I said.
A pause, and then a slightly guarded, “thank you,” she said.
Have I mucked it up already? Did I come off too fangirlish? I pressed on. We chatted about breakfast – baguettes and jamon and croissants. I asked her about Nutella; I’d read that she liked it. I could hear her voice brighten. “oui, yes it’s true!” she enthused. And then I moved on to my questions. “So you joined the Paris Opera Ballet school at 7,” I said, glancing at my notes. “No, it’s not correct, I was 12.”
Oh God. One question in and I’d already made one of the cardinal mistakes of interviewing – getting a basic fact wrong. She’d started dancing at 7, I knew it in my head. I’d made a mistake, and I’d made it to Dorothée Gilbert, prima freaking ballerina at Paris Opera Ballet.
“Oh yes, I’m so sorry!” I said. What I meant was, ‘Please don’t hate me Dorothée Gilbert I swear I did my research also you are amazing how can I be you’. I was mortified.
“No, don’t worry!” she said. I could hear the smile in her voice. “It’s okay!” She sounded like a cashmere sweater, one of those $500 ones with gold buttons that were probably hand-woven by little old ladies up in the Kashmir mountains – warm and comfortable and unimpeachably elegant.
And for the next 40 minutes we talked about her journey – getting through the Concours! Motherhood! Being an artist! Getting promoted to Étoile – a very charming story. Her speech was punctuated with, “cool!” and “oh lala” and a bright, clear laugh.
When the interview was over, I thanked her for her time. “Thank you very much!” she said, the consummate professional.
“Thank you! Have a wonderful day,” I said before hanging up. What I meant was, “Dorothée Gilbert you are amazing how can I be your best friend”
C&V Sessions with Dorothée Gilbert
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TRANSCRIPT
I always start with this question, which is what did you have for breakfast?
DOROTHÉE: So, I have a coffee — black coffee — and then I take some toast with the ham.
MIN: Right! Keep it simple but delicious, I know the French bread is always very delicious.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah, really good.
MIN: Do you have a sneak in like a croissant or something before or do you just like keep it simple?
DOROTHÉE: Croissant, no because it’s, really, it’s a few hours after — like one or two hours after — you are already hungry with the croissant.
MIN: That’s true.
DOROTHÉE: So, I prefer take something more you know consistent, like that I can do the, also in the class without thinking about eating a lot.
MIN: Yes, of course. I did read in an interview that you like Nutella sometimes. Is that true?
DOROTHÉE: Yes, it’s true! When I was younger, I was eating a lot of Nutella. But after I thought to eat better to have more power in my body because I’m not really young anymore, so I need to be careful about what I eat, and I try to. If I want I can take it, but I try to take some things that make my body in a really good shape to do the class and, during the weekend when I don’t do anything I can eat Nutella or croissant if I want because I don’t need, you know, really good food for the day.
MIN: Yes, I think that’s a good approach, isn’t it? And I have to say, I think you are still very young. You are only 35 and you look younger than that!
DOROTHÉE: Thank you.
MIN: So, you joined Paris Opera Ballet School when you were seven, is that correct?
DOROTHÉE: No it’s not correct; I was 12.
MIN: Oh yes, you we were 12. I’m so sorry about that!
DOROTHÉE: No, don’t worry!
Min: And then you joined the main company at 17.
DOROTHÉE: Yes.
MIN: What was your experience like at Paris Opera Ballet School? I read that you had to audition twice before you got in. Was that..?
DOROTHÉE: Yes. But you know my parents are not dancers at all, and they didn’t know this world and me either, so we were like… I come from Toulouse, which is in South of France. So when we arrived to Paris, we did first audition and I was completely not aware about what it was, really. So I did it like very light you know… in a light mood.
But I understand that it was a really hard thing, and if you want to enter you have to work a lot. So, the year after I worked really really hard to enter in the school because I didn’t have all the quality that the school asked for when you are young. I didn’t have beautiful feet, or I wasn’t really flexible, and en dehors is not really my thing, also, and it was the thing that the school of Paris Opera are looking for. So I had to work a lot on that, and after the year I could enter.
But, yes, I was happy because in the school, my parents moved to Paris, so like that I could go back to my home every night. You know, and not be — how do you say in English, internat — you know in the school you can sleep in the school. Lots of children was were sleeping in the school and I was going back home, so for me it was really helpful.
