Paris Opera Ballet

The Paris Opera Ballet (French: Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris) is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera and the oldest national ballet company. Together with the Royal Ballet in London, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, it is regarded as one of the four most prominent ballet companies in the world.Since August 2016, the company has been under the direction of Aurélie Dupont, the Directrice de la Danse. The ballet company consists of 154 dancers, among them 17 Danseurs Étoiles. The principal dancers give 180 dance performances each year, primarily at the Palais Garnier.Just as prestigious as the Paris Opera Ballet is its dance school, the Paris Opera Ballet School (French: École de danse de l'Opéra national de Paris), considered to be one of the world's best dance schools. Its former pupils have won a record of 20 Benois de la Danse awards. The school celebrated its tercentennial in 2013. The competition for admission to both institutions is extremely fierce. For a dancer to enter the Paris Opera Ballet, it is almost compulsory to be admitted to the Paris Opera Ballet School, to pass the annual competitive examinations in May, and to attend at least the final two classes. 95 percent of the admitted dancers in the Paris Opera Ballet are French.