Seeking out new audiences and fresh talent, the Paris Opera is launching a three-year outreach programme in French Guiana that aims to make it easier for people in the overseas department to pursue careers in opera and ballet.
"Geographic distance must not be an insurmountable obstacle to see performances, or to imagine embarking on a career as a dancer, opera signer or musician," says Alexander Neef, director of the company based at the historic Palais Garnier in Paris.
Launched at the end of November, "L'Opéra en Guyane" (Opera in Guiana) aims to bridge some of that distance between the French capital and French Guiana, some 7,000 km across the Atlantic from mainland France on the coast of South America.
Over the next three years, the programme will see the Paris Opera put on performances and workshops in French Guiana in the hope of expanding its reach – and recruiting new talent.
The overseas department has a rich culture and a strong dance tradition, says Myriam Mazouzi, director of the Paris Opera's Academy, which delivers training in ballet, opera and stagecraft.
But when it comes to ballet and opera, she told RFI's Carmen Lunsmann, "there's no opera company and very few opera tours or concerts, as well as very few performances of classical ballet".
France's most famous opera will therefore take its performers onto stages and into schools in French Guiana, Mazouzi explains.
"It's all part of the idea to build bridges between our missions, our heritage, our history and the young talent and audiences of French Guiana."
Nurturing young talent
The project kicked off in the last week of November with performances by members of the Paris Opera's ballet company, including a special dress rehearsal that local schoolchildren were invited to attend.
"I've never performed with so much joy in the room before," dancer Marion Gautier de Charnacé told Radio France.
The core of the programme will consist of offering training for those seeking a career in culture.
While French Guiana is one of only two French overseas departments to have a conservatory teaching music, dance and theatre, the opportunities are limited once students have completed their training.
"In Guiana, all going well, young people join the conservatory – and then what? They leave," says Michaelle Ngo Yam Ngan, the school's director.
"Practicing your craft professionally is only possible if you leave for the big cities, often in America, Cuba, Brazil..."
As a result, France loses out on Guianese talents. "So the challenge is to recreate proximity and links with [mainland] French schools that provide access to professional and artistic training at high level," Mazouzi told RFI.
As well as offering workshops in ballet, contemporary dance, hip-hop and singing, she explains, the Paris Opera will also launch an apprenticeship programme for production skills, such as make-up and set design.
"This programme targets young adults who are working in areas that they might think have nothing to do with opera. In reality, they'll see that we have mechanics, carpenters, decorators, make-up artists..."
Diversifying culture
The Paris Opera stands to benefit from recruiting from a wider pool of talent.
The initiative in Guiana "will allow us to develop some more diversity in the company", hopes dancer Gautier de Charnacé.
It comes amid growing pressure to tackle centuries-old racial disparities in the traditionally white, privileged worlds of opera and ballet.
“In many people’s heads, to join the Paris Opera, you need to be white,” dancer Guillaume Diop told RFI. He was one of five black dancers, out of 146 in the Opera ballet, who launched a manifesto in August 2020 decrying institutional racism in the 350-year-old company.
The Opera subsequently commissioned a report by independent experts, who concluded that the institution was "far from what contemporary French society looks like".
They recommended action including featuring more performers of colour to serve as role models for a new generation of French talent.
The company has promised to make efforts to diversify its staff both on and offstage, as well as taking other steps such as banning blackface in performances and training technicians to better light darker skin.
