Mathieu
Ganio

Benois de la Danse laureate

Born in 1984 in Marseilles, Mathieu Ganio began his dance studies in his native town, at the age of 7. From 1992 to 1999, he continued his schooling at the National Superior Ballet School of Marseilles where he, most notably, worked on a solo in 1995 with Roland Petit for the annual school performance, and proceeded to take part in The Nutcracker at the Marseilles Opera House.

In 1999, he joined the Paris Opera Ballet School — immediately placed in the second group — and danced his first solos during the annual performances: in 2000 in Yondering (John Neumeier), and in 2001 in Coppelia, a ballet restaged by Pierre Lacotte, in which he danced the role of Frantz.

After joining the Corps de Ballet at the National Paris Opera in September 2001, he then takes part in diverse productions of the repertoire: Notre-Dame de Paris and Clavigo (Roland Petit), Coppelia (Patrice Bart), La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Swan Lake (Rudolph Nureyev), Giselle, Sylvia (John Neumeier), and Balanchine's Jewels/Diamonds and Symphony in C (1st movement)… “Coryphee” in 2002, Mathieu Ganio is promoted to “Sujet” on the 23rd December 2003, at the end of the annual Ballet Competition of the National Paris Opera.

From January 2004, he dances the role of Kourbski in Yuri Grigorovitch's Ivan the Terrible on the stage of the Opera Bastille. At the end of the performance of Don Quixote (the part of Basilio) — 20th May 2004) — he is named Danseur Etoile at the age of 20. He has added the roles of James in La Sylphide (Pierre Lacotte), Etudes (Harold Lander), and the role of Prince Desire in Sleeping Beauty (Rudolph Nureyev) to his repertoire.

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