The 350-year-old Paris Opera & Ballet is looking as young and contemporary as an institution can be, listening and adapting to paradigms of its time. “We want to put an opera and ballet by 21st century artists for 21st century audiences,” said the General manager of the Opéra National de Paris, Alexander Neef, as quoted by a recent article of the New York Times.
The Paris Opera & Ballet is trailblazing the debate on race, on and off the stage, at a time when this issue is raised in many Ballet companies throughout Europe, reports the New York Times.
After members of the Paris Opera & Ballet publicly complained about discrimination at the Paris Opera & Ballet, an independent audit was immediately commissioned to historian Pap Ndiaye and Constance Rivière, the Secretary general of Défense des Droits—an independent administrative organization to help French citizens with their legal rights against the administration. Together, they just published a 66-page report, which includes a series of recommendations.
As a result, a Chief Diversity Officer position will soon be created at the Paris Opera, and a committee will be formed to frame and implement necessary reforms.
The report suggests a series of changes, including: a greater diversity of artists on stage; new recruitment process, either for the ballet school or at a more senior level; reviewing old concepts of homogeneity and choreography; and abandoning elements of costumes and make-ups that could be viewed as stereotypes and racists.
“This (report) is not the conclusion of a process, it is the beginning,” Neef said.