NYCB in Paris, September 2008

[cygneblanc]

Well, I haven't seen it, but I think this two weeks engagement was really a great thing.

As it is said in the article, the tour is a great success, with very appreciative audiences, and sold-out performances. From that point of view, it is worth $2.3. Tickets were already expensive for the french audiences, they couldn't have been sold at a higher price as they were in London. So it was needed to find money elsewhere. Patrons' system is good. From what I understood, NYCB's tour in London wasn't a great success. I can guarantee you this one is, at least for POB.

We got to see very different ballets which are rarely or never seen in Europe. It showed french audiences it's possible to have creations from our time making use of ballet technics including pointes shoes. I wish POB's AD invite Peter Martins to create a new work for POB in a very near future.

I hope NYCB's dancers and AD feel good after this tour. They did very well and I expect them to have feedbacks of how positive their coming in Paris was.

As for a general view of the two weeks, I can tell the following things:

The energy and commitment of all dancers were great. You can tell they love what they're doing. It was very refreshing. I'm sometimes under the impression that POB's dancers are as happy when they dance than I when I go to work on the morning!

The musicality of the dancers and the way music make their bodies working was unusual for the french audience, but it was interesting to see that. NYCB's dance is maybe less aristocratic than POB's but it's at least as nice to watch.

Although NYCB as a whole is much more heterogeneous than POB, particularly in the dancer's bodies type, this heterogeneity isn't a problem at all since it's compensated for by musicality.

The overall level of each dancer is excellent. That may be paradoxical, but the level of the soloists is quite homogeneous. That being said and as far I'm concerned, there is Ashley Bouder and the others. All the dancers are very deserving, but she's a real star. Wendy Wheelan distinguished herself during that tour, too.

The choices of pieces brought were excellent. There was a nice balance between choregraphers. I liked Peter Martins' works very much but I need to see more of Christopher Weeldon to be convinced of his genius.

Finally, I would say this tour in front of an audience known as one of the hardest in the world can give a lot of confidence to Peter Martins and NYCB. For POB's directors, it must be a key in their politics of ordering new works. NYCB showed you could be very modern and still dancing ballet with pointes shoes.