Étoile Star Taïs Vinolo Pulls Back the Curtain on the Show’s Choreography

When Étoile, a ballet-world “dramedy” from writer-director duo the Palladinos, debuted this past spring, it was hailed as an exuberant ode to dance. The Palladinos, of Gilmore Girls and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fame, gave viewers everything with the first season of Étoile: the decadence of on-location shoots at Lincoln Center and the Paris Opéra Ballet, a repertory of on-screen performances stacked high with references to dance and music greats George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Aaron Copland, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. But they also gave the world—or anyone with an Amazon Prime subscription—the chance to see real-world ballet stars in new light.

Together with a stacked cast that included New York City Ballet principal dancers Tiler Peck, Unity Phelan, and Roman Mejia, School of American Ballet-trained Taïs Vinolo applied her years of experience having danced for American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada to bringing the glittering world of Étoile to life. 

When, earlier this summer, news broke that Amazon Prime would not be renewing the television show for a second season, it was mourned by fans, as well as the cast. “All the dancers who were on the show were very proud to be on it, and I know other dancers who really wished to be on the show. It’s like the luxury of TV for ballet,” the French ballerina Taïs Vinolo told Surface at a screening and interview as part of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Lacoste Film Festival. There, she was joined by fellow cast members Yanic Truesdale and Ivan du Pontavice for a screening and panel conversation about the show, which recently secured two Primetime Emmy nominations—for Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming and Outstanding Casting for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

In the following interview, Vinolo reflects on bringing the art of ballet to life as a professionally trained dancer and in her breakout television role. 

What can you tell us about adapting ballet training for a studio setting and on-location TV performance?

It was a huge challenge, because it’s so different from being in a ballet company. On stage, you get to do it once, and if you fall, you fall. But on camera, you get to do it many times until it’s good. The challenge is that it was not only about being good enough, but it was also about coordinating with the camera, and on top of that, giving the best out of yourself and always working super-smart. So doing extra training, such as Pilates, strengthening, massage, it was very important. But it was not a lot of time, because when I was not filming, I was dancing, and when I was not dancing, I was filming. 

Like you said, in a stage performance, if something doesn’t go right, the show goes on—but can you tell us about the challenge of repeating it over and over for the cameras?

I remember when we filmed La Bayadère from episode four. I think it took like six hours—and it’s like a whole ballet variation. So I did it maybe 20 times, but I was very well prepared with Marguerite Derricks. And I had a team with me, like a physiotherapist, [a masseuse], the organization and everything was perfect because they knew that it [was] a lot of work. 

But it was very challenging because it was some very difficult choreography!

There was a lot of George Balanchine in there.

Yes, we did some Balanchine. I got to do Jewels, I love Balanchine’s style, so I really enjoyed it. And also being in New York while doing it, with the Balanchine Trust, was really nice.

After training at the School of American Ballet and then performing with the National Ballet of Canada, what was it like to work within this international “company” with fellow Balanchine-trained dancers like Tiler Peck, Roman Mejia, Unity Phelan and others who you’ve maybe never shared the stage with?n

It was really, really inspiring. Because also in a ballet company, for example, when you train at ABT, you will see only ABT [performances], or if you train at National Ballet of Canada, you only see National Ballet of Canada. So it was very nice to see the ballet world in a more diverse way, to see that there’s so much more going on in the ballet world; we can see on Instagram but it just feels amazing to be in the studio with people who have a different style and artistry and personality. I really enjoyed that, and I felt very inspired just looking at each dancer in the studio and taking it in. It’s art, really. It was very inspiring to see what the whole ballet world delivers, not just in my ballet company that I used to dance for.

And, as ballet companies in real life face some of the same challenges as those in the show—funding, longevity, reaching new audiences—how do you think shows like Étoile contribute to how ballet continues to reach new people?

Amy [Sherman-Palladino] and Dan [Palladino] did a beautiful job at representing ballet very well, Because Amy loves ballet, she got the resources to represent it in the most real way. But also, they have this kind of writing [style], that’s really funny, but they managed to keep the real world of ballet very close.

It’s a good way to reach a new audience. The show speaks about it, but also, with the diversity of the actors, it opens [ballet] to a larger audience. SIt does beautiful work at representation and also at opening new doors to the ballet world. Even though we don’t have a second season, the show is out here now on Amazon Prime, and people like us dancers can relate to the show, and people who are not yet familiar to ballet, they can have a little bit of an idea of what ballet is about and that it’s not always just a drama! Because really often on TV it’s all about the drama. And there are beautiful stories. I think this show is good for the future of ballet.

There were so many reviews of the show’s production value and how it felt like something only Amy and Dan could have pulled off, with their experience and the resources directed toward expressing their love for ballet. Was that something you felt, too, as a dancer and cast member?

Definitely. I was very appreciative that it was always a collaboration with dancers. Especially with Marguerite, on set, she saw what worked for everyone. She made it possible for us to adapt movements to what is going to look good for us. With a ballet company, you can never change anything. But it was really nice to have this idea of collaboration, you know, to be able to speak and say, ‘Okay, this works for me, this doesn’t.’ It felt like a collaboration, and we really built something really nice all together.