Cultural Voice

On the occasion of the Tercentenary of the École Française de Danse, the Opéra National de Paris and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France are retracing the history of the Ballet de l’Opéra, from Louis XIV to the present day. Concerned with bringing a noble style to the performing arts and laying the foundations for the dancers to turn professional, the king created the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661. In 1669, the king also granted the poet Pierre Perrin the privilege of founding an Académie d’Opéra, which was acquired by Lully in 1672. Thus the Opéra de Paris and its Ballet were created. At the end of his reign in 1713, Louis XIV decided to found a dance school within the Opéra: it was responsible for ensuring the quality of the performers. Initially reserved for adults, the school then opened to children in 1784 and remained faithful thereafter to its vocation of making the repertoire accessible and being open to creativity. The history being recounted here is both that of the

Call  for  entries Deadline 30 June !    The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the International Organization for Migration again invite the world’s youth to submit original and creative videos focusing on PLURAL+ themes: migration, diversity and social inclusion.   Recognizing youth as powerful agents of social change in a world often characterized by intolerance, and cultural and religious divisions, PLURAL+ invites youth to address key challenges related to migrant integration, inclusiveness, identity, diversity, human rights and social cohesiveness, both at local and global levels.  Young people up to 25 years old are invited to submit short videos of five minutes maximum in length.   Michele Klein-Solomon, IOM Permanent Observer to the United Nations, said, “PLURAL+ videos touch very sensitive issues in a very real way.  They look at the realities that people are facing.  We like to see young people expressing their profound ideas in a manner that allo