Indes Galantes

What happens when one of France’s most prestigious stages meets the raw energy of urban dance cultures? At the Opéra Bastille, an extraordinary experiment takes shape: Jean-Philippe Rameau’s baroque opera Les Indes Galantes is reinvented – not as a museum piece, but as a living space for contemporary bodies, voices, and political realities. For more than 30 dancers from hip-hop, krump, breakdance and voguing, it is their first time performing on an opera stage. Together with choreographer Bintou Dembélé and artist Clément Cogitore, worlds collide that have long been kept apart: high culture and the street, tradition and the present, institution and subculture. The documentary GALLANT INDIES follows the creative process from early rehearsals to opening night, capturing an intense human adventure shaped by friction, exhilaration, and questions of belonging. Who gets to occupy these grand cultural spaces? And how does a classical work transform when new generations reclaim it? Premiering at the Opéra Bastille in 2019, the production was widely acclaimed for its bold fusion of opera and urban dance. GALLANT INDIES screened at international festivals including Doclisboa and Sheffield Doc/Fest, and was nominated for the César Award for Best Documentary in 2022.