the Ballet School entrance examination, and 20 percent of its pupils have to leave at the end of the year after failing the annual competitive examinations ("les concours annuels") in May. Only 5 to 20 percent of the Ballet School graduates are accepted in the Paris Opera Ballet, initially as dancers on trial (the "stagiaires"). To become a regular member of the Paris Opera Ballet as "Quadrille" (fifth and lowest rank in the hierarchy), you have to pass the annual competitive examination in November. Promotion to the next rank depends exclusively on success in the following annual competitive examinations ("les concours internes de promotion") in front of a board of judges. To achieve the highest rank as Danseur Étoile (only by nomination) you have to perform in leading roles as "Premier Danseur" for many years before you are nominated due to outstanding excellence and merit. Small scandals and the lost generation As the Paris Opera Ballet has a large quantity of first-class French dancers, there are hard times for those who have not been promoted to the highest ranks as dancers or have not been appointed afterwards to positions for which they would have been extremely qualified. Mathilde Froustey, Sujet from 2005 till 2013, left the Paris Opera Ballet in July 2013 and joined the San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer because there was no chance for her becoming eventually Danseuse étoile (principal dancer) in this company. In November 2014 Benjamin Millepied, a former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet and French, took over the direction of the company and promised a change: "They asked for a change and they will get a change." When Benjamin Millepied nominated for the first (and only) time a "Danseuse étoile", Laura Hecquet was chosen. Laura Hecquet and Mathilde Froustey were described in the press as "the lost generation" of dancers working up the ranks who have become soloist (Sujet) but have been unlucky for years as far as climbing up the last step of the career ladder is concerned. The Paris Opera Ballet School has churned out some of the most famous dancers of all time, such as Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire. Yet Sylvie Guillem, being principal dancer since 1984, left the company in 1989 at the age of 24 because she wanted more freedom, the right to perform with other companies, an arrangement the management of the Paris