PARIS — Dance has been a connective thread through all of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s shows. It hovered in the background of “Gilmore Girls,” made an apt setting for “Bunheads” and was a constant addition to “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” But on “Étoile,” the couple’s love of ballet finally comes to the forefront.
The eight-episode series, streaming on Prime Video April 24, follows the behind-the-scenes drama of two fictional dance companies, Le Ballet National in Paris and Metropolitan Ballet Theater in New York City. Filmed in both cities with an international ensemble cast that includes real ballet dancers, it was a true cross-Atlantic effort — and a notably ambitious undertaking.
“We actually had this idea for a long time: What if Paris and New York ballet companies swapped dancers?” Palladino says. “We live in New York, so we know a lot of the theater community and the dance community. In ballet, they put on these beautiful, light, delicate, perfect performances. But behind the scenes it’s quite rough and tumble.”
“We always wanted to get back to dance after ‘Bunheads,’” adds Sherman-Palladino, a former ballet dancer herself. “It was really fun and it was cut off too soon, so we wanted to do a deeper dive into the real adult world of dance. Paris has the oldest ballet company and it goes back to the courts of the kings, while New York is the rough upstart. The juxtaposition of the old and the new gave us a story and an interesting backdrop.”
Sutton Foster as Michelle Simms, far right, teaching students in a 2012 scene from “Bunheads.” (Adam Taylor/ABC Family)
A group of dancers in a scene from “Étoile.” (Philippe Antonello/Prime)
On a chilly day last spring, that backdrop is on impressive display in Studios d’Epinay, one of Europe’s oldest studios, located north of Paris. Inside a giant soundstage, production designer Bill Groom and his team have constructed the rehearsal rooms, hallways and offices of Le Ballet National. It spans multiple interconnected rooms, including an ornate, columned dance space based in part on a rehearsal room in the real-life Palais Garnier, home to Paris Opera Ballet. There are chairs and sofas everywhere because Sherman-Palladino wants the dancers to have somewhere to hang out between takes.
“Dancers live 90% of their lives in four walls,” Sherman-Palladino says. “Everything’s inside of a building, and they go in that building in the morning and they stay there. We wanted to make sure that the interiors of the sets could accommodate life like that. As much as we were looking at the studios, it was also looking at the hallways and the hangout places and looking at where the couches were.”
After penning the pilot script themselves, Sherman-Palladino and Palladino assembled a six-person writers’ room that included former dancer Daisy Long and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actor Gideon Glick. The pilot established the show’s premise: Facing faltering ticket sales, Le Ballet National director Geneviève (Charlotte Gainsbourg) suggests swapping talent with Metropolitan Ballet Theater to generate publicity and, in turn, save the art form. Its director, Jack (Luke Kirby), is initially resistant but ultimately agrees to a trade. Star ballerina Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge) arrives in New York as former Parisian Mishi (professional ballerina Taïs Vinolo) returns to her hometown, causing ripples in their respective dance companies.
The writers conceived several episodes ahead of production, which shifted from Paris to New York and back to Paris last year. But they also wanted to leave space for change on set — something Sherman-Palladino and Palladino, who each direct on the series, also did on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
“This was a really big ensemble cast,” Palladino says. “It was bigger than we normally do, and it’s not about a family. So there was a lot to learn about the dynamics between all the characters as we got to know the cast’s strengths. We don’t necessarily write everything in advance [of filming] because then you get to bob and weave as you discover what works within a show.”
“They’re so good at creating characters but then seeing what people bring to it and adjusting from there,” says Glick, who plays neurotic New York choreographer Tobias Bell. The character is a fish out of water when he’s transferred to Paris, but he soon finds an unexpected ally in egotistic dancer Gabin (Ivan du Pontavice). “It was always evolving as we were filming.”
Gainsbourg, traditionally a film star, initially was hesitant to be part of a TV series because she doesn’t like to feel rushed when shooting. But she found “Étoile” to be an easygoing set with plenty of time for multiple takes. Plus, Sherman-Palladino and Palladino were amenable to her perspective on Geneviève, an overburdened, passionate woman with a messy personal life.
