Glimpses of Dance - Paris Opera Junior Ballet

Open Rehearsal

The new cohort of the Paris Opera Junior Ballet will launch its 2026/2027 season at Orsolina28 Art Foundation with a three-week residency, during which the dancers focus on three works: two repertory pieces by Julian Nicosia and William Forsythe and a new creation by Anna Hop.

“Eternal Rift”, created in 2025 by Julian Nicosia, explores what the choreographer describes as “a quiet divide running through time and skin, unseen but always felt.” The piece unfolds in that suspended space between touch and release, between holding on and letting go. From this tension emerges a new breath, a shared pulse where bodies strive to part yet remain bound by an invisible thread. Through a choreographic language that is both physical and abstract, the work examines connection, detachment and the impermanence of movement. Set to the organic and electronic score by Janiv Oron and Michael Anklin, “Eternal Rift” becomes a landscape of raw emotion, where collective intensity meets the fragility of individual expression.

Created in 1996 by William Forsythe, “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” is the conclusion of a six-part study on ballet, titled “Six Counter Points”. “Six Counter Points” opens with a scene showing two dancers seated on stage, moving slowly and laboriously with jerky movements without ever losing contact with the floor. “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” is a joyful and virtuous celebration of the raw physicality of the first piece, transcribed into the codified language and syntax of classical ballet. Balanchine’s spirit is present in this work, whose title is borrowed from a phrase by sociologist Roland Barthes. Forsythe, who dreamed of choreographing a ballet to Franz Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, conceived a lively and precise pas de cinq set to the music’s final four movements.

This residency provides the company an opportunity to work with Polish choreographer Anna Hop on her new creation, a piece for seven dancers that will premiere in Paris, at the Opera Garnier, on January 9, 2027.

This residency is made possible through the support of Chanel, Founding Patron of the Paris Opera Junior Ballet.

Artists

• Choreographers: Anna Hop, Julian Nicosia, William Forsythe

• Artists: dancers from the Paris Opera Junior Ballet