Photo: (C) Steven Caras

Mr. Jean-Hugues Feray, a native of France, began his dance training at nine years of age. The following year, he auditioned for the Paris Opera Ballet School where he was one of six boys chosen out of the 250 that applied for admission.

Jean-Hugues studied with the school for 5 years and went on to attend the National Conservatory of Paris. He graduated from the National conservatory with a first prize in Ballet awarded by a unanimous jury decision. This was the highest Ballet Award a student could receive in France at the time, enabling Jean-Hugues to choose from several contract offers in European Companies.
In 1989, Jean-Hugues was hired at the French National Ballet of Marseille under the direction of Roland Petit. And in 1990 he was hired by Rudolph Nureyev to perform in his version of Cinderella, which was performed at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, Italy.

In 1991, Pierre Lacotte hired him for the French National Ballet of Nancy, where he performed for seven years in many leading roles. Jean-Hugues was promoted to soloist at the age of twenty. With the French National Ballet of Nancy, he toured all over the world including Moscow, Russia where the company was invited by Vladimir Vasiliev to perform at the Bolshoi Theatre. While at the Bolshoi and performing with the French National Ballet, Jean-Hugues received a standing ovation for his performance of the Harlequin in Georges Balanchine’s La Somnambule.
In 1998, Jean-Hugues was hired by Marie-Claude Pietragalla at the French National Ballet of Marseille. Miss Pietragalla was a principal with the Paris Opera Ballet and the new Artistic Director in Marseille. While there, Jean-Hugues performed numerous roles including the leads in Giselle, Raymonda, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Sleeping Beauty, George Balanchine’s Tzigane among many others.

In 2000, Jean-Hugues moved to the United States when Marie Hale invited him to join Ballet Florida. Before coming to the United States, Mr. Feray applied for and acquired his Employment Based Green Card: EB-1 Priority Worker: Extraordinary Ability Status. To get this status to enter the country one must have “…extraordinary ability in science, arts, education, or athletics which has been demonstrated by sustained national or international acclaim and whose achievements have been recognized in the field through extensive documentation.” One must be “at that small percentage who have risen to the very top of the field of endeavor to qualify for this classification.”
At Ballet Florida, he enjoyed working with the company and performing exciting roles including the lead in Marie Hale’s The Nutcracker, Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias, Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, Vicente Nebrada’s Cinderella and Norbert Vesak’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

He also worked with, and danced roles by world renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, Sean Lavery, Lar Lubovitch, Thierry Malandain, Peter Martins, Trey McIntyre, Jerome Robbins’s “In the Night”, and Mauricio Wainrot, to name only a few!

Mr. Feray taught five years at the Academy of Ballet Florida. He is also honored to have been a teacher at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, FL.
In 2009, he opened his own School “Paris Ballet and Dance” which now houses a Pre-Professional program “Paris Ballet America” He delights in passing on what he has learned over the years in the dance world. He looks forward to participating in the dance education of the next generations and gains great rewards from teaching with his passion and innate love of dance. He has an incredible track record of students making it professionally on a national and international level.

Continuing that passion and love, in 2016, Mr. Feray began collaborations with the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. Paris Ballet was the only dance school in the area to be invited to perform a classical work in the Kravis Center’s 25th Anniversary Community Gala in October 2016.

Mr. Feray has been hand-picked by former Paris Opera Ballet Star Charles Jude to teach at “Stage International de Danse Charles Jude” Summer Intensive in Bordeaux and Arcachon France.
In 2017. He also brought the most internationally renowned French Master Teachers for one week, first time in the United States — Magnifique Winter Ballet Intensive at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. It has now become an annual major ballet winter intensive in Palm Beach County.

In December 2022, he was invited to teach at The Rock School For Dance Education in Philadelphia.

He has started adjudicating for competitions and was one of the judges at the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet competition finals in New York City in 2023 as well as Icon Dance Awards in 2024.

In the Summer of 2023, he was also a guest teacher and choreographer at the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters and at “Stage International de Danse Charles Jude” in France alongside Paris Opera Ballet Étoiles. In February of 2024, he was a guest teacher at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City and will be returning this Summer as a faculty member for their Pre-Professional Ballet Intensive in July and August.