When the new year rolls around, 10-year-old Lillian Sears won’t be going back to school after the holidays. She will be on an airplane headed to a new life in the most romantic of locales — Paris.
Although adult American dancers have performed with the famed Paris Opera Ballet, Sears just became the first American admitted to the Paris Opera Ballet School, or as it is properly called, the Ecole du Ballet de L’Opera de Paris.
The transition won’t be as difficult for Sears, who is a student at the Atlanta Professional Dance Academy in Duluth. So strong was her dream of dancing with the famous Paris Opera Ballet that she began French lessons with a private tutor two years ago.
“I fell in love with the Paris Opera ballet’s Dorothee Gilbert and Aurelie DuPont on YouTube when I was 4,” Sears said. “I love how beautiful they made everything. It is hard to put into words, but every time I watch anything the Paris Opera Ballet performs, I fall more in love with ballet.
“Everything about it appeals to me. The French style is so clean and beautiful and filled with emotions, yet it is somehow so different than the way anyone else does ballet.”
Her audition process was rigorous. In September, Sears sent a “very long” application and two photos to the Paris Opera Ballet School.
“In the middle of October, I found out I had been invited to audition. Two weeks later, on Nov. 7, Mom and I flew to Paris,” Sears said. “I loved how old Paris is. It is filled with so much beauty and history. I instantly loved it.”
The roots of what is now the Paris Opera and Ballet School were founded by Louis XIV in 1661 as the Academie Royal de Danse. King Louis XIV was an enthusiastic and talented dancer himself, and his support for the art form helped launch other companies all over Europe.
Today, the Paris Opera Ballet is considered one of the four greatest ballet companies in the world alongside Russia’s Bolshoi and Mariinsky Ballets and the Royal Ballet in London.
Once Sears arrived in Paris, there were two audition rounds. Her first round had 100 children, and everyone was 10 or 11 years old.
“We were judged on height, weight, measurements, flexibility, and turnout,” she said. “Round 2 was class on a raked stage. At the end, 11 female students of over 3,000 applicants were accepted.”
Sears begins her adventure in January with another “audition” consisting of a six-month period.
“I will take ballet, mime, folk dance, and character,” she said. “In July we will perform, and a group of judges will decide the 7 or 8 of us to be admitted to the program year-round.”
Sears attended a Paris Opera Ballet performance of “Mayerling,” before she returned to Atlanta. Give this young dancer another 7 or 8 years, and audiences might be seeing her on that very prestigious stage, living her dream.
Credit: Gwinnett Daily Post
Credit: Gwinnett Daily Post
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