Paris Opera to seek out new talent in diversity drive

PARIS: The Paris Opera vowed an overhaul of its recruiting practices on Monday as it launched a drive towards greater diversity in the heart of its elite ballet company, orchestra and dance school.

The issue has already sparked fierce debate in France with rightwingers accusing the Opera’s new director-general Alexander Neef of bringing American-style culture wars into the cloistered world of its arts scene.

But with Black Lives Matter protests roiling France, and deepening debate over its colonial legacy, Neef remains unrepentant about the need for greater diversity, and on Monday promised a shake-up of the 350year-old institution.

The Opera will implement recommendations from a new report, including an active effort to send recruiters out into the world in search of new talent, rather than relying on dancers coming to them.

“The objective is not that the school recruits less talented students to meet diversity objectives, but to search for great students wherever they can be found,” the report said, calling for decentralised exams in towns across France and its overseas territories. Neef told AFP he was proud the Opera was the “first large cultural organisation in this country to have launched such a thing. There are others for sure that will follow.” “As an organisation that is so large and that is so deeply connected to the past... we shouldn’t be afraid of asking not only these questions, but all kinds of questions,” he said.

The report highlighted other specific areas of concern, including the sensitive question of “anatomical criteria” in the selection process – to move beyond “old and tenacious ideas” about black bodies as somehow ill-suited to classical dance.

It also touched on the tradition of “ballet blanc” (white ballet) – where dancers appear all in white tutus and black performers are rarely seen – making the point that skin colour was never referenced when they were originally designed in the 19th century.

Paris Opera will appoint a dedicated “diversity and inclusion officer”, Neef said, following the lead of New York’s Metropolitan Opera which named its first person to that role last month.