MIN: And what was this experience like for you? Was it very difficult? was it easy for you to adjust? or did you enjoy it?
DOROTHÉE: It was really hard because you know in Toulouse, I was doing all the technical stuff very young, I was already doing fouettés and grand jetés, and all the technical things. And when I enter in Paris Opera, I was like in the beginning of the division, so we were doing really simple things. For me it wasn’t really dance to do only degagé and demi plié and things like that. And in this kind of exercise you could see only my defaults, how do you say, you understand?
MIN: Yes, I understand.
DOROTHÉE: So, in the beginning of the classes in the school it was really hard for me.
I try to work on my faults and after, when we start to do technical things, that’s the moment in second division when it was easier for me because I could really dance like I knew I could do, and is the beginning for me of better, you know, the teacher liked me better and also the director. And it was the beginning of a new school for me, it was before and after. So, in the beginning it wasn’t easy.
MIN: Of course, I’m sure it was difficult. Ballet is not easy – you know.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah I know. The world of the ballet is not easy. But also, when you don’t really know — you know because my parents don’t know anything about dance so they couldn’t tell me “you should think about that because this is important for the school or in Paris Opera”. I discovered everything alone you know, and when you are 12 or 13 years old, it’s not easy for reflection because you just want to dance. You don’t think about what the opera wants to see in you.
MIN: Yeah, but was there also maybe less pressure because your parents didn’t know. So you weren’t aware, maybe…
DOROTHÉE: Yeah, I didn’t have any pressure from my parents, it was just easy. You do what you can, and if you can’t we go back to Toulouse and you start your studying at school and that’s it. No pressure. But that I don’t want to hear that! Because I want to do ballet so I didn’t want to hear that I was going back to Toulouse and starting back my studies and everything.
MIN: So that was actually a motivation for you to work hard.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah!
MIN: And so, what was it like then going to, you know, going from Paris Opera Ballet School to Paris Opera Ballet? Because when you, you know, become a member of the corps, it’s very different from just being a student.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah. The most difficult thing is when you are in the corps and you take class, you have like 80 or 70 dancers in the class and the teachers are not — they give corrections for everybody but they don’t give you correction. So it’s hard to work like you like you… Walk into school and you have ten girls in the class and all the teacher is on a girl or you, so you don’t have your own correction, you have to take what the teacher says for everybody and you have to work on your own and that’s why it’s really it’s really difficult.
But for me, it was the moment I really made a lot of progress because I really learned by looking at all the dancers. All the beautiful dancers I liked, I was always behind them in class and I was looking at what they were doing and I was thinking, ‘I like that! How can she do that?’
And I was trying to do it on my own. I learned a lot by watching the person I liked and trying to do the same.
For example: I was like, I like to work on my en dehors, so this month I will work only on that. And in the class, I was putting me just behind the most beautiful girl on the Paris Opera Ballet, and I was like trying to do what she was doing all because I didn’t have the ability, the physical ability.
I couldn’t do what she was doing but it makes me you know, I do in a certain way. And it was easier for me to progress, and I was doing that for the feet, for the walk of the feet. There are lots of beautiful walk of feet in Paris Opera and I was behind them, I was looking and you know you have all the Étoile so you can really be inspired by them. I was doing lots of progress by my own.
MIN: Just, like, figuring out how to do it by yourself, how to make it work for your body.
DOROTHÉE: Exactly. And it was — for me it was really easier than in school because I really understood what I wanted to do, and what the Paris Opera wants me to do. It was really at this age I really understood. I was seventeen, and I really was watching the girl to push by the directors to do lots of soloist roles, or things like that. I had a reflection of what they like in her, and what I could do to be like them a little bit.
MIN: Yeah. And also, you know, in Paris Opera it’s different from other companies because your promotion system is set up by the Concours. For you,how do deal with that pressure? Because on one hand you have to concentrate on your performance but you know, everywhere, the Concours, you have to prepare for that also.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah. For me, the Concours — I was really thinking when I was, you know, in the small class like quadrille, coryphee, I was really thinking it’s an opportunity for me to do a solid variation on this beautiful stage and there is person, you know there is people, there is an audience.
