Creators Amy Sherman-Palladino & Daniel Palladino, the amazing minds behind the well-loved show “Gilmore Girls” have revealed their newest venture. It’s titled “Étoile,” and it’s a workplace comedy that offers an intimate and fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of the ballet. The show is available to stream on Amazon Prime and has a wonderful premise. In the context of a New York City ballet company and a Paris ballet company, they send their best and brightest dancers back and forth to rescue each other’s gilded institutions.
“Étoile” showcases the challenges and triumphs of ballet professionals, blending the Palladino’s signature quirky characters and fast-paced dialogue with the art form’s demanding nature. The lead character is Cheyenne Toussaint played by Lou de Laâge, a young and free-spirited homo ballerina. She carries the thrilling burden of acting in English, a language she hadn’t even learned before getting cast in this role.
“I had to learn English to speak Amy’s dialogue,” de Laâge remarked, acknowledging the difficulty of mastering the script and its rapid delivery.
The cast for the show is stacked. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Geneviève Lavigne, the acting general director of l’Opera Francais and Le Ballet National. Yanic Truesdale, known for his role as Michel Gerard in “Gilmore Girls,” plays Raphaël Marchand, while Gideon Glick from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” adds to the ensemble. Other notable cast members include David Haig, Simon Callow, and especially David Alvarez. Taïs Vinolo, a former ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada, helps to bring Mishi Duplessis to life.
During the “Étoile” photocall at La Galerie Bourbon in Paris on April 23, 2025, Amy Sherman-Palladino expressed her hopes for the series.
Most importantly though, I hope it carries that message of support for the arts that they’re vital and currently under siege. She stated. It would just be tragic if people lost these things in their life as art because art is pretty much everything. It’s the way humanity evolves forward.
The show aims not only to entertain but to spark conversations about the legacy of art and the transformations it faces in contemporary society. As Charlotte Gainsbourg pointed out, “I think the arts are in danger. So the more we can get something authentic that grabs an audience and makes people aware that that kind of art form is very fragile, [the better].”
Ivan du Pontavice, who plays Gabin Roux, told us about his character’s intense and at times, dangerous lifestyle as a dancer.
“It all comes rushing back, it’s always you remember how much dancers never stop moving,” he noted. If they’re not dancing, they’re stretching. If they’re not stretching, they’re TheraGunning, they’re doing push-ups. It’s just a constant whirlwind of movement.
Taïs Vinolo echoed this sentiment, sharing her initial fears about joining the cast:
During my first few weeks, I was scared and intimidated. It felt like I was shooting from zero to a hundred in the snap of a finger!
It is Palladino’s singular ability to mix drama with humor that really stands out in Étoile. The show’s rapid-fire rhymes and syncopated style have audiences on the edge of their seats. It’s a raw, unfiltered portrayal of ballet that introduces striking parallels to the workplace comedy “The Office.”
