But now, he's revealing in a documentary that his real reason for leaving was a direct response to racism in the industry, according to Page Six. In the film he explains:

I heard someone say a black girl in a ballet is a distraction. If there are 25 white girls, everyone will look at the black girl. Everyone must be alike in a company, meaning everyone must be white."

He decided it was up to him to make a change, saying, "I have to shatter this racist idea."


Per Huffington Post, Millepied assumed his role at Opera de Paris with high hopes of dragging the "300-year-old company into the 21st century, in part by incorporating more dancers of color into an industry with a lily-white past."

"For the first time at Opera de Paris," according to the film via Page Six, "Benjamin Millepied [gave] a mixed-race dancer the lead role in a classical ballet." That dancer, according to arts and culture website Thalo, was Letizia Galloni.