claude bérubé.

La Foule

Although Bérubé is a Canadian surname, Claude is as French as they come. Born in 1988 to a French mother and a Canadian father, who eventually left his three children (including his two older sisters, Catherine and Céline) with their mother in Marseille to pursue opportunities in his home country, Claude grew up on the southern coast of France, a happy if slightly hyper-active child. Being almost ten years younger than his youngest sister, he was the spoiled brat of the family and his mother allowed him quite a lot of freedom to get in trouble, until his hyperactivity began getting him in serious trouble, once he enrolled in school. He showed an interest in moving to music and his mother thus decided to send him to dance school, ballroom originally, but the teacher advised that they tried ballet, to teach him some discipline. Claude loved it and began dancing devoutly.

Padam Padam

Quickly showing real talent, Claude tried out for the Paris Opera Ballet School at age 10 and was accepted at his first try-out. Having to move away from his family in Marseille to live with other ballet kids in dormitories in the middle of the bustle of Paris proved very good for his hyperactivity and over the next years, he became a hardworking, disciplined, well-mannered young man. While still quite young, he was one of two ballet kids in the documentary series "Little Rats" which made him a household name in certain circles in France and further emphasised his status as a prodigy at the art form. At age 16, he became an apprentice at the Paris Opera Ballet and started dancing with the company at large, his contract made permanent at the final reviews two years later.

Sous le Ciel de Paris

That same year, he met Gilbert Couture, a five year older university student and openly gay. Despite being aware of his own sexuality, Claude was usually too busy with his dancing to really pursue relationships on the long term, but Gilbert and him grew quickly close, although in the beginning they didn't have sex. Not until Gilbert told him, he was HIV-positive, but well-medicated, giving Claude the opportunity to fully accept every consequence and implication of this. Their relationship was an avalanche and within half a year, Claude moved into Gilbert's large flat, the two of them starting a life together, while Claude's career kept advancing. Almost ten years later, one particularly humid winter, an extra harsh strand of influenza was making its rounds and Gilbert was affected, his compromised immune system unable to withstand the pneumonia that it developed into and within a week, he was gone. Claude was in shock. Numbed by grief, his life partner gone, he uprooted in a matter of months, gave his two weeks notice at the Paris Opera Ballet and sought work elsewhere, getting offered a soloist position in Berlin.

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

In Berlin, he moved into a dingy flat in one of the suburbs and quickly took up work at the company. He became quickly known as a hard worker, friendly, if a bit reserved, with no life outside of the studio or stage. He would meet in between six and eight and stay until ten in the evening on non-performance days, often not making it home, but instead sleeping in his dressing room on performance nights. His dedication paid off on several fronts. One, he was soon given big roles and leads in prominent ballets. Two, he didn't have to think about Gilbert. On this sort of eternal run from his grief, he's passed three years in Germany, learning German on the side and found a way of keeping Paris at an arm's length.