Dorothée Gilbert

Career Trajectory

Beginning ballet at age seven in Toulouse, Dorothée Gilbert trained through the French conservatory system before entering the prestigious Paris Opéra Ballet School at fifteen. She joined the company's corps de ballet in 2000 and rose steadily through its ranks, achieving coryphée status in 2002 before her elevation to Étoile in 2007—the rank conferred after a transformative performance as Clara in Nureyev's The Nutcracker. Over more than two decades, she has become the custodian of the classical repertoire at the Opéra Garnier, commanding the great roles of the nineteenth-century canon while maintaining the exacting standards of the Paris Opéra Ballet tradition.