The Paris Opera Ballet superstar just may be what the dance world has been searching for: a new icon worthy of the Nureyev comparisons.
By Richard Pérez-Feria | Photography by Mike Ruiz

When I first moved to New York City—16 hours after graduating from Tulane University—to begin my first day at Esquire, I bought season tickets to the New York City Ballet, the famous dance company that exclusively performed George Balanchine choreographed works. I could barely afford to eat, but I needed to feed my soul. Back then, NYCB principal dancer Robert La Fosse was the big star. In many ways, the dance world has been looking for its next global icon ever since. And here he is.

The very existence of Germain Louvet is nearly impossible to comprehend. Achieving the highest rank possible in Paris Opera Ballet, danseur étoile, at the staggering young age of 23—the announcement was made in Paris moments after his triumphant performance as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake—the comparisons to the greatest male ballet dancer the world has ever known, Rudolf Nureyev, started almost immediately. How could they not? Nureyev, who himself led the Paris Opera Ballet to impossible heights as its director from 1983 to 1989, was everything Louvet himself exudes.

“I think it’s a lot more than just how good a dancer Nureyev was, even though that was very important: it was his energy, his power, his technique as a ballet dancer,” Louvet says. “I think it’s how Nureyev confounded the expectations of what’s a male ballet dancer. Male dancers were less important than the ballerina, they were more partners, porteurs for women on stage. So, there was [Vaslav] Nijinsky at the beginning of the 20th century and after that we had to wait until Nureyev for a new generation of powerful, creative, male ballet dancers.”

And now there’s Germain Louvet.

Louvet was born in May 1993 (four months after Nureyev died unexpectedly at 54) in Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy. He started dancing at four, learning classic dance at the regional conservatory of Chalon-sur-Saône and by 12 he was accepted at the ballet dance school of L'Opéra de Paris. He then got selected through a classical dance contest within the prestigious ballet of the Paris Opera securing the position as a quadrille. In 2013, Louvet was awarded with the prix carpeaux of dance, that same year he reached the position of coryphee only to pass on position of sujet in 2014 and finally becoming a premier danseur in 2016.

Louvet has of course danced some of the greatest roles of the classic repertoire such as Prince Drosselmeyer in Nureyev’s Nutcracker; Prince Albrecht in Giselle by Adolphe Adam; Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty by Marius Petipa; Romeo in Romeo and Juliet by Nureyev and Sonatine by George Balanchine.

And, as if all of that wasn’t enough, he’s also a successful—if not exactly a fulltime—model represented by prestigious management firm, ZZO TALENTS talents doesn’t seem to be part of the name in Paris.

It’s not every day we have the privilege of catching up with the biggest talent on the planet in any field, but here we are. Let’s get to know this generation’s Nureyev, the dynamic Germain Louvet.

When you hear your self being compared to Rudolf Nureyev, inarguably the greatest male ballet dancer ever, how do you do process that incredible flattery?
So, after being very flattered and honored by this kind of comparison, I think that actually the comparison is very difficult and is also an ideal for me because Rudolf Nureyev passed away a few months before my birth actually, in 1993, so we are in very different times even though I feel linked to his passion and his thirst of life and of movement... and of freedom, of course!

What do you believe separates you from so many other great dancers?
I don’t think I can say that we can compare each other between dancers like we can do with maybe sports people, because I think it’s not about our differences in the body or in the technique, but I think we all have something to say about our art, and something to say about the movement, and simply about humanity, and that’s not something that we can compare to each other, but more just that our particularities can express themselves through our own singularities. So I would not be able to really say what separates me or what I share with others. Actually, I could say that we share a lot together, the dancers, more than what separates us from each other.

Do you have a daily affirmation or phrase that motivates you regularly? Mine is, “it’s only a movie” as I try not to take everything so seriously.
A daily affirmation that I try to use a lot in my work and in dance is, “it’s only dance.” I’m not saving lives, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a surgeon, I’m not in the army, thank god, and I’m not a fireman– I’m not here to save people, I’m just here to dance and the only thing that I could say that I would try to save is the souls of the people who are looking at me *laughs*.

What performance did you see in person that convinced you that, yes, I want to be a dancer?
I would not say that I saw one performance which made me want to be a professional dancer. I think it’s my experience of being on stage which made me believe that this is a place where I wanted to experience more, and where I wanted to express myself and connect with an audience and connect with people around me. Especially to connect with myself.

