He entered the company’s school at age 10, joined the company at 16 and was an étoile at 21. He became one of the company’s most popular stars, but fell out with his tempestuous boss, Rudolf Nureyev, and left in 1985. In 1990, aged 30, he became Nureyev’s successor; he added contemporary works to the repertoire and invited leading contemporary dance companies (e.g., Graham, Ailey, Bausch, de Keersmaeker) onto the Opéra’s august stage. But, by 1997, he was again clashing with his bosses, and he was fired for, in his words, “insubordination and indiscipline.” (He had accepted an invitation to sit on the jury at Cannes without the bosses’ permission.) In 2017, he and collaborator Leïla Da Rocha founded a new company and school, White Eagle Dance, in Bordeaux; at the time, he made waves by announcing that “As far as I’m concerned, homosexuality was an error” and he had found love with Da Rocha. – Gramilano (Milan)