Aurelie Dupont. “I’ve been divorced a lot, my kids don’t know anything about my star career”

In a rich autobiography, Don’t forget why you dance (1), Aurélie Dupont, who was a star dancer and dance director at the Paris Opera, recounts the knee surgery that almost ended her career, but also her recovery and reinvention of art, her childhood and her family, her passion for the piano. In his book we also discover the sometimes brutal training at the Opera, where he climbed the ranks to stardom at the age of twenty-five, meeting Pina Bausch and John Neumeier, his colleagues on stage, Nicolas Le Riche, Hervé Moreau. Manuel Le Gris – the legendary roles he played, from Giselle to Manon, or even the pair he created with the star dancer Jérémy Bellingard. An interview with an artist who put her perfectionism anxiety to rest without losing her passion.

Madame Figaro. Why did you want to write an autobiography?

Aurelie Dupont. It’s a way for me to balance. After working at the Opera for forty years, I opened an important page of my life. I wanted to write to share my passion and also to break my humble nature. I wanted to tell my story and I said to myself. “Who can talk about me better than me?” Then writing is a bit like reliving things… I wanted to leave the “recipes” of my testimony and work to all the children who want to dance, but not only. There are so many keys in this book, so many tips about life and dance, and my sister Benjamin, who also dances, gave me the best compliments, saying she wished she had read it when she was younger. because he would help her… This text is also intended for my children who do not know much about my star life. Being a mother has been and continues to be my greatest role. I have shared a lot about being their mother and they don’t know anything about my career.

We find a passion for accuracy in your way of telling the story…

Writing didn’t cure me of anything, because I didn’t need a fix, but it did me good, I enjoyed picturing every detail and rhythm like music. At first it wasn’t me who should take up the pen, but Albin Michel suggested a test, and I submitted about fifteen pages of an episode about: Nutcracker. Then they told me that considering the way I talk about my diadem, his weight, the injured boy, the lowering of the veil, I should definitely write… But I appreciate challenges and, above all, I like to learn; So I wrote sentences on paper for over a year, seven days a week, and I corrected and re-corrected a lot. I had everything ready. my notes about the dance school, about the corps ballet, my roles, the tours… – I went for it, I got a lot of joy from it and now I almost miss it.

Is writing like dancing for you?

Yes, to the extent that I am attracted to drama in dance. Putting the exact step on the exact note, breathing like a comma, pulling back to let your partner in the foreground… I like to play with all of that, and writing has given me the same pleasure when describing a piece, a state; thought, emotion. This is why I chose to start the book with my knee injury and recovery. Until now, I have never stood up to this test, this pain, which was also a revelation. I had only recently become a star, and now a surgeon is telling me that I will never dance again. Having everything and losing everything… It was like a blackout. I wanted to start there because I love movies that start at the end. We don’t expect it and we don’t know what it means.

And that’s how you discovered… Bruce Lee.

For me he is an artist. I have his videos on my phone that I listen to regularly to get back into his mindset. When I hear him talk about his passion for kung fu, boxing or fencing, everything he says can be applied to dance; actually he was talking about “fight choreography”. The meaning of the movement, what it means, why we do it this way, the truth of the movement, all that speaks to me a lot. It’s very hard to be authentic in your art, and he’s right. many dancers are too much. I love his idea that technique is the foundation, but once you master one, you have to go somewhere else. Or his claim that life is a fight, a personal fight too, with the desire to understand, find explanations and solutions. He helped me a lot, pushed me to fight.

In fact, your entire journey consists of battles, including at the dance school…

At eighteen, when I started talking about it, I used the term naughty because the term harassment didn’t exist. I should add that it was a different time. In 1983 I became a “little rat”. We spanked kids, teachers slapped your fingers when you got a bad grade, we smoked on the subway, trains, in the car, and no one cared. his seat belt in the back. I was happy to belong to this elite establishment, and at the time, I was not the only victim of this form of ruthlessness. But I was the only one who, on the other hand, had the right, even though I came first at the end of the first division competition, to a poisonous little sentence about my body and my build… Or, I was literally called a “fake” by one of my teachers. Fortunately, there are some who have carried and supported me, like Leanne Dade or Jacqueline Moreau. To tell the truth, I have never seen myself, nor felt myself blessed at any point in my career; I think I had the skills and worked hard, more than anyone else, because I felt that little finger pointing at me, which meant I had no room for error.

We needlessly let children suffer

Aurelie Dupont

Was the purpose of this book also to shed light on the behind-the-scenes?

I wanted to share my trade secrets and talk about the way I work, which actually completely changed after my knee surgery. Reinventing my dance was both very challenging and exciting. Before she takes the stage in her tiara and tutu, there are hours and hours of doubts and fallbacks to do and repeat over and over again; sometimes we have pain, sometimes we don’t have the right slippers, sometimes we don’t have a nail on our big toe anymore… Explaining how we do it was interesting to me. Also, back to your previous question, I never understood why no one told us when we were eleven at the Opera how to put on pint shoes, how to break them in, fold the sole, take out the satin, etc. It would be almost exciting. Meanwhile, we have left our children to suffer needlessly.

Your book also evokes work with choreographers such as Pina Bausch, to whom Bartabas dedicates a memoir, just published by Gallimard. Low gesture …

By the force of the circumstances, I had hardened myself. Pina Bausch saw me and discovered me. He told me what Bruce Lee could have told me. you have to be honest, sincere, so you have to go through a form of vulnerability, because I’m also very sensitive, extremely. She was the kind soul and kind fairy who watches over you more than others and who, although she knows nothing of your story, provides the spark that allows you to move forward. I tended to hide my tiredness, but like a ballet The rite of spring, we have to let it come and go with it. I discovered that you can go on without struggling, without hiding your fatigue. Before, I wanted to do what was expected of me, I danced the way you want to get a good grade. Pina Bausch freed me from my mistakes.

(1) Don’t forget why you dance, Aurelie Dupont, Ed. Albin Michel, 480 pages, €22.90.