MIN: Yeah.
DOROTHÉE: So I was thinking, it’s not a Concours, it’s a performance. I have this beautiful opportunity to show to the audience what I can do, and I was really thinking like that. I was trying because I know it’s hard; you can feel the pressure. Also, if you think like that because all of the girls are on you, you are stressed. You try to be, I try to be, as far as possible from that.
But you know when you are a sujet, and you have the opportunity already to do some variation during the performance and things like that, it wasn’t the same thing. And because also this Concours is really important, because if you are premiere danseuse don’t have, you just do solos and you don’t have any more corps de ballet, so it’s really big change, you know.
So, this Concours from sujet to premiere danseuse is really hard also because all the girls are really good. They’re technically perfect and it’s really, you know, it’s hard also when you are in the jury.
When you judge the class of sujet, it’s really hard because everybody is really good. So, you know, you have to be really the best one, really far away to be sure to pass premiere danseuse. So you have still to work a lot. Also, if during the year you are doing soloist roles, like I had — I did Etude and I did Don Quixote, Kitri — but I still have to do this Concours, and yes sometimes it didn’t work. One time for me it didn’t work but it was hard, this one was harder for me.
MIN: So, why did you say it didn’t work that one time?
DOROTHÉE: It didn’t work because I was really stressed. For the first time in this Concours I was really aware that it was a Concours, and it was going to change my life. I didn’t dance like I could dance because it was too much stress. So therefore, it didn’t work, and for a girl who never did a soloist part during the year and just dance really well and she passed.
So I was thinking, “Okay. Next time I have to be the best if I want to be first dancer.”
Because it’s not because I’m doing some roles and I already show them I can be premiere danseuse. It’s not enough. You have also the best during the Concours. But the year after it was okay.
MIN: Well, I’m very happy to hear that. But yeah, it’s such a — the Concours is such a difficult thing because like you say, you can be dancing all these roles, you know during the year, getting soloist roles and things but if you can’t, if you don’t perform during the Concours itself, then you can’t make the progression.
DOROTHÉE: Yes, it’s right. But also if you are working all the year and you are really, you have to be really the best in all the Concours. If you want to pass you have to be the best, so it’s not bad because you have to work really hard and it’s good for companies if everybody is really working hard. Also just one time of year, it’s good.
You normally have to work hard all the time of the year, but for some people it’s good also to have this kind of motivation to grow up and to show what you can do.
And I think it’s a great opportunity also, because when, you know, if you have a director who didn’t like you and you are not really, you have really good roles and things like that, you can show to the people, to the audience, to the person of the staff that you are able to do good things.
In this Concours, you can show yourself even if you’re not pushed by the directors. So it’s great opportunity, I think.
MIN: Yeah. That’s right, a lot of pressure but also a lot of opportunity if you can perform. So after you were promoted from sujet to premiere danseuse, you were promoted on stage to étoile in 2007, during, after Nutcracker, is that correct?
DOROTHÉE: Yeah.
MIN: I’m sure you remember that experience. What was it like for you at that moment? You know, the promotion. Did you expect it? Did you know it was coming?
DOROTHÉE: No, not at all. I was thinking it could come in this part of the year because I was doing Nutcracker with Manuel Legris, a very old and very respectful étoile from Paris Opera, and I was really happy to dance with him.
I was doing, yes for a Nutcracker and just after — I was also doing Paquita in Garnier — I was doing Nutcracker with him in Bastille and Paquita with him Garnier, and because I was dancing with him, I had a number of performance like if I was étoile, you know. When you are premiere danseuse, you do one time or two times role, but because I was dancing with him I was doing like four Nutcrackers and, I don’t remember, three or four Paquita.
So, I had a really good distribution and for this time of the year, it was in November/December. So I was thinking perhaps it’s going arrive in Paquita, after the Nutcracker or something like that. But for this performance of Nutcracker it was really strange because it was a day of strike, so nobody has costumes, there wasn’t light, there wasn’t the set. So we were doing Nutcracker in the big stage, huge stage of Bastille, empty, with nothing. Yes!
