{"id":32259,"date":"2019-04-01T17:37:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/?p=32259"},"modified":"2026-02-24T12:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:55:10","slug":"muriel-zusperreguy-almost-a-good-deed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/muriel-zusperreguy-almost-a-good-deed\/","title":{"rendered":"MURIEL ZUSPERREGUY: ALMOST A GOOD DEED"},"content":{"rendered":"

To her mind, that\u2019s what dancing is \u2013 making the audience dream and evade from everyday problems. The beautiful First Soloist at the Paris Opera Ballet, after all, has always wanted to be a ballerina to go on stage and tell stories. Here she explains what it\u2019s like to face internal competitions and reverting to who she is when dancing, and why she always tries to be optimistic.<\/strong>
\nInterview by Alessandro Bizzotto<\/p>\n

As I am waiting for her at the Palais Garnier in a cloudy early Parisian afternoon, I try to focus on the best memories I have of watching Muriel Zusperreguy dancing. I find out they are quite a lot \u2013 from Olga in \u201cOnegin\u201d last season, when I saw her in that role for the second time, to the lead in Kyli\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cBella Figura\u201d. And then there are the great classics, such as Kitri in \u201cDon Quixote\u201d and Lise in Ashton\u2019s \u201cLa Fille Mal Gard\u00e9e\u201d. It has always been a joy to watch her performing, due to a complex mix of factors \u2013 her French technique, of course, her keen musicality, her radiant beauty and a particular sensibility that combines creative desire and eagerness to tell the truth.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Muriel Zusperreguy as Lescaut’s mistress in ‘Manon’ \u00a9 ONP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As she reaches me, Muriel Zusperreguy doesn\u2019t look tired nor stressed although she is wearing dance clothes and it is easy to guess she is just out of a rehearsal. \u201cIt’s been quite a while\u201d she says, \u201chow are you?\u201d and she smiles lightly as she takes a seat.<\/p>\n

She has been a First Soloist, or \u201cPremi\u00e8re danseuse\u201d as the French would say, at the Paris Opera Ballet since the beginning of 2008. And she is one of the most interesting female dancers of the French company, someone who has always shown uncommon talent dancing ballets by Robbins, Balanchine, Forsythe, Mats Ek, Pina Bausch and of course Kyli\u00e1n, just to mention a few.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Muriel Zusperreguy in Don Quixote \u00a9Julien Benhamou<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As one of my favourite ballerinas composedly sits down, a performance of \u201cLa Source\u201d suddenly comes to my mind. It was some seasons ago, Muriel was dancing Na\u00efla, the title role, and, when her Act 2 variation started, it seemed as if the entire Palais Garnier stopped breathing just to watch. That’s it, I think \u2013 beneath her fresh, lively attitude lies the finest all-round entertainer, a delicate and gorgeous \u201cb\u00eate\u00a0de sc\u00e8ne\u201d.<\/p>\n

How old were you when you left the Basque Country to come to Paris?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was ten. At that time every student had to attend a six-month stage before having the chance to take part in the competition to be admitted to the Paris Opera Ballet School.<\/p>\n

Was it tough?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Very. So tough! I was just a little girl. My family was far away from me, my little brother was far away as well, I lived in a boarding-school \u2013 my life was turned upside down. I cried a lot during the first months, my mother came to Paris to be with me every weekend\u2026 and there was no TGV, so she used to get the overnight train.<\/p>\n

Can you remember your first day as a member of the corps de ballet here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I do. I felt relief \u2013 I was not a student anymore, at last I was a professional dancer and I had the chance to go on stage and dance. I felt free. The training was over, and I could wear beautiful costumes and do the job I wanted to do \u2013 my life as a dancer was beginning. I felt so motivated!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once you told me that, the year you got promoted to First Soloist, you decided that would be the last internal competition you wanted to take part in, whatever the result.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did, that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Muriel Zusperreguy in ‘Orph\u00e9e et Euridice’ with St\u00e9phane Bullion \u00a9 Agathe Poupeney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was honestly tired of them. Preparing two variations for those competitions is not easy, the atmosphere is always very tense, all the dancers are so stressed. After getting promoted to Sujet [Soloist<\/em>, ed], I tried several annual competitions and I was always well placed but\u2026<\/p>\n

Want to read the whole interview? If you wish to subscribe to our magazine please check our <\/em>Subscriptions shop<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 or single issue <\/em>(print or digital)<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To her mind, that\u2019s what dancing is \u2013 making the audience dream and evade from everyday problems. The beautiful First Soloist at the Paris Opera Ballet, after all, has always wanted to be a ballerina to go on stage and tell stories. Here she explains what it\u2019s like to face internal competitions and reverting to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3014,"featured_media":32260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive","category-people-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3014"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32265,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259\/revisions\/32265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danceforyou-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}