Dancer Hannah O’Neill reveals her 6 favorite books

“I always have a book with me, especially when I go to Bastille by metrosmiles Hannah O’Neill. When people are scrolling on their phones, I feel better with my head immersed in the pages of a good book”. The one who studied at the Kishibe Ballet Studio in Tokyo as well as at the Australian Ballet School before being hired in the Corps de ballet of the Paris Opera in 2013 was finally named principal dancer ten years later.

“I would say that my taste for literature comes from my Japanese grandmothershe reveals to the house of Chanel, on the occasion of Literary meetings rue Cambon. She always had huge piles of books at home”. Born in Tokyo, the dancer learned to read in Japanese, before her father taught her to read in English. Now settled in France, she tries reading in a new language, with varying degrees of success. Discover below the list of her favorite works, those that she devoured in the metro before going to the Opera, as well as those that she was able to read to prepare for her most significant roles on stage.

The Red and the Black by Stendhal (1830)

Stendhal at 17 when he enlisted in the armies of Napoleon to escape the boredom of his native province. In Italy, he discovered ephemeral happiness by embarking on writing, in 52 days, Red and Black. Fresco symbol of a nascent romanticism where passion is seen as a way of life. Julien Sorel, the hero, dreams of a dazzling destiny to escape the comfortable lifestyle of the bourgeois of his time. Excessive seducer, he leads into an affair Madame de Rênalthe mother of the young boy to whom he gives private lessons.

“A few years ago, there was a new creation by Pierre Lacotte. It was his last creation: The Red and the Black by Stendhalexplain Hannah O’Neill. At the time, it was too complicated for me to read in French, so I read it in English. So I really want to reread it in French, so that the next time the ballet is presented, if it happens, I can discover new nuances to interpret them with more precision and better understand the characters. The English translation is excellent, but it’s not the same thing!”

Notebooks de Vaslav Nijinsky (1995)

“I feel that God will support me who am only a man among men, guilty like them of many errors” écrit Vaslav NijinskyRussian dancer and choreographer, considered the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century. In his diary there are anecdotes, memories and philosophical reflections where the figures of his parents, his wife, his daughter appear… An anthology of pages where his madness shines through, which he suffered until his death, which occurred thirty years later the writing of these notebooks. In its publication by Actes Sud, this new version frees itself from the censorship of Romolawife of Nijinsky (which was involved in a version translated in 1953 by Gallimard).

“Before reading his diary, I didn’t realize how intelligent he was.tell Hannah O’Neill. He’s someone who went crazy at a very young age. He had a brain that worked in a different way, but he created new things in dance, which always fascinated me. He was very avant-garde, even today he remains very modern. We see it in the way he explains what ballet is. I think of this passage where he talks about The Swan that he choreographed for Anna Pavlova. He created it in a few hours in his studio, and it hasn’t aged a bit! He changed the way dance evolved. He’s a real role model for me”.

Just Kids by Patti Smith (2010)

In his most famous work, Patti Smith looks back on his meeting with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, encountered by chance in New York at the end of the 1960s. A sort of bohemian initiation novel, it traces the beginnings of his two enfant terribles up to the recording of the first album of the artist, Horses.