Charles Jude

Former Principal Dancer of the Opéra de Paris, Charles Jude has been Director of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Bordeaux from 1996 to 2017. After studying at the Conservatoire de Nice under Alexandre Kalioujny, Charles Jude joined the ballet company of the Paris Opera in 1971. Promoted to premier danseur in 1975, he won the Bronze Medal at the Tokyo International Ballet Competition with Florence Clerc. Two years later, he was appointed Principal Dancer. Between 1978 and 1996 he danced many of the great classical roles and some of the emblematic works of the Ballets Russes such as »Le Spectre de la Rose«, »L’Après-midi d’un faune« or »Petrushka«. He has also acquired a large repertoire of the greatest neoclassical and contemporary choreographers, including Balanchine, Robbins, Tudor, Cranko, Béjart, Taylor, Cunningham, Neumeier, Kylian, Tetley, Carlson or Limon. Charles Jude had a special relationship with Rudolf Nureyev and it was from the master himself that he learned his trade, both as dancer and choreographer: He interpreted many of his ballets, which he now preserves and stages as a member of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation. Between 1980 and 1992 he was a regular guest in the »Nureyev and Friends« tours, while also appearing as a guest principal with the Royal Ballet London, Vienna State Ballet, Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala di Milano and the Royal Danish Ballet, in addition to performances in Rome, Naples, Berlin, Stockholm and at the New Yorker Met, among others. A teacher in the Paris Conservatory (CNSM), he also taught alongside Marika Besobrasova at the Académie de Danse Princesse Grace de Monaco. As a choreographer, he was turning his distinctive choreographic style to re-readings of classical ballets such as »The Nutcracker«, »Giselle«, »Coppélia«, »La Belle au Bois Dormant«, »Swan Lake« or »Don Quixote« as well as a new production of »Romeo and Juliet« at the Grand-Théâtre de Bordeaux (2009). Charles Jude won the Nijinski Prize (1976) and the Lifar Prize (1988) and has been appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (1990), Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (1996) and Officier des Arts et des Lettres (2001).

At the Vienna State Opera Charles Jude appeared in 1985 for three performances as Jean de Brienne in Nureyev's »Raymonda«. For the »Nureyev Gala« in June 2022, he returned to this house to stage the Pas de deux from Act 2 of Nureyev's »Cinderella«, in the premiere of which he danced alongside Sylvie Guillem and the choreographer himself in 1986.