JULIEN LESTEL
Julien Lestel trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris where he was awarded first prize. He then worked with Rudolph Noureev, who asked him to dance in Cinderella at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples.
He went on to join the Monte Carlo Ballets, the National Paris Opera Ballet, the Zurich Ballet where he was principal dancer, and later the National Marseille Ballet as Marie-Claude Pietragalla's partner.
He has worked with Rudolph Noureev, Jerome Robbins, Jirí Kylián, William Forsythe, Angelin Preljocaj, Roland Petit, Pina Bausch, Lucinda Childs, Carolyn Carlson, Thierry Malandain… and danced the choreographies of Marius Petipa, George Balanchine, John Neumeier, Uwe Scholz, Serge Lifar, Frederik Ashton, Vaslav Nijinsky…
Both as a choreographer and dancer, he worked with well-known French actors and actresses including Pierre Arditi, Marie-Christine Barrault and Macha Meril to accompany their reading of literary texts.
"Passionately dedicated to my art and keen to get involved in a process of choreographic research, I decided to create my own company in 2006"
He has since collaborated with the pianist François-René Duchâble who played on stage during several of his ballets - Anastylose, Rachmaninov, Solo and Opus and with the composer Karol Beffa who composed the music for Corps et Âmes.
He participated in the 21st Century Gala des Étoiles at the Champs Élysées Theâtre where he danced Les Âmes frères one of his own creations.
He also choreographed dance scenes for operas - Les Pêcheurs de perles, Aïda for the Massy Opera, as well as Manon and La Vie parisienne for the Marseille Opera.
He also worked with Eleonora Abbagnato, director of the Rome Opera Ballet adapting his choreography Puccini for the dancers of the Rome Opera Ballet.
With Alexandra Cardinale, Julien Lestel produced a fourteen episode webseries L'Éternel et l'éphémère, with choreographies designed for the Musée Rodin, the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris and the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.
Since 2008, he has been actively committed to bringing dance to diverse audiences and to promoting dance as a means of expression accessible to all; an activity truly without frontiers.
Aiming to pass on his expertise and passion, he shares his choreographies with young ballets in regional Conservatoires.
Since 2016, he has been teaching at the École Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille.
CREATIONS
2025: Run at La Chaudronnerie Theater, La Ciotat, and Alliance at the Croisement festival for the dancers of Shenyang, China
2024 : Carmen in Enghien-les-Bains
2023 : Rencontres at the Colombes Theater
2022 : Rodin at the Gascogne Theater, Mont-de-Marsan
2021 : Libre at the Marseille Opera
L'Éternel et l'éphémère, a web series of fourteen episodes - choreographies performed at the Rodin Museum, the Modern Art Museum in Paris and the Quai Branly Museum
2020: Stabat Mater at the the Massy Opera with the musical ensemble Les Paladins. In the same year, Mosaïques at the Marseille Opera
2019: Dream at the Massy Opera
2018 : Misatango with the Pasdeloup orchestra and the Vittoria Choir
2017: La Jeune Fille et la Mort and Quartet at the Massy Opera with the Quartet from the Orchestra
2016: Rachmaninov, Solo and Boléro at the Massy Opera with full orchestra and François-René Duchâble as piano soloist
2015: Transmission at the Massy Opera, then at the Off Festival in Avignon and Le Faune at the Marseille Opera
2014: Puccini at the Massy Opera and Romeo and Juliet at the Marseille Opera
2013: À Ciel Ouvert, with Melanesian dancers, for the inauguration of Noumea airport. La Paix des Étoiles at the Off Festival in Avignon and at the Dôme in Marseille, "the European Capital of Culture for 2013"
2012: Fragments and Le Sacre du Printemps commissioned by the Tjibaou Cultural Centre of Noumea. In the same year, Next for the Lyon Youth Ballet
2011: Corps et Âmes at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris
2010: Anastylose with the pianist François-René Duchâble at the Marseille Opera. In addition, Pierre Cardin appointed him choreographer of his production, Casanova
2009: Constance at the Marseille Opera
2008: Somewhere for the Marseille National Ballet
2007: Les Âmes Frères at Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris
2006: Chopin Danse at the Artéa Theater, Carnoux-en-Provence
