Manuel Legris

Manuel Legris is a French ballet dancer, born in Paris on October 10, 1964. He was a star dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet for 23 years. Since September 1, 2010, he has directed the Vienna State Ballet.

He started ballet lessons at the age of 8 under a local ballet teacher, Yvonne Guba. In 1976 at age 11, he started with the Paris Opera Ballet School and joined the Corps de Ballet at 16 years old in 1980. In 1981 he became "Coryphee", and was then promoted to "Sujet" in 1982. Exceptionally, Manuel Legris was appointed to the title "Etoile" on 11 July 1986, at age 21, by the Stage Director Rudolf Nureyev, bypassing the rank of "Premier Danseur." On that day, the company performed Raymonda, choreographed by Nureyev, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Legris danced the leading role of Jean de Brienne. At the end of the performance, he was named the principal dancer on the stage.

The succession of roles allowed him to become the new star developing a "large repertoire", revealing the many facets of his extensive gifts. In addition to his intrinsic qualities of flawless technique and expressive richness, Manuel Legris established himself as an outstanding partner, a complete dancer equally at home with the classical and the contemporary repertoires. Thus, William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Jiri Kylian and Jerome Robbins alike, the most renowned choreographers continued to engage him: Manuel Legris participated in most entries to the repertoire or the creations of the Paris Opera.

At the same time, the reputation of the dancer crossed the borders very quickly. Manuel Legris was invited by the most prestigious companies, such as the Royal Ballet in London, the New York City Ballet, the Cuban National Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet, the Ballets of Monte-Carlo, Stuttgart and Hamburg where John Neumeier created especially for him Spring and Fall and A Cinderella Story.

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