“They were open to everything I had to say about her,” Gainsbourg says. “From what I wanted in her office to how I wanted to embody the character. They were so generous in that sense. I was curious to understand that world because I’ve really had nothing to do with it. I watched documentaries, and I met with the director of the opera and the director of the ballet in Paris.”
In “Étoile,” Jack (Luke Kirby) is the executive director of New York’s ballet company, while Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge) is a star ballerina from Paris.
(Philippe Antonello / Prime Video)
Gainsbourg also helped to guide some of the French dialogue, pointing out when a line or a word didn’t ring true. The writers completed each script in English and then handed them over to translators. But at first, some of the jokes weren’t landing. Eventually, translator Dany Héricourt came onboard to ensure that the couple’s signature snappy dialogue worked in both languages.
“The French speak very quickly,” Sherman-Palladino says. “Periods mean nothing for them. So if it’s five sentences, it sounds like one very quick, long sentence. We’d have to turn to Danny and go, ‘Is it funny?’”
“We were in the unprecedented situation of having to ask an actor to slow down,” Palladino adds.
Kirby had previously collaborated with Sherman-Palladino and Palladino on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” playing comedian Lenny Bruce. He was supposed to appear in only one episode of that show, but everyone loved his performance so much he became an integral part of the story. They later wrote Jack specifically for Kirby.
“I didn’t ask about his trajectory because, inevitably, it was going to change,” Kirby says. “When we had our first conversation I did ask whether he was a former dancer. I thought that was compelling. But he simply is a man who was born into a world that allowed him access to a lot of dance. And luckily, he has great affection for it.”
Other mainstays of the Sherman-Palladino universe appear throughout “Étoile.” Yanic Truesdale plays Geneviève’s assistant Raphael while Kelly Bishop guest stars as Jack’s mother and Dakin Matthews pops in as a member of the theater’s board. Simon Callow is a new addition as a problematic billionaire funding Metropolitan Ballet Theater, as is David Haig, who plays its ailing artistic director.
“Amy and Dan and I have known each other for so long and there’s such a comfort level there,” Truesdale says. “It was important to me that I didn’t give the audience Michel [from ‘Gilmore Girls’] again. I’m French with a female boss, but I didn’t want it to be the same dynamic. Michel was suffering all the time and Raphael is 100% committed and in service of Geneviève.”
“When you work with the best people, you want to continue to work with the best people and you get spoiled,” Sherman-Palladino says. “And it makes writing for people so much easier because you know they’re going to be able to do it.”
Other casting was more meta: New York City Ballet principal dancers Unity Phelan and Tiler Peck and Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam appear in the series. Actor David Alvarez, who once led “Billy Elliot” on Broadway, plays dancer Gael. He performed all of his own choreography — as did Vinolo — and he had to perform each sequence twice, once with de Laâge and once with her dance double, Constance Devernay-Laurence. Like the rest of the cast, he trained extensively ahead of and during filming.
“It was an interesting process to figure out this character because it’s so similar to me and my life,” Alvarez says. “I’m pretty sure Amy stalked me for quite a bit trying to figure out who this character is. The way they work is different than any other project I’ve done before. They rehearse a lot more. I’m used to just showing up on set and shooting the scene without ever even meeting the actors sometimes. But here there was a lot of camaraderie.”
Cheyenne (Lou de Laâge), a Parisian dancer sent to New York City in “Étoile.”
(Philippe Antonello / Prime Video)
De Laâge took on the challenge of not only training as a ballerina but also learning English. Cheyenne is fiery and brash — in one scene she rejects a series of dance partners by describing a murder — but de Laâge imbues her with emotional complexity. Of all the characters, she offers the best understanding of the compulsion ballerinas have to keep dancing.
