Rosella Hightower liked to say of her student Jean-Christophe Maillot, that his life was just a union of opposites. In fact, for the current Choreographer-Director of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, dance combines with theatre, enters the ring under a big top, has evolved into the arena of visual arts, to get fuelled by the most diverse scores and explores different forms of literature... His repertoire has drawn from the world of art in the broadest sense while each ballet is a sketch book, which feeds the following work. Thus over 30 years, Jean-Christophe Maillot has created an ensemble of 60 pieces ranging from great narrative ballets to ones in shorter formats, and where multiple connections reflect a work which forms apart of the history and diversity. Neither classical nor contemporary, not even between the two, Jean-Christophe Maillot refuses to adhere to one style but designs a dance just like a dialogue where the tradition and avant-garde on points are no longer mutually exclusive.

Born in 1960, Jean-Christophe Maillot studied dance and piano at the Conservatoire National de Région de Tours, before joining the Rosella Hightower International School of Dance in Cannes until winning the Prix de Lausanne in 1977. He was then hired by John Neumeier at the Hamburg Ballet, where he danced in principal roles as a soloist for five years until an accident had brought his illustrious dancing career to an abrupt end.

In 1983, he was appointed as choreographer and director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Tours which later became the National Centre of Choreography. He created around 20 ballets for this company and in 1985, founded the Dance Festival, “Le Chorégraphique”. In 1987, he created Le Mandarin Merveilleux for the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, which was a great success. He became the company’s Artistic Advisor for the 1992-1993 season and was then appointed as Director-Choreographer by H.R.H. the Princess of Hanover in September 1993.

His arrival at the Ballets de Monte-Carlo set this company on a new path that quickly developed the level of maturity and excellence, for which this company of 50 dancers has been so renowned. He has created almost 40 ballets for the company, some of which, such as Vers un pays sage (1995), Romeo and Juliet (1996), Cinderella (1999), La Belle (2001), Le Songe (2005), Altro Canto (2006), Faust (2007), LAC (2011), CHORE (2013) and Casse-Noisette Compagnie (2013) have forged the reputation of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo across the world. Several of his works are now included in the repertoires of major international ballet companies, such as the Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Korean National Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre and the Béjart Ballet Lausanne. In 2014, he created La Mégère Apprivoisée for the Ballet of Bolshoi Theatre.

Also becoming aware of the work of other artists, Jean-Christophe Maillot is known for his spirit of openness and his commitment to invite choreographers with a different style to create for the company. In 2000, this same desire to present the choreographic art in its all forms led him to create the Monaco Dance Forum, an international showcase for dance which presents an eclectic proliferation of shows, exhibitions, workshops and conferences.

In 2007, he produced his first stage opera, Faust for the Hessisches Staatstheater and in 2009 Norma for the Monte-Carlo Opera. In 2007, he created his first choreographic film Cinderella then Le Songe in 2008. In 2009, he developed the content and coordinated the Centenary of the Ballets Russes in Monaco, which would see over 50 companies and choreographers pass through the Principality in one year, providing entertainment for 60,000 audience members. In 2011, dance in Monaco underwent a major and historical change. Under the presidency of H.R.H. the Princess of Hanover, the Ballets de Monte-Carlo now incorporates the Ballets de Monte-Carlo Company, the Monaco Dance Forum and the Princess Grace Academy into a single organisation. Jean-Christophe Maillot was appointed as the head of this organisation which unites the excellence of an international company, the benefits of a multi-format festival and the potential of a high-level school.

Jean-Christophe Maillot is Commander in the Ordre du Mérite Culturel of the Principality of Monaco, Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres and Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur in France. On 17th November 2005, he was appointed as Chevalier of the Ordre de Saint Charles by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. In 2008, in Moscow, he received the Prix Benois de la Danse for Best Choreographer (Faust) and the "Premio Dansa Valencia 2010". In 2015, he won with La Mégère Apprivoisée three Golden Mask including best performance.

Ernest Pignon-Ernest was born in Nice in 1942. Since 1966, he has made the street into both the setting and subject for his ephemeral works of art, which echoes the historical and current events occurring there. Many of his artistic experiences had been preceded by his search for an outdoor space.

“Places are my essential materials, I try to understand them, to grasp both everything that can be seen there like the space, light and colours and everything that can no longer be seen, such as history and buried memories. From that, I develop my images borne of the places in which I am going to set them (...). This insertion aims at both making the place a ‘visual space’ and working on its memories, revealing them, stirring them up and intensifying the symbolic (...). I do not produce works in a situation; I try to produce situations with works.”