And you know the rats were supposed to scare me, they were little girls in a tutus from the school like in pink tutus and I was like, oh how can I be scared about these little girls. It was a really strange performance, and that’s why I really didn’t expect it. Because when the director and Brigitte Lefevre went on stage, I was thinking they would speak to the audience about this performance, and thanking them to stay there and watch it because they had the choice or to say or have to reimburse, to have the ticket paid back because it wasn’t full performance.
MIN: Yeah.
DOROTHÉE: So I was thinking that, and at the end they didn’t say that at all, they just say I’m announcing that Dorothée Gilbert is going to be a dansuese étoile.
So yes I was really happy, also because my parents were there and my grandparents also were in the audience, so I was happy to give them also these beautiful moments because they were really close to me and they helped me a lot during this process. So it was really moving, really moving moments.
MIN: You know, when you are étoile, you know, you’ve achieved this promotion – the highest ranking in Paris Opera. It’s a validation but it’s also a lot of pressure because you are still the same person. It’s not like you are promoted and then you wake up with special skills.
DOROTHÉE: Yes, that’s funny what you said because it’s true. When I was young and I was looking at the étoile I was thinking they are so perfect, so beautiful… and when I was étoile, I was thinking, “But I’m not perfect, I have my things to work on, I have some difficulty.”
And I was thinking that I didn’t have, you know, a fairy who will give me all the good things! I am the same person with my quality and my faults. So I was thinking it’s just another way to work. But I didn’t really – you know it was the contrary for me, I had lots more liberty when I was étoile. Because when I was premiere danseuse, when I perform, I wasn’t aware of that. But I feel it after I was étoile I was always thinking I have to prove that I can be étoile.
So there was this little pressure I had, I didn’t really notice that but after I can feel because there was really more free. When I was étoile, I was just dancing for for the audience and I didn’t have to prove anything. So for me it was a relief to be étoile.
MIN: And so part of being like, you know, you’re performing for the audience, you weren’t worrying about this pressure, and I think a big part of ballet — especially the professional dancer — is the performance aspect. You know I think a lot, the technique is important but the artistry is very, you know is that, I guess the je ne sais quoi to make a performance extra special. So for you, how do you find those moments of artistry, like if you’re preparing for a low or when you’re on stage dancing?
DOROTHÉE: For me it’s the most important because when I prepare, I work a lot of the technical things just to be free onstage.
Because when you on stage, there is only the story and the music that counts for me. I didn’t think about anything else but just the story I have to tell, and the connection with the partner and the music is the most important; I didn’t think about anything else.
That’s why I have to prepare very well all the technical stuff before, and after that I’m ready and I just feel completely free on stage to be what I have to be – whether I’m Juliet or Giselle or anything. And I love doing this kind of ballet with lots of interpretation because it’s really what I like in ballet – it’s not the technical stuff. The technical stuff is just a way to express yourself in different sentimental stories.
MIN: Yeah, because the technique is not those final point, the final point is the performance, right?
DOROTHÉE: It’s just a way to arrive there. Because the audience, they want to think they can go home and do the everything we did on stage because it has to be really easy, you know. They could think, oh I can be a dancer also, it looks so easy.
This is an important — and also the most important thing — is to make them feel, you know, entering the story and completely forget the problems in their life on everything. You have to take them and to bring them to the story you are telling. This is the most important for me.
MIN: Yes, it’s like the French word, I can’t remember like, inoubliable, that kind of performance, is unforgettable, is that correct?
DOROTHÉE: Yes, unforgettable, yes it’s correct.
MIN: And so for you, what have been your favorite roles to dance or perform?
DOROTHÉE: All the beautiful stories like Romeo and Juliet, or Onegin or Manon. All the love stories, you know, and also because this kind of ballet has beautiful music.
The music is very important for me, because you have to show the music in your movement. If the music is beautiful, your movements are beautiful, you know, so it’s really connected. And also for your emotion, it’s really easy to have the right emotion when the music tells you the emotion. You just have to listen and be there. So it’s this kind of ballet.
MIN: And are there any roles or pieces you would like to dance in the future?
DOROTHÉE: I will like to dance… the last ballet I would like to dance I didn’t have yet is La Dame aux Camélias. this is the last one I want to do before I retire.
MIN: Well now we have it on the record so we can make sure that everybody can hear it.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah.