“I will never be an étoile, because it’s too complicated and it’s a job,” de Laâge says. “But it’s been interesting to work with real dancers and learn about their career and all the complex things they do. The body is telling a story. I now understand how hard each movement is because ballet is not like gymnastics or a performative art. It can be more graceful and subtle and delicate but so complicated too.”
Onscreen, it’s impossible to tell when in a dance sequence it’s de Laâge and when it’s Devernay-Laurence. Same with du Pontavice and his double, Arcadian Broad. On set in Paris, the afternoon involves a scene where Tobias pushes Gabin to learn new choreography. To shoot it, du Pontavice and Broad are dressed identically as Gabin.
Series choreographer Marguerite Derricks, a longtime collaborator with Sherman-Palladino, has taught both performers the sequence. First, du Pontavice acts out the entire scene with a rudimentary dance performance. Then, Broad enacts the exact same scene with more precise moves and an impressive leap. The camera shifts so that du Pontavice can hop back in for the final shot. Later, the VFX team will seamlessly impose du Pontavice’s face on Broad’s body.
“The emotions still have to match,” Derricks explains. “When I rehearse them, I really talk about what they’re feeling. They’ve both learned the choreography exactly. When Ivan does the Superman leap, he doesn’t get the same height as Arcadian, but he does the whole thing.”
Overall, Derricks choreographed dozens of rehearsals and performances for “Étoile.” She also reimagined famous choreography from ballets like “The Nutcracker” and “Sleeping Beauty.” She cast a group of 20 ballet dancers from Paris and 20 in New York, along with additional dancers to fill in larger scenes. Every dance sequence in the series is there for a narrative or emotional reason.
“All of the dance had to push the story forward,” Sherman-Palladino says. “If we’re doing a dance, there’s a reason that we’re doing the dance. We’re not just stopping for a dance number. As long as it suited the script, we did it. The dancing was the most fun and, frankly, the easiest part of the show.”
Because “Étoile” isn’t just about what happens onstage, every detail had to be precise and as accurate as possible. Groom combined the New York and Paris sets with real theater spaces to build out the worlds of Le Ballet National and Metropolitan Ballet Theater. In Paris, the series shot in the Palais Garnier, including inside the costume studio, where tutus famously hang from the ceiling, as well as Théâtre du Châtelet and Opéra Comique. In New York, the production used Lincoln Center and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
A group of ballet dancers gather in a scene from the Prime Video drama “Étoile.” “We always wanted to get back to dance after ‘Bunheads,’” says co-creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, a former ballet dancer herself.
(Philippe Antonello / Prime Video)
“We have to be aware of what you see in the wings when the cameras on the stage are following the performers,” Groom says. “As an audience member seated in the house, you don’t see into the wings usually, so we had to make that real as well. We knew we would be shooting in hallways and outside the rehearsal spaces too, so we needed to experience the space the way the dancers would.”
Accuracy also was essential to costume designer Donna Zakowska, who won an Emmy for her work on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” She and her team designed and made more than 200 ballet costumes alongside rehearsal outfits for the cast, who sometimes numbered up to 60 on a given shooting day.
“I’ve danced my whole life and dance is such an exalting, exciting human expression,” Zakowska says. “I always think about clothes and how they move. Before this, though, I had no idea tutus require 13 layers of net. It became far more complicated than I initially imagined. And you really have to respond to the dance and how each performers approaches it.”
At first, those in the real-life ballet world approached by the production were skeptical of “Étoile.” Palladino says it’s because the dance world “has been burned by some of these movies and TV shows that lean into the darkness.” But “Étoile” is also about the hopefulness of the art form and its potential to elevate the human experience.
“People were wary, but as things went on, they saw the show was really about the dancers,” Sherman-Palladino says. “They aren’t window dressing. It’s about them and their stories, and that was important to us. We’ve been dealing with dancers for so long on our shows, and I was a dancer. Making this brought back a lot of memories.”
She adds, with a grin, “It also made me feel a little sad that I stopped because your ass is so perfect when you dance.”
