[11] The Paris Opera Ballet had its origins in the earlier dance institutions, traditions and practices of the court of Louis XIV.

[10][14] Although the Académie Royale de Danse and the Opera were closely connected, the two institutions remained separate, and the former disappeared with the fall of the monarchy in 1792.

[15] On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV granted a privilege to the poet Pierre Perrin giving him a monopoly to form a separate academy for the performance of opera in French.

[18] This work consisted primarily of excerpts from Lully's prior court ballets connected with new entrées choreographed by des Brosses.

Lully and Quinault continued to collaborate on a series of successful productions, in the process creating a new genre of French opera in which dance interludes played an important part in the musical drama.

It was he, and not des Brosses or Beauchamps, whom Lully engaged for the 'ballets ordinaires', who composed the ballets of the infernal scenes of Psyché and Alceste.

This last was composed solely of pantomimic gestures by men seized with cold, and he did not introduce a single usual dance step into it.

[24] In 1820, Pierre Gardel was succeeded as ballet master by Jean-Louis Aumer, who was however highly criticized for using too much mime and failing to use choreography which furthered plot or character.

[25] During his three decades as director of the Paris Opéra Ballet, Lifar led the company through the turbulent times of World War II and the German occupation of France.

Lifar brought the Paris Opéra Ballet to America and performed to full houses at the New York City Center.

[26] In 1983, Rudolf Nureyev was appointed director of the Paris Opera Ballet, where, as well as directing, he continued to dance and to promote younger dancers.

[26] Brigitte Lefèvre, director from 1995 to 2014, with Patrice Bart as maitre de ballet from 1990 to 2011, succeeded to maintain the high standard that Nureyev has set.

Brigitte Lefèvre invited some of the most preeminent choreographers, such as William Forsythe, Angelin Preljocaj, Saburo Teshigawara, and John Neumeier.

[30] There were turbulent times for the company with Benjamin Millepied, director of the Paris Opera Ballet from November 2014 until he quit on 15 July 2016.

[34] The other stumbling block was that Millepied had broken the hierarchy of the "Danseurs Étoiles" dancing the leading roles, as he had chosen for the cast of his first contemporary ballet creation "Clear, Loud, Bright, Forward" (the first one in his time as director) out of the 154 danseurs a "dream team" of 16 dancers which he considered to be the fittest to put to practice his ideas and visions (on the programming, the dream team was named "United visual artists").

[35][36][37] Karl Paquette, principal dancer, said in an interview that he had never felt as bad in his 30 years at the Paris Opera Ballet as he had the past 6 months.

Dupont was the inspiration behind the Cédric Klapisch film about the star,[39] considered the grande dame of the Paris Opera Ballet.

[42] To become a regular member of the Paris Opera Ballet as "Quadrille" (fifth and lowest rank in the hierarchy), you have to pass the annual competitive examination in November.

Laura Hecquet and Mathilde Froustey were described in the press as "the lost generation" of dancers working up the ranks who have become soloist (Sujet) but have been unlucky for years as far as climbing up the last step of the career ladder is concerned.

[44][47] The Paris Opera Ballet School has churned out some of the most famous dancers of all time, such as Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire.

After his farewell as a dancer he continued his career in the company attaining in 2011 the second-highest position as "Maitre de ballet associated to the direction".

[50] Nowadays, from 8 a.m. until noon, all pupils attend school classes leading to the obtention of the French baccalauréat (the bac), the general qualification for university entrance in France.