She was the Ballet Star of the Opéra national de Paris from 1990 to 1998.
Marie-Claude Pietragalla was awarded her star for ballet on December 22, 1990, by Patrick Dupond, following her rendition of Kitri in the performance of Don Quixote. She has performed the whole range of major repertoire roles: Odette/Odile in Le Lac des cygnes (English: Odile in Swan Lake), Giselle, La Sylphide (English: The sylph), Carmen - while distinguishing herself in contemporary dance through interpretations of the ballets of the greatest choreographers such as Maurice Béjart (Le Sacre du Printemps (English: The Rite of Spring), Boléro, Arépo), Roland Petit (Carmen, Notre-Dame de Paris, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort [English: The Young Man and Death]), Mats Ek (Giselle), Serge Lifar, George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham and even Jiří Kylián.