François Alu, dancer of the Paris Opera known as much for his virtuosity as his atypical side and former member of the jury of “Dancing with the Stars” (DALS), obtained the star title on Saturday evening. In accordance with tradition, the director of the Opera, Alexander Neef, accompanied by Aurélie Dupont, went on stage after a performance of “La Bayadère”, where François Alu played the main male role, to announce this appointment.
“I invite you to witness now an exceptional and emotional moment in the life of our theatre,” he said. “On the proposal of Aurélie Dupont, director of dance, I have the great pleasure of appointing Mr. François Alu star dancer”, he announced, to applause.
Nicknamed “alu-cinant”
The dancer, very moved, was given a long standing ovation by the public, his fellow dancers and the musicians of the orchestra. “It’s stellar!” “, he reacted for AFP behind the scenes of the Opéra Bastille. “I don’t realize, I think I need to get my head around it a bit; there are a lot of mixed emotions”.
A favorite of the Ballet de l’Opéra audience who nicknamed him “alu-cinant”, François Alu, 28, joined the company in 2010 and, in four years, has experienced a meteoric rise, rising to the rank of “first dancer”. (preceding the star title). Since 2014, his fans have been indignant at not seeing him reach the supreme title and at being poorly distributed, some even launching a hashtag #AluEtoile on social networks.
If the dancers of the Opera are recognizable by their slender silhouette, François Alu is more athletic, and impresses with his pirouettes and his turns in the air. “I have fairly developed thighs, I saw from the start that I didn’t have the legs of my friends,” he confided to AFP in 2018. Originally from Fussy, near Bourges, he is encouraged to three years by his mother, a dance teacher, to take a class, although the ballet did not initially attract him. The love at first sight occurs at 10 years old, when he sees the star of the 80s Patrick Dupond “jumping in all directions”, in a documentary. He does not hide his rebellious side, refusing to be a “simple performer” of classic roles.
In September, he took a six-month leave from the Opera to join the DALS team and stage his first solo performance.