Éric Binh Vu-An (3 January 1964 – 8 June 2024) was a French dancer, choreographer, and actor.

Early life and education

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on 3 January 1964, Vu-An's father was Guadeloupean and his mother was Vietnamese. He enrolled in the École de Danse in 1974 after his recruitment by Claude Bessy and an age exemption from the .

Career

In 1982, he began his first soloist roles at the

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded a ...

. He was cast as the lead in a production of ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' by

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...

in 1983 before

Maurice Béjart Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French dancer, choreographer and Theatre director, opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, tac ...

gave him the lead in ''

Boléro ''Boléro'' is a 1928 work for large orchestra by French composer Maurice Ravel. It is one of Ravel's most famous compositions. It was also one of his last completed works before illness diminished his ability to write music. Composition T ...

''. A dispute arose in March 1986 between Béjard and Nureyev over the announcement of Vu-An and Manuel Legris as a '' danseur étoile''. The dispute was settled in Nureyev's favor, with Legris becoming a ''danseur étoile''. Vu-An then left the Paris Opera and joined the

Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation) ...

, where he served as head of ballet from 1995 to 1997. On 1 January 2005, he was named a

ballet master A ballet master (also balletmaster, ballet mistress, ''premier maître de ballet'' or ''premier maître de ballet en chef'') is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In mo ...

associated with the leader of the

Ballet National de Marseille The Ballet National de Marseille is a dance company based in Marseille, France. The company combines modern dance and classical ballet. Overview The Ballet National de Marseille was founded by the dancer and choreographer Roland Petit in 1972. T ...

, Frédéric Flamand. In 2009, Vu-An became artistic director of ballet at the Opéra de Nice. In 2018, a post made on ''

Mediapart ''Mediapart'' () is an independent nonprofit French Investigative journalism, investigative online newspaper created in 2008 by Edwy Plenel, former editor-in-chief of . It is published in French language, French, English language, English, and ...

'' accused him of "managing his troupe with a feeling of omnipotence" and that he harassed pregnant dancers. One of the dancers, Gaëla Pujol, filed a complaint against him for harassment. Pujol alleged that the behavior was recurring and that she could provide testimony from fellow dancers and victims. However, Vu-An denounced the allegations. On 24 April 2018, it was announced that officials in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

upheld the dismissal on 30 March 2023.

Death

Vu-An was diagnosed with a

brain tumour A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cancero ...

in early 2022. He died in Nice on 8 June 2024, at the age of 60, two weeks after his husband, Hugues Gall, died.

Filmography

Film

*''

The Sheltering Sky ''The Sheltering Sky'' is a 1949 novel of alienation and existential despair by American writer and composer Paul Bowles. Plot The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the Nor ...

'' (1990) *' (1998)

Television

*' (2002) *''

Les Liaisons dangereuses ''Les Liaisons dangereuses'' (; English: ''Dangerous Liaisons'') is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu on March 23, 1782. It is the story of the Marquise Isabelle de Merteu ...

'' (2003)

Distinctions

* (1982) * (1986) *Officer of the

Ordre national du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

(2008) *Commander of the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

(2011) *Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

(2016)

References

External Links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vu-An, Eric 1964 births 2024 deaths 20th-century French ballet dancers 20th-century French LGBTQ people 20th-century French male actors 21st-century French ballet dancers 21st-century French LGBTQ people 21st-century French male actors Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Deaths from brain cancer in France French artistic directors French ballet choreographers French ballet masters French gay actors French LGBTQ dancers French male ballet dancers French male film actors French male stage actors French male television actors French people of Guadeloupean descent French people of Vietnamese descent Gay dancers LGBTQ choreographers Male actors from Bordeaux Male actors from Marseille Male actors from Nice, France Male actors from Paris Male actors of Vietnamese descent Officers of the Legion of Honour Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite Paris Opera Ballet dancers