A new star sparkles in the constellation of the Opéra National de Paris. Roxane Stojanov, appointed on Saturday, December 28, by Director General Alexander Neef at the suggestion of Director of Dance José Martinez, becomes the ninth danseuse étoile of the prestigious Parisian all-female team. As tradition dictates, her performance in Pierre Lacotte's ballet Paquita was saluted at the end of the show with her appointment in public on the Opéra Bastille stage. This was the cherry on the cake of the wedding in Paquita, after the festivities brought the show to a close with salvos of virtuosity, each more firecracking than the last.

Two days after that evening, Stojanov still couldn't get over it. Contacted by telephone on December 30, she still seemed to be in a state of shock. "I wasn't expecting it," she exclaimed. "No matter how much you hope to become a étoile, you never know when it's going to happen, or if it's going to happen at all! It was a real surprise and I loved it. I'm already very happy to be dancing, and anything that comes on top of that is just a bonus!" As for Paquita, the seemingly Romani heroine who turns out to be an aristocrat kidnapped as a child by Romanis, Stojanov summed her up in one adjective: "Sparkling."

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