Simone Valastro

Biography

Born in Milan, Italy, in 1979, In 1989, enrolled in the La Scala Dance School and graduated in 1998. That same year he auditioned for the Paris Opera ballet company and joined its Corps de Ballet. Participated in various classical and contemporary productions. In 2002 was promoted to Coryphée; promoted to Sujet in 2003.

In 2008, he received the AROP (Friends of the Paris Opera) Dance Prize. In 2009, he was named the best Italian dancer abroad by the Danza & Danza magazine.

Debuted as a choreographer in 2008 with a self-performed solo piece Opus to the music of The Album Leaf band, commissioned by the Picasso Museum in Malaga, Spain.

In 2013, he created Stratégie de l’Hippocampe (Seahorse Strategy) to the music of Erno Dohnanyi for the night of the young choreographers at the Opéra Bastille.

In 2014, at the behest of Brigitte Lefèvre (then-director of the Paris Opera Ballet), created two pieces for the Paris Opera dancers: Bovary (to the music by J.S.Bach) and Nuit Blanche (White Night, to the music by Tomás Méndez) for the Cadences Festival in Arcachon, where his works were lined up alongside those of Carolyn Carlson.

In 2015, the new director of the Paris Opera Ballet Benjamin Millepied commissioned him a piece for a night of music and dance at the
Opéra Garnier: Tissues to the music by Philip Glass – and invited him to join the Paris Opera Academy of Choreography under the artistic directorship of William Forsythe.

Among his projects at the Academy were Rumspringa (to the music of J.S. Bach) for the students of the Paris Conservatory, and Scriptych, and experimental piece created in collaboration with the Palais de Tokyo for the La Rumeur des Naufrages (Racket of Shipwreck) event at the Palais Garnier.

In 2016, he created a company Italiens de l’Opéra (Italians of the Opéra) together with Alessio Carbone and became its dancer, choreographer and assistant director. His first piece choreographed for the company was Palindrome Presque Parfait (Almost Perfect Palindrome, to the music of John Adams).

In 2017 he completed his studying at the Academy by staging The Little Match Girl Passion (to the music of David Lang) at the Opéra Garnier, featuring etoile dancers Eleonora Abbagnato and Marie-Agnès Gillot.

After that he created Bread and Roses (to the music of Philip Glass) for the Festival in Ravello 2017, an ensemble piece for the Italiens de l’Opéra, and a solo piece Ma! for Marie-Agnès Gillot.

In July 2018, he created Le Fils Prodigue (The Prodigal Son, music by Sergei Prokofiev) for the Granada Festival featuring the Paris Opera dancers and etoile dancer Dorothée Gilbert. He was also the librettist and production designer.

In May 2019, he created a pas de deux piece Arbakkinn for Laetitia Pujol and Alessio Carbone.