Valentine Colasante and Paul Marque in Don Quixote pas de deux

Valentine Colasante and Paul Marque in Don Quixote pas de deux, music by Ludwig Minkus, choreography by Marius Petipa. Shot on 28 and 29.1.2023 in Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome. Les Etoiles Gala 2023, production by Daniele Cipriani Entertainment.

Valentine Colasante is a French ballet dancer. She is an étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet. Colasante was born in Paris. She entered the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1998 and entered the Paris Opera Ballet in 2006, at the age of 17. Colasante was promoted to Coryphée in 2010 and sujet the following year. She was named Première danseuse in 2013.

Paul Marque is a French ballet dancer. In December 2020, he was named an étoile, the highest rank of the Paris Opera Ballet. Paul Marque was born in Dax, Landes and began dancing at the age of four. At the age of seven, he discovered ballet when he began attending Nicole Cavallin’s school of dance in Biarritz. In January 2008, at the age of ten, he entered the Paris Opera Ballet School before graduating to the Paris Opera Ballet. He was promoted to the rank of coryphée, in 2016. He won the gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition in 2016. In 2017, Marque was promoted to the rank of sujet. He also won the Prix de l’Association pour le rayonnement de l’Opéra national de Paris. Marque was again promoted in 2018 to the rank of premier danseur. On December 13, 2020, at 23 years old, Marque was promoted to the highest rank of étoile.

Photos by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of Daniele Cipriani Entertainment, special thanks to Mrs. Simonetta Allder.