Paris Opera School Summer Intensive 🏛️🩰

So after my teachers mentioned the Paris Opera school (yes, THE Paris Opera — long-time readers know the saga), mommy did some research. Mommy LOVES doing research. She is a crazy researcher — if you have seen my Competition Guide, you know the level we are dealing with. 🔍 And she came back with a genius plan: “maybe we can try the summer intensive, so you can see what it is like.” ✅

For the Paris Opera, you have to send an AUDITION VIDEO!!! 🎥 So we researched what they wanted, and I asked Maya for help — my friend-slash-sometime coach. Maya has been a professional dancer for like two years now, so basically she knows EVERYTHING. 🌟 We did a practice run so I would remember everything on the day, and then — hold on to your bun — we RENTED A STUDIO to film it. Rented. A. Studio. My first movie. So cool. I would like to thank the Academy. 🎬 (More about how to make an audition video in a tuto — I promise I’ll do one!)

Then I also needed a biography. So I made my CV on Canva — it’s pretty easy, you choose a template and you can edit it the way you want. We learnt about it at school in China. So I made a pink CV, of course 💗, with my age, and the schools where I did ballet and for how many hours a week. A CV at ten. Main character energy, in document form. 📄

Then mommy filled the application online, and that was it. Results in January. Mommy said I should not get my hopes up. Girlies… my hopes were up. They live up there. 🎈

End of January: THE EMAIL. I was IN!!! IN!!! No waiting list. IN. 🎉 And — but more on that later — a week after, I got ANOTHER email. From the ROYAL BALLET. Also IN. Two yeses in one winter. Bombastic double IN. What the heckyyyy. 😮

Small problem: it’s a bit expensive, and two intensives is two times a bit expensive. So mommy said we needed to think about whether I could do both. So I did what any serious businesswoman would do: I called grandpa, told him everything, and secured some sponsor money. 💰 Thank you grandpa — best sponsor ever, zero contract negotiations, payment in hugs and bragging rights accepted. We confirmed my seat at the Paris Opera for the summer.

The arrival. Sunday evening, mommy dropped me off. I got my own badge with my picture and my category on it — I look SO cute on it (coz I am, you know 😌). My room had its own toilet AND shower, AND a window overlooking the parc AND a bed AND my own wardrobe AND a desk. And a roommate who hadn’t arrived yet. Mommy, who went to boarding school when she was really young, confirmed the room was top notch. Then, sadly, I had to say goodbye to my sweet mommy 😢. It was almost dinner time, so I went for dinner, then I wrote my diary like the professional documentarist I am. I was so excited I was not able to sleep for a loooong time. First night at boarding school: survived. 🌛

The classes. I loved them. All of them.

The rhythm: in the morning we typically had two classes, starting at 9:30; then a lunch break around 12:45, and two more classes in the afternoon. Classes usually finished at 5:30pm. ⏰ The week went: classique (a LOT, exactly how I like it), folklore, mime — MIME! I now officially speak it — expression musicale, histoire de la danse (finally, a school with taste 📚), barre à terre, and at the very end of the week, the DÉMONSTRATION for the parents. A real show at the end of a real week. And hold your bun: they have a theatre IN THE SCHOOL. Take notes, France. 🩰

The level. Context: I was 10. My sweet sweet little mommy was worried the level would be a bit challenging for me. It was not. Nothing I had not already learned. I was slaying. I repeat, for the people in the back: I was slaying. 💅

The people. In my level — the youngest one — it was mostly girls (and a couple boys) from France, Belgium and Switzerland, plus a couple of girls from China. 🇫🇷🇧🇪🇨🇭🇨🇳 Day one I already had friends — Louise and Salomé. I had very very high hopes on my roommate, but we did not really click — mostly because she listened to podcasts ALL NIGHT. And nobody did anything about it. I get that she missed her home. But have some respect (and some sleep).

Mommy and Maya had told me I had to practice and be able to do my bun by myself before the intensive. It was not easy but I can proudly say that I mastered the Art of the Bun before the summer. My roommate did not, so I stepped in and helped her most mornings. I am, after all, internationally certified in bun emergencies. 🥢💞 One evening we saw a teenage girl sitting alone at dinner, so we all went to sit with her — she was super nice, and she gave me her instagram and she was like, FAMOUS. Dinner was fun after that. Not everyone was living their best life: one girl didn’t like the food and missed her mommy too much. Boarding school is not for everyone. 💝

The internat. Now, the honest part: outside the classes, there was not much organised for the boarders. In my classes, many people did not board so they came in in the morning for the first class, and left after the last class in the afternoon. The internat felt a bit cold — the time was LOOONG between the end of classes and dinner, and the evenings were mostly… waiting. Several girls in my class actually left the internat mid-week. 🥲 We got lucky, though: one of the evenings, we got to go and watch a rehearsal of the Junior Ballet of the Paris Opera. Real dancers, a real studio, a real run-through — THAT is the kind of evening a boarder dreams of. More of that, please. But some board games with the other girls, art project or movie night would have been nice. ✨

The verdict, one summer later. The room: really good. The food: surprisingly super yummy. Nothing like La Cantine at my french school — I know, low bar, but they cleared it by a kilometre. 🍽️ The classes: loved them.

What I would change: take the phones away at night (like they do at the Royal Ballet btw — more on that in the next post), and having some real evening activities for the younger boarder would change everything. ⏳

Saturday: démonstration, mommy in the audience, départ. And two days later… London. Next entry: the Royal Ballet. Spoiler: there is a pig involved. 🐷