32 replies to this topic

[cygneblanc]

The competition for the pupils of the school was today and here are the results:

Are admitted:

Girls : Eleonore Guérineau

Boys : Florimond Lemort and Daniel Stokes


Congrats to them and all my thoughts to the others, especially the girls  

[Becca_King]

cygneblanc, on Jul 5 2005, 03:55 PM, said:

Boys : Florimond Lemort and Daniel Stokes

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

One would assume - perhaps incorrectly - that Daniel Stokes is not French. Is this true and do you know for how long he trained at the POB school? It would be unusual for POB.

[cygneblanc]

He's french and he's from Nice (it's a city on the Cote d'Azur, in the south of the country). I think he has trained at the POB school during the last 6 years

[Becca_King]

Thanks for the information. Could you explain the POB school system to me? I try to follow the French forum on another website and I gather that the students are put in rank order each year and on the basis of this can be moved up, asked to repeat a year or asked to leave? Can they only be asked to repeat once? I'm interested because I think the company's corps are just amazing and of course this is greatly due to the schooling.

[cygneblanc]

Each year, in order to move up, the pupils have to take an exam. If they are sucessful, they move up. Otherwise, they may be asked to repeat the grade or to leave.

You can repeat a grade several times during your time at the school, eg the 5th and the 3th. It's quite common.

Something else of very rare is you can be asked repeat the same grade two times. A girl had two do that for the 6th grade, and two others did it for the first one.

[Terry]

cygneblanc, what happened to Marine Ganio Khalfouni and Marie-Astrid Casinelli?

[cygneblanc]

Marie-Astrid is second and Marine is fourth. They're going to try out today for a one year contract. I think Marine will repeat her first division in september, with Amandine, Lucie, Valentine and Claire.

[Estelle]

Thanks for the results, cygneblanc !
Could you tell us how many competitors there were for each gender ? It  is frustrating to see that so few positions were available; I guess that for the girls, the fact that female dancers now can retire at 42 instead of 40 perhaps is one of the causes of the scarcity of positions (I don't criticize the reform itself, as such a difference of retirement age between men and women was not logical, but it is a bit sad if it means that some girls have to be "sacrified" during the transitional period).

Also do you know how many one-year contracts of "surnuméraires" will be available today ?

[cygneblanc]

Nine girls competed, and for the boys, I don't know exactly, I will tell that tonight when I'm at home.

And for the contracts of "surnumeraires", I can't tell something now, since a new brand of contract might be available this year. I guess we will know that tonight, the day is going to be long.

And for the girls, I'm very angry with the POB direction. They are so many of them which are excellent in the school and they are taking some girls from abroad I can't understand that !

[Estelle]

cygneblanc, on Jul 6 2005, 09:49 AM, said:

Nine girls competed, and for the boys, I don't know exactly, I will tell that tonight when I'm at home.

Thanks. One job for six competitors, that was a tough year !

Quote

And for the girls, I'm very angry with the POB direction. They are so many of them which are excellent in the school and they are taking some girls from abroad I can't understand that !

Could you precise what you mean by "taking some girls from abroad" ? Do you mean that some dancers who were not trained at the school were offered positions ?

[cygneblanc]

Yes and some from others countries from Europe, too.

It would be understandable if the there were a lack of talent in the school or if there were a lot  contracts...But when you have so few contracts and so many talented girls in the school

[Azulynn]

Who do you refer to, cygneblanc ? Girls that are already in the corps ?

[cygneblanc]

Why that smiley?

I speak as a general matter, but if you wish an exemple, just take the one of the last year. And this year, it will probably be a girl who isn't from the school who will get the contract.

As far I'm concerned, it insn't  right.

[Azulynn]

cygneblanc, on Jul 6 2005, 01:22 PM, said:

Why that smiley?

I speak as a general matter, but if you wish an exemple, just take the one of the last year. And this year, it will probably be a girl who isn't from the school who will get the contract.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was puzzled because the "foreigners" in the corps were mostly recruited some years ago, when there was probably a need for them because the retirement reform hadn't been passed yet (and at that time, there were at least two or three girls from the school who would get in each year I think). One of the current surnuméraires (I think there are Ludmila Pagliero and some others) might get a contract today, but if so the girl has been recruited a few years ago, and I don't think it's fair either to just tell the current surnuméraires to leave when they're doing a good job in the corps. After all it would be a shame to lose them as well if they've adapted well to the POB's style and proved their worth. It must be such a hard choice to make for the management.
Right now I think we can only blame the reform, which prevents the POB from taking more girls in the corps IMO. I think the balance was right before that and it should get better next year or the following year.

[cygneblanc]

It may be a shame to lose these surnumeraire but it is worse to lose some great talents from the school. These surnumeraire maybe proved their worth but pupils from the school proved theirs everyday during  a lot of years. So there shouldn't be any questions, and if the POB wants to keep the school running with the current funding from the State, they should have a serious look at their politics of recruitment.