With several works in cities, parcours Rimbaud in Naples, Durban and Soweto (South Africa), parcours Mahmoud Darwich in Charleville-Paris, Alger, Lyon, Ramallah, Jerusalem etc., he exhibits his creative approach in museums and galleries: preliminary sketches and photos (Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Nice, Neue Pinakothek Munich, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, Lelong Gallery, Paris, Bärtschi Gallery, Geneva, etc.). Ernest Pignon-Ernest regularly works with Jean-Christophe Maillot and the Ballets de Monte-Carlo. In 1995, he designed a stage curtain for the Monte-Carlo Opera to commemorate the company’s 10th anniversary. For Jean-Christophe Maillot, he designed the staging for Romeo and Juliet in 1996, Cinderella in 1999, La Belle in 2001 and was involved in Miniatures in April 2004, he also designed Le Songe in 2005, Daphnis et Chloé in 2009, LAC in 2011 and La Mégère Apprivoisée in 2014.As for his latest work, Parcours Jean Genet in Brest, he developed his characters with the assistance of a few dancers from the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Gaëtan Morlotti, Evgueni Slepov and Jean-Claude Nelson.

He has also produced a work inspired by the texts of great Christian mystics in association with principal dancer, Bernice Coppieters. In 2009, this work gave rise to exhibitions in Avignon and Monaco and a publication with Editions Gallimard.

As soon as he graduated from the stage design stream of the École de la Rue Blanche (ENSATT) in 1987, Jérôme Kaplan began designing sets and costumes for a plethora of plays and operas.

1992 saw his first collaboration with the Ballets de Monte-Carlo and Jean-Christophe Maillot, L’Enfant et les sortilèges, a feat that was followed by a number of other productions including Romeo et Juliette, Cendrillon, Casse-Noisette Circus, Œil pour Œil, and most recently, Scheherazade.

In 2001, he was the first French guest set designer at the National Ballet of China in Beijing, where he created costumes for Raise the Red Lantern by director ZHANG Yimou.

Jérôme Kaplan forged his career alongside Bertrand d’At with Le Prince des Pagodes, Strasbourg Opera House and In the Mood for Love, Shanghai Ballet; Karine Saporta with Feu le Music Hall, Comédie-Française and Dans le Regard de la Nuit, Cairo Opera House; David Nixon with Ondine, Strasbourg Opera House, A Sleeping Beauty Tale and The Great Gatsby, Northern Ballet, Leeds; Christopher Wheeldon with The Sleeping Beauty and Ib Andersen with Bournonville’s The Kermesse in Bruges, the Royal Danish Ballet; Nacho Duato with The Nutcracker in Saint Petersburg for the Mikhaïlovski Theatre and in Milan at the Scala.

Jérôme Kaplan has worked regularly with Alexeï Ratmanski since 2010, creating sets and costumes for the ballet: Don Quixote by Minkus for Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam, Les Illusions Perdues, Bolchoï, in Moscow (Golden Mask 2012 – costumes), Cinderella for the Australian Ballet in Melbourne and Paquita for Munich’s Bayerische Staatsballett.

Born in 1959 in Tours, he studied the Fine Arts at the Beaux-Arts in Tours while, at the same time, working as assistant director, stage and accessories. In 1987, he created his first stage design for Jean-Christophe Maillot (Thème et 4 Variations) with whom he has collaborated regularly since then (Le Jardin Jeux d’Amour, Ubuhuha, Lueur d’Amour, Vers un Pays Sage, Recto Verso). He has developed this collaboration with choreographers, working with artists such as Ramon Oller, Bruno Jacquin, Graham Lustig, Conny Jansen, Ted Brandsen and Josette Baiz. He has been invited to work with the Ballet du Nord, the Rome Opera Ballet, the Lyon Opera Ballet, the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Ballet British Columbia, Introdans and has regularly collaborated with Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, both as director and lighting designer. In Monaco, he has created the lighting for Jean-Christophe Maillot‘s Bêtes Noires, Home Sweet Home, Dov’è la Luna, Ubuhuha, Vers un Pays Sage, Duo d’Anges, Concert d‘Anges, Romeo and Juliet, Recto Verso, l’Île, Cinderella and Casse-Noisette Circus, Opus 40, Entrelacs, Oeil pour Oeil, La Belle, Men’s Dance, D’une rive à l’autre, Les Noces, Miniatures , Le Songe, Altro Canto I et II, Men’s Dance for Woman, Sheherazade, Chore and Casse-Noisette Compagnie. He has also collaborated with Bertrand d’At, Renato Zanella, Serge Bennathan, John Alleyne, Itzik Galili and Lucinda Childs; In the Netherlands, he has worked with Ed Wubbe, Gian Franco Paoluzzi, Ginette Laurin, Renato Zanella, Ton Wiggers, Heinz Spoerli, Nils Christie, Kirsten Debroek, Conny Jansen, Miriam Dietrich, Ted Brandsen and Josette Baiz.

In October 2004, Dominique Drillot was officially appointed as professor of scenography at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-arts of Monaco.