José Carlos Martínez (Cartagena, 1969) feels at home among the old woods of the Palais Garnier buildings. He does not walk, however, with the lightness of when he was étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet: he now carries the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, since, after his two terms at the head of the Compañía Nacional de Danza ( CND ) in Madrid and a period of three years as a freelancer - he was the first Spaniard to choreograph, twice, the New Year's Concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker - this artist from Cartagena, serious and salty, was appointed to the December director of the Parisian company, the oldest in the world. It was founded by Louis XIV in 1669. Efficient, elegant, José Carlos fills a hole between the Zoom he has with William Forsythe, a management meeting at the Bastille, a lunch with patrons and the premiere of the night. La Vanguardia interviews him in his office with a rose window. This is where the house's prestige and dream come true.
Do you already know the 154 dancers that make up this company?
It's something I want to do, it's essential. I started in December, I still have a few to go.
Did managing the CND give you points for being asked from Paris to replace Aurélie Dupont as director?
This opportunity is very different, because of the media, because of where we are, but it is clear that I would not have been able to manage Paris in this way if I had not been in Madrid before. It meant experience in managing personnel, sponsors, productions, tours... All the problems I had to endure at the CND, the lack of teams, which did not follow me when I wanted to do things... all those wars have been super useful There are many media here: at the CND we didn't even have a theater, here there are two; we had to go looking for who wanted the company on tour, while here you have to slow them down, because the calendar doesn't work. I have almost completed the 2025-2026 season and am already working on the 2026-2027.
Seen in perspective, any advice for CND or Inaem?
The problem with Inaem and the CND is that each person who arrives throws overboard everything that the previous one has done. And that's not how it's built. Just as Nacho Duato's work disappeared (which couldn't be done when I arrived), now almost everything we did has disappeared, with the exception of Johan Inge's Carmen, which continues to work abroad. Not even An evening with Forsythe resumes in Madrid or on tour. And when Joaquín de Luz leaves and someone else comes, his contributions to the repertoire will not be maintained either. It seems that they take this eight-year term per director literally: they give you the freedom to do what you want, and then the same with the next one. The CND needs to create a new repertoire with interesting things. But with few means it is difficult to evolve, because they don't actually optimize what is paid for with everyone's money, like the Don Quixote we did. Here in Paris there is a company rule that forces you to take things back, because we all pay for them.
Did he set conditions for accepting the position here at Garnier?
After my experiences at Inaem, if there hadn't been the kind of contact I have with Alexander Neef, the intendant of the Paris Opera, I wouldn't have accepted. He makes the important decisions but first he listens and, if you explain to him, he can change his mind. He supports me. It is important.
What does this company need that you can provide?
To evolve the academic vocabulary, the classical vocabulary, in other words, to bring the pointe shoes into the 21st century by making creations that use this vocabulary. We need to create this link between classical ballet and contemporary ballet, develop another type of choreography that uses the pointe shoe, and see where we go.
He joined the Paris Opera company as a dancer in 1988 and was named étoile in 1997. Did you find it very different?
Things have changed, society changes and the spirit of the dancers is different. Of course, the way of working is the same because it is an institution that evolves slowly and taking it towards the future and making it move is part of the job. Step by step. I feel at home, but the situation is different and unexpected.
Will the position allow him to launch his budding choreographer in Paris?
I'm the one who didn't want to start it. Right now I can't shut myself up for a month in the studio. I walk away from this office one day and watch the stack of folders grow.
In any case, his most important contribution as a choreographer is the revision of the classics, and Paris already has Nureyev's legacy.
Yes, but it's a repertoire that needs to evolve, it's already 30 to 40 years old and it's the same versions. Now there are diversity issues to adapt to: The Nutcracker has character dances with Russians, Chinese... they can't be performed like before. I don't want to say that they should stop being made, but they have to coexist with other new versions of the classics. Before Nureyev's there were others and there will have to be others after. We have 12 or 13 programs per season, there is room for three Nureyevs and three other classical choreographers, and some contemporary ones.
How has the level of dancers changed?
Evolution is constant. And the fact that so many contemporary creators have come in recent years has made them grow artistically.
The CND chose him to put them back on their heels after two decades with Duato. Is it the other way around here?
The issue is how these two types of dancers, classical and contemporary, can coexist, although they all have interesting things to do. When there is a group of 15 contemporaries, it forms like a mini-family and they work very well. I would like it to be like this with the whole company. There is a need to feel that we are a team that is moving forward. It is not necessary for the 154 to feel ready to do everything, but whoever wants to can develop to the maximum of their possibilities through programming, that they find challenges, that they discover things together.
Is the price of this sacrificing excellence in certain repertoires?
No. In recent years the company has had, for example, a lot of Israeli school: Sharon Eyal, Ohad Naharin, next year Hofesh Shechter. It is about evolving, although integrating other choreographers does not mean that we stop doing the Israelis, who, mind you, are here and have come to stay in the whole world, but the Paris Opera must not be not a luxury branch of the Batsheva.
Nureyev transformed the French school. At what point is it?
He came from Russia and, although he Frenchized a lot, he meant a change in the technical difficulty. There was no spectacularity or the jumps of the Cubans, but there was a difficulty in basic exercises. The Russians always say: "We have the arms, the upper part work, and the French have the lower part, the drum work". I think it remains so. It is necessary to evolve so that this part above is worked more.
Why is the French school characterized by restraint and a certain lack of expressiveness?
The restraint comes from being concentrated in the technical work of this basic part, so clean, which gives it a purity. I don't talk much after the shows, but the other day I caught them in the studio: “You danced very well, but if you had to do twenty shows you'd be bored; I want you to be seen, the spark". Someone said that they were afraid to do too much because there is a saying that to dance here you have to do everything perfectly and not stand out in anything that is not planned. The challenge is for the 32 Shadows of La Baiadera to shine each with its own light.
Are there any dancers from their étoile era who are still here?
There are people who retire and who were then the young people of the company; and also those who were students of 8 or 12 years. I choreographed Scaramouche for them ... and now they are 30-year-old professionals! It's very strange, they have changed a lot.
How is the pressure of the passing of the years in this company, knowing that at 42 you retire whether you do or not?
There are those who live it better, others worse. I lived it well: inside I had already stopped dancing. He was doing La Baiadera when he was 40. In the middle of a quick change of clothes to leave for the third act, I stopped and said to myself: “What am I doing here? If this was already dancing with 27!". I didn't need it anymore. And the funny thing is that the most beautiful photo I have is from that day, right after entering the scene: a super tall grand jeté. I continued to dance for another two years, but it wasn't the same.
