Laurent Hilaire

Director of the Bayerisches Staatsballett

In 1979, graduated from the school of the Paris Opera, Laurent Hilaire joined to Paris Opera Ballet. In 1985, he is appointed as an “Etoile” by Rudolf Noureev after a performance of Swan Lake. His repertoire included the leading roles in ballets by Pierre Lacotte, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Serge Lifar, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Fokine, Kenneth MacMillan, Roland Petit, Maurice Bejart, Merce Cunningham, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Angelin Preljocaj, among others.

He was a guest soloist with the Royal Ballet in London, Milan's La Scala, American ballet theater, the Australian Ballet, Ballet of the Berlin Staatsoper. His permanent partners were a.o. Sylvie Guillem, Isabelle Guérin, Elisabeth Platel, Altinai Assylmouratova, Darcey Bussel, Alessandra Ferri and Svetlana Zakharova.

Since 2005 he held the position as Ballet Master at the Paris Opera Ballet. He worked on ballets by Jerome Robbins, Pierre Lacotte, Rudolf Nureyev, Serge Lifar, George Balanchine, Maurice Bejart, Angelin Preljoicaj, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Alexei Ratmansky, among others.

In 2011 he was appointed as “Maître de ballet associé à la direction de la danse”. Then, he worked closely with Brigitte Lefèvre, artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet. In this position he took part in the creative planning of the ballet repertoire and was responsible for the entire production process of the Paris Opera Ballet.

As a ballet master he worked also with the National Ballet of Canada, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Royal Swedish Ballet, La Scala di Milano, Shanghai Ballet Company etc.

From 2017 to 2022 he was appointed as the artistic director of the Stanislavsky Ballet. Under his direction ballets by Alexander Ekman, Serge Lifar, William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Jacques Garnier, Marco Goecke, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, Trisha Brown, Angelin Preljocaj ,Sharon Eyal, Andrei Kaidanovsky, Max Sevaguin, Hofesh Schechter entered the repertoire of the Stanislavsky Theatre.

In 2018 and 2019 the Stanislavsky Ballet received the “Golden Mask” award respectively as the best classical ballet and best contemporary ballet of the year in Russia. In February 2022, he resigned as director Artistic of the Stanislavsky Ballet.
Further awards include:  Benois de la Danse (2004, 2007), Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (2004),  Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (2007), Médaille de la Renaissance française (2019).  

In May 2022 Laurent Hilaire was announced as Director of the Bayerisches Staatsballett.