The Christmas celebrations at the Paris National Opera promised to be flamboyant. On the right hand, Paquitaa thrilling classical ballet, revived in 2001 by Pierre Lacotte, intended to make the Opéra Bastille tremble, from December 5 to January 4. On the left hand, Playa best-seller choreographed in 2017 by the Swede Alexander Ekman, was sold out from December 7 to January 4, at the Palais Garnier. Barely the first of Paquita she pointed out, on December 5, that a strike by dancers led to the cancellation of the performance. Rebelote the next day. Four days later, on December 9, spectators of Playthen those of Paquitareceived an SMS warning them that their evening was falling through.
Suffice it to say that the end of the year, always a commercially sumptuous time for the Parisian institution, is off to a bad start. Every day, the uncertainty linked to this strike followed by “a large majority of dancers”Matthieu Botto, interpreter and central CGT delegate, told AFP on December 6, is climbing: five performances have already skipped. As of December 9, the loss of revenue per evening, according to figures given by the Paris Opera, amounts to 150,000 euros for Play and around 260,000 euros for Paquita.
What reasons sparked this uprising? Following the first cancellation of Paquitathe press releases sent to the press by the artists – the troupe has 154 permanent dancers – and the management of the Opera indicated that the file, complex, did not date from yesterday. The first, some of whom relayed the situation on their Instagram account, mentioned the fact that Paquita had to be canceled “following a movement initiated since February 2023 to request a reassessment of the specific preparation time for all of [leurs] artistic activities within the Opera ».
Without a response from management, the group of 95 performers on Paquita had decided collectively “to comply with the official convocation time, i.e. thirty minutes before the start of the performances”. Insufficient time, according to them, for hair, makeup, warm-up, etc., which require an hour and a half to two hours. Present at Bastille, as well as the spectators, they had informed that the show would start an hour and a half late. Hence the decision taken by management, “despite efforts made to maintain representation”to cancel it, while also refusing, according to the performers' press release, that the dancers address the public, as they requested, to explain the circumstances of this unusual evening.
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