Brazilian dancer signs lifetime contract with Paris Opera
Dancer Marcos Sousa, 18, is the first Brazilian to be awarded a lifetime contract with the corps de ballet of the prestigious Paris National Opera, one of the world’s most renowned ballet companies. The news was announced on June 28, and Sousa is now preparing to return to the French capital to begin a new chapter in his successful career.
Before this achievement, however, he faced many challenges—always certain that ballet was essential to his life and that it would be his path to winning over audiences beyond Brazil. Perseverance was something the young man from Maranhão state never lacked.
As a boy growing up in the municipality of Grajaú, Marcos Souza was already showing signs of what his future would hold: he loved performing the quadrille, a traditional folk dance featured in Brazil’s June festivals.
Discovered by Timóteo Cortez, the city’s square dance choreographer, he was invited to perform at a local dance academy when he was 10. He stopped dancing for a year, but at 12, he received another invitation to return and take classes at the academy, with the opportunity to participate in a pre-selection at the Bolshoi Theater School in São Luís, Brazil, in 2019.
“I went to São Luís for the pre-selection and made it to the final selection in Joinville [in the state of Santa Catarina]. In October 2019, I auditioned, passed, and everything went well,” he told Agência Brasil.
In 2020, he began studying at the Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil. During his first year, he was alone because his mother couldn’t go with him. It was the first time he had been away from his family.
“Living away from my family, surrounded by new and different people, and being so far from home was really difficult for me,” he said.
Paris
In September 2023, Sousa fulfilled a big dream: studying at the École de Danse de l’Opéra National de Paris, a school affiliated with the prestigious Paris National Opera, which, along with the Bolshoi Theatre School, ranks at the top of his personal list as the best.
The dancer realized he was ready and eager to explore new horizons. He decided to send a “really bold” email because, in his view, that is not the usual way to do it.
In 2022, he sent a message in English to the director of the École de Danse de l’Opéra National de Paris, asking if he could audition. Even without receiving a response, he did not lose hope and sent another email—this time in French—in February 2023, again inquiring about the possibility of auditioning and expressing his interest in the school he had dreamed of. He finally received a reply, with a request from the French teachers to send a video demonstrating a series of exercises for his evaluation.
“I received the reply on my birthday, April 5, 2023, informing me that I would have an audition in Paris,” he said excitedly.
He went to the French capital for the audition, accompanied by Germana Saraiva, the first teacher he had at the Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil.
“I invited her because she’s someone I trust a lot. She was my first teacher at the Bolshoi Theater and someone with whom I have a very strong bond. We stayed in Paris for five days, I auditioned, and everything went well,” he said.
Training
The technical training, based on Russian methodology and completed over five years at the Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil, enabled him to demonstrate his classical ballet skills to the French school.
“I thought I wouldn’t pass the audition because my class hadn’t gone well, I had a sprained foot, and I had taken medication to alleviate the pain. Then they told me I would start in September, in the third division,” he noted, explaining that under the school’s system, young dancers begin in the sixth division and progress to the first, where the older dancers study.
Sousa’s talent helped him shorten the course duration from three to two years.
“In the middle of the school year, the school director and my teacher at the time told me that I had skipped a grade because they were very pleased with my progress,” he said.
In the 2024/2025 season, his final year at the school, Sousa faced challenges again. In November 2024, he suffered a ligament injury in his left ankle, which forced him to stop dancing for two months.
Apprehensive but determined, and eager to make up for lost time, he returned to dancing at the end of January 2025.
Employment
At 18 and finishing his studies at the École de Paris, he became concerned about finding a job to support himself in the city.
“The school advises us to audition at other schools, and I did so with my friends. We went to Amsterdam; I even went to Moscow, to the Bolshoi Theater. Then came the competition for admission to the corps de ballet of the Paris National Opera Ballet, which took place on June 28, 2025,” he added.
For the performance, a professor from the Paris National Opera gives the applicant a 45-minute class to perform exercises without using the barre—focusing on center work and leaps—as well as a variation, which is a solo section of a ballet. In his case, it was from Sleeping Beauty, a version by the famous and renowned Russian dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev.
Sousa said emotionally that, in the end, the results are displayed on a sheet of paper taped to the wall with the list of those who passed.
“This year, three boys passed, me and two others, and four girls from my class. It was incredibly emotional, and I was very anxious,” he recalled.
“I still can’t believe I’m the first Brazilian male to have a lifetime contract with the Paris National Opera Ballet. A carousel is spinning in my head,” he revealed.
The Paris National Opera company’s next season begins on August 26, and Sousa is scheduled to return on August 20 to prepare for his work at his dream place. The season’s opening ballet will be Giselle, but the dancer does not yet know which role he will play.
“I really like the ballet Giselle, but I’ve never danced it in my life. I’ve always watched it. It’s going to be a great experience,” he says.
