"Gilmore Girls" creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino are taking on the world of dance with their new show, "Étoile."
The new series follows a New York City ballet company and a Paris ballet company who swap their most talented stars in an effort to save their storied institutions.
"Étoile" follows the creative duo's Emmy Award-winning series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," which concluded in May 2023. It is also their second time exploring the world of dance in a TV series after their 2012 show "Bunheads," which starred Sutton Foster, Kelly Bishop and more. It ran on ABC Family for one season.
'Gilmore Girls' creator takes on a New York ballet company in 'Etoile': See trailer
"This was a different take on it," Palladino told "Good Morning America." "'Bunheads' really was focusing on teenage girls in this dance school in this small town. ['Étoile'] is the elite core of dancers, these athletes that have made it and they're working at a level that is highly competitive, very risky."
He continued, "You twist an ankle, you hurt your knee, you could be out forever. So, exploring the professional world was different for us and then it gave us an opportunity to do a workplace comedy like 'The Office,' but ... behind the scenes of a ballet, so with pointe shoes, and then the behind-the-scenes at both Paris and New York, the friction, the camaraderie between the two companies."
For Sherman-Palladino, who grew up dancing as a child, revisiting the world of ballet was a personal venture.
"It all comes rushing back, but it's always you remember how much dancers never stop moving," she said. "They just never stop moving."
She continued, "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 like -- it's just not stillness, it's just that movement, that constant movement. It's just sort of an energy being expended," she added.
Taïs Vinolo, who plays ballet dancer Mishi Duplessis and who was a former ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada and a graduate of the American Ballet Theatre School, said the world of ballet was accurately depicted in "Étoile" and paralleled her own journey as a dancer.
"I really love the way that Amy and Dan represent the ballet world in a very truthful way, as we don't really see that much on TV -- and also, they bring so much fun to it," she said.
Ivan du Pontavice, who portrays Gabin Roux in the show but is not a professional dancer like Vinolo, said that after learning the artform from other dancers and immersing himself in dance, he saw how authentic the creators' reflection of ballet was.
"I was amazed at how accurate [it is], not only in the writing, but in the directing and in the knowledge that the Palladinos have about ballet," he said. "You know, it's a true, true reflection of the reality of this discipline."
While "Étoile" focuses on a new world in the Palladino/Sherman-Palladino universe, fans of "Gilmore Girls," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Bunheads" will notice the creators' unique style featured throughout the show from their quirky cast of characters to the fast-paced dialogue.
Lou de Laâge, who portrays the free-spirited ballerina Cheyenne Toussaint, mentioned at PaleyFest in early April that she didn't speak English fluently before "Étoile," so learning the script and the creators' iconic dialogue style "wasn't easy."
"I had to learn English to speak Amy's dialogue," she said. "So that wasn't easy, because there is a lot of fantasy and rapidity and tempo and humor and everything in the dialogue."
She added, "It was just work and repetitions, and because the more you repeat the text, the more you do it, the more you find freedom."
Du Pontavice, who is also new to the Palladino/Sherman-Palladino universe, said that joining their world was a "roller coaster."
"I was terrified and nervous at first, because I felt like I was going from zero to 100 all of a sudden," he said. "It was a big production, and I knew of the Palladinos, I knew of their specific rhythm. So it felt challenging, but at the same [time], it felt coherent."
"Étoile" also includes three stars fans might recognize from Sherman-Palladino and Palladino's previous shows: Yanic Truesdale, Gideon Glick and Luke Kirby, who portrayed comedian Lenny Bruce in "Mrs. Maisel" and in the new series plays Jack McMillan, the executive director of the Metropolitan Ballet Theater.
Truesdale, who previously portrayed Michel Gerard, the sarcastic and lovable concierge in "Gilmore Girls," said he was "excited" to work with Sherman-Palladino and Palladino again, playing Raphaël Marchand in their new series.
"It's just reuniting with brilliant writing," Truesdale said. "At the end of the day, for an actor, everything comes down to the writing, and their world is so creative, so rich, that I got immediately excited to just be with them."
'Gilmore Girls' turns 20: Stars reflect on show's legacyHe added that the "cherry on the cake is to be in Paris," saying it was "very hard not to be thrilled about every aspect of this reunion."
Glick, whom fans may remember as Alfie in "Mrs. Maisel," called the creators "the greatest people to work with."
For her part, Sherman-Palladino said she and her husband hope that "Étoile" does more than entertain and sparks conversation about the art world, its legacies and the constant changes it faces.
"I hope it speaks to the importance of the arts and the fact that they're under siege right now," she said. "It would be really sad if people don't have these things in their lives anymore, because art is kind of everything. It's the way humanity evolves forward."
Charlotte Gainsbourg, who stars in the series as Geneviève Lavigne, the interim general director of l'Opera Francais and Le Ballet National, added, "I think the arts are in danger. So the more we can get something authentic and that grabs an audience and makes people aware that that kind of art form is very fragile, [the better]."
Also starring in the new series are David Haig, Simon Callow and David Alvarez.
"Étoile" is available to stream now on Amazon Prime.
