PARIS — “It’s been a very festive evening,” Lupita Nyong’o said on Tuesday at the Paris Opera Ballet Fundraiser Gala.
Earlier in the day, the Academy Award-winning actress was revealed as Chanel‘s latest brand ambassador, and she hit the ground running, attending first the French fashion house’s spring fashion show at the Grand Palais, and then the opening of the 2024 ballet season.
The self-avowed ballet fan said there had been “some exquisite dancing” throughout the evening. “Ballet was mixed with modern dance, there were elements of R&B,” she continued. “To me, it was really beautiful.”
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Having recently taken ballet classes herself, she lauded the athleticism of the dancers. “They were superhuman up there and with so much control and ease [that] it just flowed,” she said. “Ballet is best when you cannot tell what great effort they’re putting in.”
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Guests including Whitney Peak, Charlotte Casiraghi, Vanessa Paradis and Nico Parker took their seats under the Marc Chagall-painted ceiling of the auditorium.
“It was either the Paris Opera or Disneyland tonight,” joked architect and furniture designer Harry Nuriev, referring to French brand Coperni’s show at Disneyland Paris on the final day of Paris Fashion Week.
The annual gala is organized by the Paris Opera’s in-house fundraising arm Arop, with all proceeds from private and corporate donors benefiting the activities of the opera house.
The traditional procession of the ballet corps, from youngest students to prima ballerinas and étoile dancers, was followed by “Word For Word,” a 12-minute piece created for the Paris Opera by Juilliard School graduate My’Kal Stromile.
At the first intermission, the costumes of the performance fueled conversations, especially the high-collar vests worn by dancers Guillaume Diop, Jack Gasztowtt and Rubens Simon.
Cut from silk discreetly embossed with camellias, double-Cs and chains with trompe-l’oeil pockets outlined on them, they were created by Chanel, a key partner of the annual fundraiser alongside Rolex. The female performers’ tutus were embroidered by Lesage, which celebrates its centenary this year.
Another star of the evening was choreographer William Forsythe, who made the briefest of appearances. “I better get backstage,” he quipped, as he nipped nimbly through the delighted crowd.
With good reason: the next two pieces on stage were “Rearray,” for which he wrote the choreography, scenography and also designed the costumes, and “Blake Works I,” a 2016 work choreographed to seven songs by British musician James Blake.
After the final ballet, “Impasse” by Johan Iger to music by Ibrahim Maalouf and Amos Ben-Tal, guests headed to the Grand Foyer for a late-night supper.
“You know which performance was the best, right?” asked Lebanese architect Aline Asmar d’Amman. “It was the last one, because it has Lebanese music.”