Following his studies at the Paris Opera Ballet School, Eric Quilleré was recruited by Rudolf Nureyev in 1984 to join the Paris Opera Ballet corps de ballet. Spotted by Maurice Béjart, the latter invited him to Vienna to dance in the "Compagnie du 20e siècle" in the ballet Wien Wien. He was promoted to Choryphée (1986), then Sujet (1988) and danced Etudes de Lander at the Metropolitan Opera in New York during the Paris Opera's tour of the United States, and also danced at the Bolshoi on tour. He was a finalist in the prestigious Varna competition. Promoted to Premier Danseur in 1991 by Patrick Dupond, then Director of Dance at the Paris Opéra, Eric Quilleré dances the classical repertoire and creates the pas de deux des Vendangeurs in Giselle by P. Bart and E. Poliakov, the Jester in Swan Lake at the Opéra Bastille (DVD Pietragalla Dupond 1992) but also the Golden Idol in La Bayadère by R. Nureyev, Frantz in Coppélia by Pierre Lacotte, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella by Rudolf. Nureyev. He also dances Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream by J. Neumeier.
Eric Quilleré also dances the neo-classical repertoire: Agon, Apollon, Capriccio and Le Fils prodigue by G. Balanchine, but also Jerome Robbins Shy Boy in The Concert (1992/93), or Kenneth Mac Millan Le Chant de la Terre... the contemporary repertoire: Point In Space and Un Jour ou deux with Merce Cunningham, Push Comes to Shove with Twyla Tharp, Sinfonietta with Jirí Kylián. He danced in Pina Bausch's Le Sacre du printemps when it premiered at the Paris Opera, then in Maurice Béjart's Debussy for Seven Dancers and in Roland Petit's Rythmes de valse. He has also worked with Karole Armitage and Rudy Van Dantzig.
Eric Quilleré was then engaged as a Danseur Etoile by Pierre Lacotte at the Ballet de Nancy, where for six months he danced, among other roles, the Prince in Giselle and the title role in Marco Spada by Pierre Lacotte. In 1995, with the agreement of Brigitte Lefèvre, then Director of Dance at the Paris Opera, Eric Quilleré split his time between the Paris Opera and the Miami City Ballet - then directed by E. Villella - where he danced most of Balanchine's ballets. While pursuing his career as a dancer, he began to remount ballets for Miami City Ballet: Swan Lake, Coppélia, Giselle and Paquita. In 2001, he was invited by M.C Pietragalla to stage her version of Giselle at the Ballet National de Marseille. In 2002, he was appointed Artistic Advisor to the MBC School in Miami, where he teaches and organises summer workshops with leading dance school directors. In 2003, Charles Jude asked him to join the Ballet National de Bordeaux as Ballet Master. He collaborated on Charles Jude's creations: Don Quichotte, Romeo and Juliet, which he remounted alone in Astana, Kazakstan, and also Coppélia, which he remounted alone in Toulouse for the Ballet du Capitole, then directed by K. Belarbi. Belarbi. He regularly gives classes and master classes (Tel Aviv, Israel Ballet, Florence Ballet) and is regularly invited to sit on competition juries.
Eric Quilleré has been Director of Dance at the Opéra National de Bordeaux since 2017.
