The 11th edition of the Cannes-Croisette Competition will take place on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19, 2026.
Individual registrations are by waiting list only.
Group registrations are always open.

Trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Paris Conservatory, where he won first prize, Julien Lestel then worked with Rudolf Nureyev, who offered him the role of Cinderella at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

He subsequently joined the Ballets de Monte Carlo, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Zurich Ballet, where he was engaged as a principal dancer, and finally, the Ballet National de Marseille as a partner of Marie-Claude Pietragalla.

He has worked with Nureyev, Robbins, Kylian, Forsythe, Preljocaj, Roland Petit, Pina Bausch, Lucinda Childs, Carolyn Carlson, Dawson, Malandain, and others, and danced choreographies by Petipa, Balanchine, Neumeier, Scholz, Lifar, Ashton, Nijinsky, and more.

In 2007, eager to dedicate himself to choreographic research, he founded the Ballet Julien Lestel, which performs in France and abroad and boasts a repertoire of some thirty choreographies.

Since 2008, he has been involved in numerous outreach programs for diverse audiences, promoting dance as a means of expression accessible to all, without borders. In a spirit of transmission, he shares and works with young ballet companies at conservatories in various regions.

He collaborates within the company with dancers from the Rome Opera and Eleonora Abbagnato. He directed a fourteen-episode web series, “The Eternal and the Ephemeral,” in collaboration with Alexandra Cardinale, with choreography created at the Rodin Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum.

Julien Lestel is also a professor at the National Dance School of Marseille.

Marie-Agnès Gillot discovered dance at a very young age in her hometown of Caen and joined the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1985. At 15, she joined the Corps de Ballet with a special dispensation and quickly rose through the ranks: a finalist in the Varna International Ballet Competition in 1992, she became a Soloist in 1994, a First Soloist in 1999, and was named Étoile (Principal Dancer) in 2004 following her performance in Carolyn Carlson’s Signes. She was the first Étoile to be awarded the title in a contemporary ballet.

A leading interpreter of both classical and contemporary repertoire, she has inspired numerous choreographers, including Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart, Pina Bausch, Preljocaj, Mats Ek, Wayne McGregor, Jiří Kylián, and William Forsythe. Her style, blending power, fragility, and virtuosity, has left a lasting mark on the Opera’s repertoire.

In parallel, she has been developing her own choreographic approach since 2007 and created her first work for the Opera, Sous Apparence, in 2012.

In 2018, she gave her official farewell performance in a moving rendition of Pina Bausch’s Orpheus and Eurydice.

A committed artist, she creates performances for charities and collaborates with numerous artistic figures. A muse for luxury brands, exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo, and a participant in the Louvre Museum’s Nuit Blanche, she is involved in a multitude of transdisciplinary projects. Since 2018, she has also distinguished herself in theater, film, directing, and innovative stage projects, and toured South America in 2023.

Her autobiography, Sortir du cadre (2022), received the Grand Prix from the French Critics’ Union. A Knight of the Legion of Honour, the Order of Merit and the Order of Arts and Letters, Marie-Agnès Gillot is an essential figure in French dance.

A professional cabaret dancer who has performed at venues such as La Nouvelle Eve and the Moulin Rouge in Paris, Julien has also had the opportunity to dance on television shows (Dancing with the Stars, NRJ Music Awards, etc.).

He worked for Disneyland Paris as manager of a team of nine programmers in charge of artistic recruitment for the parks’ various events.

Today, he works as a casting director and artistic coordinator on various TV programs (Junior Eurovision, The Dancers, Got to Dance, etc.).

For the past 10 years, he has been in charge for casting professional dancers and judges for the show “Dancing with the Stars.” He has introduced dancers such as Ines Vandamme, Elsa Bois, and Anthony Colette, and judges such as François Alu and Mel Charlot, to the public.

He also served as a judge on the show “Who Will Dance with the Stars?” alongside Chris Marques and Fauve Hautot, which launched the careers of dancers like Calisson Goasdoué, Pierre Mauduy, and Ana Riera.

Recently, he was responsible for recruiting dancers and providing artistic coordination for the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In addition, for the past two years, he has coordinated the artists for the Têtu Awards ceremony, which took place at the Olympia and then at the Trianon in Paris.

For the past few months, he has also been hosting a podcast, “Meeting With,” which features inspiring figures: artists, choreographers, creators, and passionate individuals.

Julia is considered today as one of the figures of dance in France and Europe. After solid training and during her 13-year career between Paris and London, she collaborated with the greatest artists, Sia, Pink, Céline Dion, Mika, Matt Pokora, Johnny Hallyday, Alain Chabat, Oxmo Puccino, Big Flo and Oli. She has also danced and choreographed for the most prestigious television shows, World of Dance U.S, The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, Eurovision, X factor, NRJ Music Awards, So you think you can dance… and others film projects…

In addition to her career in the spotlight, Julia is also passionate about teaching and performing arts. She developed her own choreographic signature, and schools around the world asked her for intensive training or the creation of pieces.

Described by her colleagues and students as “an artist with a big heart and an extraordinary style”, she is one of the most respected artists of her generation.