MIN: And I also want to talk a bit about you as a mother. You have a beautiful daughter I saw on your Twitter, Lily; she’s beautiful. What was it like for you coming back to ballet after giving birth? Because I know that I have friends who are professional dancers, and some of them have given birth as well, and you know the process for them of coming back is not always very easy. Your body is not the same anymore. What was it like for you?
DOROTHÉE: Yeah, it was really strange, because I have this quality that I have a body really easy, you know I don’t have to do some sort of regime to be fit really, you know. I have a toned body more than flexible. So yes, I’m like that. So after my pregnancy, I was thinking, oh lala, I have a big rump! Big bum, really big bum.
So I was thinking, “How my stomach is going to come to normal? It’s really big.” I was thinking lots of things and after I give birth, after three weeks I was like before, my body was remembering like everything just for the shape you know. After I come back to dance it was another thing but I was more a little bit more flexible because of the pregnancy. I think so for me it was easier, because it was one of my faults to be not flexible and I was more flexible because of all the hormones and things, and I still have the tone because it it’s natural for me.
So, it wasn’t really hard to come back really.
I gave birth in March, and in July I was doing a performance in Japan. I was a little bit afraid because it was 1 year and some months, I don’t remember how many, that I didn’t put a foot on stage so I was more scared about that. But for the body, it was really okay and in September, I was doing Etude in Paris Opera; this ballet is really difficult. And I did it so it wasn’t really hard for me in the end. It was okay but also because I have an easy body.
MIN: And so, like, getting back the fitness and the stamina, for you that was also not too difficult as well.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah.
MIN: Wow. I wish I had your fitness!
DOROTHÉE: Yeah. But this is the quality of – thank you mum, thank you dad!
MIN: And do you think, when she’s older, do you think you will let Lily try ballet?
DOROTHÉE: I think it’s difficult because – I don’t want her to do that, because I’m doing that. Because it’s really hard and you have to be really passionate if it’s going to work and also, I know she has a really strong character already, and I don’t think she will like to be the daughter of Dorothée Gilbert.
Because in the world of the dance, she will always be the daughter of Dorothée Gilbert, and I think she won’t like this kind of you know — she wants to be her! She doesn’t want to be the daughter of her mother, you know.
So I think it’s a thing that is going to be hard for her, and I don’t really want also because you know it’s really hard to be an étoile, and the chance for her to be étoile is really really small and for your children, you want them to be better than you are.
You want them to be more, or something, but the more she can be, it’s going to be the same – étoile! And it’s not easy for her to rise there, so, for me she will have to really, really, really want to do that — to do dance — because yeah I think it’s not going to be a good thing for her, also because of her character.
MIN: Yeah, she has to be her own individual. Based on that, sounds like you are a very good, a very sensible mother.
DOROTHÉE: I try to!
MIN: And when you come to Singapore with Paris Opera Ballet, you’ll be dancing in a very beautiful [Jerome] Robbin’s piece called In The Night. What do you enjoy about dancing that piece? It’s very nice to watch as an audience member.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah, I really love this piece In The Night from Robbins. So really for me, it’s like Jewels – it’s a perfect ballet. The musicality is incredible, every step you do is right in the music. The music is the steps you are doing. It’s really a great feeling to dance it because you are the music in this piece. It’s important … if the audience look at you without hearing the music, she has to imagine this music, you know what I mean?
MIN: Yeah.
DOROTHÉE: And all the pas de deux are really beautiful. I did all, I did the first one and the second one and sometime it will be the third one.
MIN: Oh, this is the first time you are doing the third one.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah, it is the first time. But I really love it because it’s a really, you know, it is a really lot of character in this pas de deux and I have a really good partner, so it’s going to be great.
MIN: It’s such an elegant looking piece and, you know, like you said ballet looks so effortless. But the the lifts and some of the choreography in the pas de deux is actually very challenging. So for you, how do you manage that?
DOROTHÉE: It’s not me, the partner! I have a really good one, so it’s easy. It’s true but it’s important to have a really good partner in this kind of piece because, as you said, there are some really tricky stuff. But if you have a good partner, it’s really easy and I have one, so it’s really good. And we danced Onegin also together one year ago I think, and we know very well each other because we were in school together. It was the same promotion. So yes, we are used to dance together from years and he is a really good partner, and so it’s easy with him. You just do it and it’s working and you don’t have to think about how to do this or that because he’s doing it’s really naturally without working you. You have to work on the shape and everything but he already managed to do all the tricky stuff. He’s a really good partner.
