Danseuse Étoile du Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris, Choreographer
After starting out as a dancer in her native Caen, Marie-Agnès Gillot entered the Ecole de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris in 1985. Five years later, at the age of 15, she was admitted with dispensation to the Corps de Ballet. A finalist in the 15th Varna International Dance Competition in 1992, she was promoted to "Sujet" in 1994, "Première danseuse" in 1999, and was named "Étoile" by Brigitte Lefèvre following the performance of Carolyn Carlson's Signes on March 18, 2004, the first time she had been appointed to a contemporary ballet.
Marie-Agnès Gillot, a perfect interpreter of the great classical ballets, is much in demand by contemporary choreographers. A blend of strength and fragility, she is by turns a femme fatale (such as Roland Petit's L'Etrangère de Clavigo or Maurice Béjart's La Mélodie du Boléro ), a romantic character (Catherine in Kader Belarbi's Wuthering Heights or Pina Bausch's Eurydice), cruel (Médée in Angelin Preljocaj's Le Songe de Médée ), free and insolent (La Servante in Mats Ek's La Maison de Bernarda ). Her virtuoso technique is also at the service of Edouard Lock(AndréAuria), Wayne McGregor (Genus, L'Anatomie de la sensation), Benjamin Millepied (Triade), Jiří Kylián (Kaguyahime), William Forsythe(The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Approximate Sonata), Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet(Boléro) and many others... For Sophie Calle, who represented France at the 2007 Venice Biennale, she gives her interpretation of Prenez soin de vous and dances with the swans in Swan, a ballet by Luc Petton premiered at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in June 2012.
Marie-Agnès Gillot's taste for eclecticism is reflected in her choreography. In 2007, she created Rares Différences for a female dancer and two hip-hop dancers at the Suresnes Cités Danse festival. In this autobiographical ballet, Marie-Agnès Gillot takes her inspiration from Rodin's work, sculpting the material directly onto the dancers. She also created ART ÈRE, based on Serguei Rachmaninov's Trio élégiaque, for the Junior Ballet classique of the Conservatoire national supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in 2009. Finally, in 2011, she performed alongside Alice Renavand at the Royan Festival "Un Violon sur le sable" with two pieces: Blanche marine, which she choreographed to Aquarium, an excerpt from Camille Saint-Saëns' Carnaval des animaux, and Black back to Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.
In October 2012, she presented Sous Apparence, her first creation for the Paris Opera Ballet.
Since then, she has added numerous revivals( George Balanchine'sPalais de cristal, Pina Bausch's Orphée et Eurydice, Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker's La Nuit transfigurée ) and creations (for Benjamin Millepied or Wayne McGregor in 2015, Crystal Pite in 2016) to her repertoire. She made her official farewell to the Opéra national de Paris in March 2018 with a moving performance of Pina Bausch'sOrphée et Eurydice.
In November 2009, she created a Flashmob for the association La Chaîne de l'Espoir under the Louvre pyramid. She is also invested in the ICCARRE association, for which she created a pas de deux with Blanca Li in December 2014 at the Maison Jean-Paul Gaultier.
After clips for Arthur H, REM and Benjamin Biolay, she was seen dancing alongside Marianne Faithfull, Katia and Marielle Labèque and at the annual Enfoirés show.
She performs with Pippo Delbono and is also the face of several luxury brands such as Celine and Repetto. She also creates events for Cartier and the Louvre Museum.
Two of her works are on show at the Palais de Tokyo. She created TU ES as part of Nuit Blanche 2016, to the music of Ravel's Bolero, a duet she choreographed and danced using movements inspired by her work with prisoners at the Maison centrale d'arrêt in Arles.
In November 2018 she made her theater debut in Peau d'Ane at the Théâtre Marigny at the request of Jean-Luc Choplin. In January 2019, she appears in the cinema alongside Pierre Richard in A cause des filles ... by Pascal Thomas. In March 2019, she directs the "creatures" of Madame Arthur's in a revue inspired by the songs of Zizi Jeanmaire. La Seine Musicale offers her a Seine libre during the 2019-2020 season. She invites artists as diverse as Carla Bruni, Simon Ghraichy, Arthur H, Slimane, Laurence Equilbey, Jenifer... and performs her own choreographies as well as those of Roland Petit, Carolyn Carlson and Nada Kano.
In December 2019, she creates MAGMA with flamenco dancer Andres Marin and Christian Rizzo at the Cannes International Dance Festival. This show will tour throughout the season, stopping at the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris in January and February 2019. In September 2022, her autobiographical book "Sortir du cadre" is published by Editions Gründ, and wins the Grand Prix du Syndicat de la critique, as well as becoming a judge on Danse avec les Stars. In the summer of 2023, she performs in Mathieu Guilhaumon's creation "A l'Ombre de la Jeune Fille" on a major South American tour.
She is a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor, the Order of Merit and the Order of Arts and Letters.