In the first episode of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s series “Étoile,” a ballet company director from Paris says to another in New York City: “I propose a swap!”
They devise a plan—which becomes the premise for the whole show—to rescue both organizations from their post-COVID fragility: They’ll trade artists for a year, a publicity stunt and an artistic experiment rolled into one.
If that all sounds a little dramatic and made-for-TV, well, it is. The show’s creators have said they weren’t aware of any real-life basis for their plot, which isn’t surprising—examples of real-life dancer swaps are few and far between. But, though they’ve never looked quite like “Étoile”’s supercharged exchange, they’re not unheard of.
In 2009, for instance, New York City Ballet announced a partnership with the Paris Opéra Ballet to swap stars for performances of George Balanchine’s “Rubies.” In 2013, American Ballet Theatre lent Isabella Boylston to the Royal Danish Ballet and Cory Stearns to the Royal Ballet. In return, Copenhagen and London sent Alban Lendorf and Steven McRae, respectively, to New York. And in 2017, Texas Ballet Theater and Australia’s Queensland Ballet executed a Sugar Plum swap.
“I gained a lot of confidence from the experience, being in a completely new environment and having to perform something really hard,” Boylston says. The Royal Danish Ballet swap marked her first appearance as a guest artist. “In my mind, that was just for really established dancers,” she says. She felt grateful for the opportunity to grow as a dancer and gain perspective on the ballet world. She remembers fondly the warm Danish welcome, the cozy Copenhagen apartment, the chance to tackle Balanchine’s Nutcracker, and the exchange’s influence on her dancing. “I kind of surprised myself,” she says.
For TBT’s Samantha Pille, the exchange with Queensland was formative. “It was incredible and also terrifying,” she says. “I was so nervous [about] how I was going to represent TBT.” Ultimately, “it made me trust myself more as a dancer,” she says, helping her come out of her shell and feel more at ease onstage.
Professional development was part of the goal for Li Cunxin, who was artistic director of Queensland Ballet during its swap with TBT, and Ben Stevenson, who was artistic director of TBT at the time. “Looking back at my career, exchange or guest performance experiences truly made me a better artist,” says Li, who years earlier had been a star Houston Ballet dancer under Stevenson’s direction. Li wanted to help the Queensland dancers boost their confidence and mature as performers. Those who stayed home also learned from the colleagues they hosted. “It was a thrill for all of us to see how they interpret roles,” says Li, joking that the wings were packed and he had to warn dancers not to miss their own cues.
That said, “It’s very difficult to spare some of your top dancers,” Li says. Plus, there are financial considerations to factor in, and, he suspects, “artistic directors probably harbor the fear of losing their dancers to other companies.” But from Li’s perspective, it was worth it. “Our audiences were delighted,” he says.
So often, movies and TV portray ballet as a grim world of psychological distress and cruel backstabbing. However, Boylston, who’s watched a couple of “Étoile” episodes so far, notes that the show “doesn’t rely on a lot of the usual tropes.” She’d want any swap storyline to reflect “the camaraderie between dancers” she felt in Copenhagen. “The ballet world is small,” she says. “It’s very much a community of people that get each other.”
In that sense, “Étoile’s” grandiose swap may be more rooted in reality than viewers realize. Perhaps the series will, in turn, inspire more real-life exchanges. Despite the logistical challenges, Li says, “It’s a win-win.”
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