MIN: And also In The Night is a very emotional piece. I mean, the third dance that you’re doing is, you know it’s three different relationships and that one you are doing is a very passionate, temperamental relationship it seems like. So for you, what are you thinking of in the moment when you are dancing, like how do you find those kind of emotions?
DOROTHÉE: Yes, I like to think about my — because I’m half Spanish you know. My mother is completely Spanish so have this kind of temperament you know a little bit like, “I don’t like you! Yes I like you! No I don’t like you,” a little bit like that. So I just think about my origin and it’s going out really easy.
MIN: That’s fun! And have you visited Singapore before with Paris Opera? I know they came here with Giselle, did you come with them on tour?
DOROTHÉE: I think I didn’t come.
MIN: So this will be your first time in Singapore.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah.
MIN: Is there anything you’re excited to — besides of course the dancing — are you excited to visit anything or maybe try any food? Have you done any, do you know anything about Singapore yet? Or you, you know, have not had that time?
DOROTHÉE: I really didn’t have the time yet to just look at what I should do there or eat. But if you have any ideas I would want to write them down! I didn’t have the time to do these there, but I’m really looking forward to eat some different food, and because I really like here, and I like eating and discovering new food.
MIN: But the food in Singapore — I think all of it is very delicious. And we have some very beautiful gardens to visit. A lot of dancers in Singapore, they always want to come back. I’ll go look for you on Instagram and I’ll just send you a list of things you can try.
DOROTHÉE: Oh yeah, cool, with pleasure!
MIN: I love introducing people to Singapore food because I always want them to come back again.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah, I’m very happy to go there.
MIN: Even though you’re only 35 years old, you’ve accomplished so much already in your career. So for you, what keeps you going in ballet? Like, why do you still keep dancing and why do you love it so much?
DOROTHÉE: For me it’s for the emotion I can feel on stage. You know, when I am dancing some words or the emotion I can have with my partner. So for the partner is really important, I really want to dance with boys, I really feel something you know. It’s really important and just to have emotions and give emotion. It is this thing that keeps me going and working and doing, it is that – all the emotion I can feel on stage.
MIN: And besides that, ballet is also, like, we say it’s so difficult and it’s so tiring and it’s so all-consuming. For you, how do you find the balance of, you know, working hard and always trying to improve but also giving yourself time to maybe rest and relax a little bit?
DOROTHÉE: Sometimes it’s hard to find this balance, but also I try really to sleep well because I’m a big sleeper. I’m feeling well when I sleep 9 hours during the night. So for me this is really important, I try really to have this time and I’m taking care of my body. Massage, and I try to eat well. There is different periods in here, sometimes it’s really you have lots of rehearsal, lots of performance, it’s hard. And sometimes, more light. So I try to find this balance to recover it a little bit when work is lighter and to be in shape when it’s really hard and I try to listen to my body also more than before.
MIN: And what do you enjoy doing when you have time off?
DOROTHÉE: Be with my daughter, playing with her and taking time to do things with her, this is very important also for me.
MIN: And let’s finish up with this question which is, what’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
DOROTHÉE: I will just say do what you did. Do what you did. I work a lot, like crazy. I was doing all the lesson, and also particular lesson during the weekend. I was doing one class Friday night, one class Saturday morning, one class to the night — and also in the last year one class on Sunday — and I really worked really hard.
So I didn’t have any advice – just do what you did, it was it was great. I managed to rise there. In the beginning, nobody was thinking about me as an étoile, so I’m happy for that.
MIN: Yeah, I think that’s a good piece of advice for younger self. You are an étoile, you have a beautiful family, you have great parents.
DOROTHÉE: Yeah, I know I have nothing to, I just keep going. Keep doing that, it’s okay!
MIN: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me, I really enjoyed talking to you, and I’m sure that so many people in Singapore will be very excited to watch you and as well as the rest of Paris Opera Ballet come here and perform. It’s going to be such a treat.
DOROTHÉE: Thank you so much, have a good day.
MIN: You too, have a wonderful day.
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