Outside of dance—and I realize so much of your life is about dance—what are you like? Are you gregarious? Laid back? Restless? Romantic?
I would say out of dance I’m someone very curious about everything and in a way I think I’m gregarious and laid back, because I love spending time with my friends, with people that I meet, and to discuss the passions of others– the jobs of other people, to understand society and to understand everyone’s own particularities. So, yeah, I think I’m someone very joyful. I love the collective, and I would also say that I’m quite spontaneous– I’m someone who likes to love and spend time spontaneously with people, dancing to pop music or sharing a meal together, and partying also! But also I think sometimes I’m quite a dreamer, like someone who lets his spirit just spread and just drift away.

What’s something that only your close friends know that may surprise your millions of fans?
I’m not sure about millions of fans, but thank you so much, again, I’m very flattered, but I wouldn’t say that we can count my fans by millions. Something that my close friends know and my fans would be surprised of would be that I’m actually quite a farmer boy, because I grew up in the countryside and a part of my family works in agriculture. For example, one of my uncles and cousins has a farm with cows, in a place in France where we do cheese, famous French cheese, and I’m very good with chickens! I’m very good at catching chickens and making them sleep.

Are the audiences vastly different in Paris instead of, say, London, Moscow or New York City?
Yes, the audiences are very different between different cities, such as Paris or New York, or even Moscow, and especially with Latin America, like Buenos Aires or Madrid– which is not in Latin America, sorry, but I mean in the Hispanic countries... and also in Italy! I think in each country the culture of ballet is different. For example, in Tokyo the audience is a very big fan of ballet, but also very respectful, so there is no noise during the performance and they applaud in very specific moments where they feel it’s okay to applaud. Whereas, for example, in Argentina or Italy, they are also very big fans of ballet, but they express more– it’s an art more popular, also a little bit in Russia. So, people are expressing their joy, for example, at the beginning of each soloist's entrance. In a place like Paris it’s a bit more, not difficult, but a bit more cold. The audience can be warm when they love the people they see or the performance they see, but they can also be very distant and very discreet.

When you’re performing a seminal role, such as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, are you always “present” during the performance, or since you’ve rehearsed it so many times, you sort of shut off your conscious brain and go on auto-pilot, as if you’re still in rehearsal?
When I do big ballet roles that I did a lot I’m never in auto-pilot. The only thing that I do, the only state of mind I have been in when I did a role a lot, is that I don’t have the stress of, will I be able to do it, because I know I did it before so I know that I will do it again. So I put my stress in auto-pilot, but not my consciousness. Every time, every presentation is a journey, is an adventure, and I try to embrace the fact that each time it’s a different adventure with some good things and some bad things and some discoveries and some moments that I know very well and I’m happy to live again.

Who would be a dream dance partner? How about a world-famous celebrity non-dance partner?
Who would be my dream dance partner? In the non-dance field, in the world-famous? I would say, first rank, Beyoncé, because she’s just killing it every time she’s dancing on stage, but also I think I would be a little bit afraid that she’s taking all the lights. In the most highest way, I would say that the French actress Léa Seydoux– she has an intensity, she plays so subtly and so cleverly with her acting skills, that I think I would love to share a role with her. That would be really intense and really interesting for me. Also, I would love to have as a dream partner Austin Butler, because I find him very, very, very sexy.

Is there anything left to accomplish? How do you motivate yourself to push harder when you’ve already accomplished so much?
Of course, there are a lot of things to accomplish. I think it’s a never ending story. It’s every role and every new meeting with a new choreographer, every new piece, every moment of stage and of travel in another country is left to accomplish. I think that’s what motivates me, is to find new things. For example, today I worked on Swan Lake and it’s the eighth time that I’m doing it already. I danced it in Tokyo, in Paris, in Moscow, in Saint Petersburg, in Rome, so now it’s again in Paris, in my opera, and still I discover new things in my solos and with the relationship I have with my partner during the second act duet. I think it’s always the daily routine of a ballet dancer to accomplish new things.

Lastly, what’s more difficult: dancing a Balanchine solo or modeling for a magazine cover?
The question is not what’s more difficult, but maybe just what’s more fun, and I would say that dancing a Balanchine solo is very, very, very fun, because he had a very beautiful and very cool approach of being swag and being jazzy and being cool, as I said, but I would say doing modeling for a magazine cover is maybe the coolest.

CREW CREDITS:
Talent: Germain Louvet
PhotoBook Editor-In-Chief: Alison Hernon
PhotoBook Creative Director + Photographer + Producer + Casting: Mike Ruiz
Interview by Richard Pérez-Feria
Hair: Claudio Belizario
Makeup: Nisha Gulati
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine

Germain Louvet Takes A Bow