Paul Marque and Constance Arnoult, co-founder of the cultural media L'éluité, on the Full Frame stage during We Are French Touch at the Maison de la Mutualité.

Relive the We Are French Touch event 2023 edition

French Touch: You started dancing very young. What little boy were you?

Paul Brand: That's a very good question, but I should ask my parents (laughs)! I was very happy, a little hyperactive on the edges like many children, and then already passionate. I danced everywhere: in the street, in the playground... According to my brothers and sisters, I was teased at school because I did dancing.

FT: How did dance come to capture your personality?

PM: I don't have any memories because I started really early. We don't have memories of early childhood. Dance has always been with me and even today. I look forward to the weekend, but I know that after two days I will miss dancing and I will only be looking forward to Monday to go back to my class. It is really an integral part of me.

FT: On December 13, 2020, after the Bayadère show, without an audience but with 10 spectators at a distance, you were named star dancer by the management of the Paris Opera. Tradition dictates that it was a surprise announcement. What do you think triggered this decision?

PM: I still don't understand it... really! You get access to all the other ranks by competition: on D-Day, if you're the best, you get the job, it's factual and on a specific date. But on this appointment, even today, three years later, I don't know how it was decided, if it was discussed long in advance, if it happened at the last moment... It's so sacred and mythical that even if all 1800 employees of the Opera know about it, the person concerned won't know anything about it. It's too sacred to be flouted.

FT: Becoming a star dancer was your dream since you were little. How do we take on such a role?

PM: I dreamed of being a principal dancer, but what made me dream was dancing the leading roles. That's really what I wanted to do: when I saw a ballet, I wanted to do the leading role in La Bayadère, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker... When I was a principal dancer, I had that chance to dance these roles a lot. So it's a gradual construction. The first time I did a very first solo role, the role of Basilio in Don Quixote, I thought I was going to die... I told myself that I would never make it, and gradually it built up. As in any profession, you have training, and then you are given a little more responsibility and you have to take them on. With experience, you learn to manage, you learn how to do it.

FT: The extreme competition, the tensions inherent to the level of excellence that you practice, the pressure of physical performance… Everything seems to be slipping away from you. What is your secret?

PM: So much the better if it seems to slide! I have been very stressed by nature since I was little. For as long as I can remember, I have never stopped biting my nails... I worked a lot on my anxiety, because my very first role as a demi-soloist, it was ulcer, eczema patches, butterflies in the stomach, not sleeping the night before... It can be worked on and it also comes with experience: the fact of dancing, a lot, of rehearsing the roles, of being used to this way of life, these are things that you get used to. Never 100%, but despite everything, there are things like stress that you can completely leave aside to keep a little bit of adrenaline, enjoy, have fun.

FT: Do you sometimes manage to let go of control?

PM: Yes, of course, there are things that must be controlled and things that must be left to chance.

FT: We are at the heart of the We Are French Touch event. We talk about artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Are these worlds familiar to you? Have you, for example, checked what ChatGPT says about you?

PM: No, not at all! In fact, I think it's great to evolve with the times, to always be able to improve, to discover new things, while keeping in mind that it can't replace everything.

FT: Are dance and live performance soluble in virtual reality in your opinion? Or would they lose all meaning?

PM: All their senses, I don't know, a large part for sure. Live performance, for me, can never be replaced by "live" or like artists who are replaced by artificial intelligences. The principle of live performance is to go see artists, to go explore their universe. And if it's not done human to human, it's different. It's the difference between going to the theater and seeing a movie. I'm not saying that one is better than the other, they are two different things.

FT: Do you “feel” the audience on stage?

PM: We, without the public, do not live and the public, without us, cannot go to the show. It is truly a connection. And this connection, if it is not made in real life, in a tangible way, it does not happen or it happens differently.

FT: What is this little delta that does everything?

PM: A film, you can pause; a ballet, you don't pause it. People come, and they really prepare to watch this story. They buy their tickets consciously, they prepare to go to the theater, they go to a place for this experience. Again, it's very different than watching a film on a streaming platform at home. By definition, live performance is alive and it's in person.

FT: In the three years that you have been in the light, do you feel the need to speak out?

PM: Speaking, I do it when I feel like it or when it matters to me. I rarely do it just to "do it". Today, we have plenty of tools that allow it. For example, there are an astronomical number of clichés about dance anchored in the collective unconscious, but which are gradually disappearing. And this happens without necessarily saying words, by showing rehearsals on Instagram, doing "lives" on Facebook, going on "Tiktok". My speaking is quite silent, for my voice in any case, because I speak little, I do a job where we don't speak by definition. So most of the time, when I express myself, it is through movement.

FT: What is your memory of a play or show that you gave and which is part of true contemporaneity?

PM: There are many great classical ballets, but one that comes to mind is Mayerling. A period ballet telling the story of Prince Rudolph, from the beginning of his life to his suicide. Except that it is a ballet, so yes, with period sets, period dresses, costumes, music... But it is a role where I found myself on stage drinking, taking drugs, trying to kill my father, raping women, being sick with STDs, my body completely ravaged... I find that it is something that is quite modern, even if it was written a long time ago. Modernity can be found more or less wherever you want.

FT: You represent the next generation for many young people who come to see your ballets, and you even embody a generation. Among the major social debates, which ones animate you?

PM: So, very roughly speaking, my mission as a dancer is a mission of entertainment. People come to the show to relax, to escape, to be told a story. And I love that. Because today, if we were really in a world without culture, if we took away culture, all the culture and beauty in the world, I think the situation would be much worse. From the moment we keep a little culture, we keep a little beauty and humanity, it is so important. Otherwise we would all beat each other up and it would become the jungle again and the law of the strongest.

FT: In the current quiet period, do you feel you have a role to play?

PM: Yes and no, maybe a role in this big chain, to keep a little bit of the dream, to keep a little bit of beauty and to allow people to escape. It remains minimal, but I think that if everyone got involved, even just a little bit, we would be much better off. It may be very idealistic, but I believe in it wholeheartedly.