10 replies to this topic

[cygneblanc]

It was an excellent afternoon.

1. The Corsaire, Pas de Trois des Odalisques : Lenonore Baulac, Juliette Hilaire, Silvia Saint Martin
A very good start. These young dancers graduated from POB’s school in june 2008. They were very fresh. A lack of rehearsal was sometimes visible in the group but each individual performance was excellent. I was amazed that Juliette Hilaire has improved so much since she has joined the company because in the school she often looked weakest than her colleagues. The leader of these young dancers was clearly Miss Baulac though.

2. The Butterfly by Pierre Lacotte Wow wow wow. It featured Marine Ganio and Allister Madin. The woman part was re-created by Pierre Lacotte for Miss Ganio's mother, Dominique Khalfouni, in the 1970s. I was very surprised by the brilliant performance of Marine Ganio. I wasn’t expecting her to be that good in such a romantic part. She has always been a very strong technician but wasn’t known for her lyricism   . She was so precise and light. Kudos to her. Her partner was amazing too, a model of style, but it’s quite usual for him.

3. The Swan Lake adagio, act II by Laure-Adelaide Boucaud and Yann Chailloux. A very strange choice for a young dancers night. Both dancers tried their best but they’re still very green. The performance looked rather weak because of this but the interpreters were deserving.

4. Degas’ Little Dancer with Aubane Philbert, Ludmilla Pagliero and Gregory Dominiak
A extract from a work that will be seen in Paris next year. I was so happy to see Aubane Philbert so strong and healthy. She was very present, and her usual poetry was there. That being said, the music always seems very bad and the choregraphy is rather boring if not ridiculous.

And finally, to close the first act, we got to see…

Yes, a Balanchine’s work other than Jewels   !!!!


It was Tchaikovsky Pas de deux, with Charline Giezendanner and Marc Moreau. If Miss  Giezendanner was very good, charming, smiling and precise, I’m not convinced at all by her partner’s performance. It reminded me Emmanuel Thibault in the sense I’m under the impression M. Moreau danced for himself and to get applauses, without style and without caring of his partner. Some people looked more convinced than me though !


See you later for the second act.

[cygneblanc]

The second act

Donizeti pas de deux choreo of Manuel Legris, danced by Eleonore Guerineau and Fabien Revillon

This pas de deux allowed the two dancers to show a lot of very difficult skills in a short time, what they did very well. It’s very appropriate for such performance and as such was very warly received by the audience. Otherwise, it isn’t particularly interesting and I need to see more in order to be convinced of ML qualities as a choregrapher. The costumes are quite questionable. The idea of having Eleonore Guerineau wearing footless black tights (with a tutu!) isn’t excellent.

Sylvia Pas de Deux, by John Neumeier with Amandine Albisson and Yannick Bittencourt. A strange choice for such a night but the two interpreters were very good, even excellent pour the young Amandine. She’s one of  those who must be followed very closely in the future.

Figure Libre by Beatrice Martel with Fanny Gorse and Alexandre Gasse, on a music by Webern. It may be an interesting piece but not in the context of a young dancers night. The dancers don’t dance a lot, and we don’t got to see them a lot because of the darkness in which the stage is put. The most visible thing was a plant, which of course, wasn’t dancing!!!

Aunis of Jacques Garnier, with Axel Ibot, Daniel Stockes and Mickael Lafon. I was afraid of this work I’ve never seen but I finally liked it a lot. It’s set on accordion music with two accordionists on stage. It’s very very fresh, full of energy, definitively not contemporary but rather a mix of different dancers. All men were very involved and maintained a good energy during all the piece, which wasn’t easy!

Overall, it was a very, very, enjoyable afternoon, even maybe the highlight of the season. The audience was very warm and each dancers was made very welcome.

Congrats and thank you to all the dancers

[cygneblanc]

Some pictures:

http://www.fedephoto...ains(APO0453*))

[Viviana]

Thank you for posting your reviews and the photos of these young dancers.

[Estelle]

Thanks for your review ! It sounds like a very enjoyable program.

Quote

The Swan Lake adagio, act II by Laure-Adelaide Boucaud and Yann Chailloux. A very strange choice for a young dancers night.

I agree that such a choice probably is not very suited to a young dancers program...
It reminds me a of a Swan Lake pas de trois a few years ago in another young dancers program (I don't remember who danced it), which looked a bit out of place too... Lighter works generally work better.

Quote

The Butterfly by Pierre Lacotte Wow wow wow. It featured Marine Ganio and Allister Madin. (...) She was so precise and light. Kudos to her. Her partner was amazing too, a model of style, but it’s quite usual for him.

Nice to hear about another member of the brilliant Ganio-Khalfouni family !  
About Allister Maddin: has he been given interesting roles since he joined the company ? I've never seen him on stage, but remember a lot of very positive comments about him when he was in the school, and much disappointment when he wasn't taken into the company at first, in complicated circumstances. It's great that he finally managed to get a position...

Do you know how the dancers are chosen for such a program ? For example, Charline
Gienzendanner is not "so young" as she joined the company at the same time as Mathieu Ganio, but her career
was much much slower than his...) She's a dancer I generally like, I wish I could have seen her.

Quote

And finally, to close the first act, we got to see…

Yes, a Balanchine’s work other than Jewels

I understand your frustration about the lack of Balanchine works... ;-) By the way, I guess that you'll probably see the School program (which includes "La somnambule") soon ? I really regret that I couldn't get tickets for it :-(

I didn't know that Manuel Legris had choreographed a pas de deux. Do you know if he has choreographed something else ? In general, I'm a bit cautious when some dancers start choreographing a bit late (unlike someone like Jean-Guillaume Bart who has always been interested in choreography...)

About Aunis: I saw it several times (in Marseille, and also in a previous Young Dancers program) and find it really lovely. I wish there were a video of it with its first POB cast (I think it was with Denard, Guizerix, Franchetti) somewhere... And also I regret that there are no opportunities to see other works by Jacques Garnier (I've only seen this one, but it made me wish to see more).
There is a video of Aunis filmed in the 1990s with Kader Belarbi, Wilfried Romoli and Jean-Claude Ciappara (Jean-Claude Ciappara was Garnier's last partner), it was filmed partly outside (on a beach mostly) and I like it a lot. I think that it still can be found on youtube.

[cygneblanc]

I remember this pas de deux was danced some time ago during a YDN by Aurore Cordellier or Juliette Gernez but it looked out place, too. But I heard that Héloise Bourdon, 17, was very good.

Allistair Madin danced Alain in Ashton's la fille mal gardée. That's an interesting part for sure. I think there is a moment where eyes can't closed anymore. Among the corps de ballet men, he's the ONE to watch. He has some style and he's a true ballet dancer, which is becoming quite rare in Paris now...

For the choice of the dancers: the newest recruits are choosen along with some older dancers. For these ones, it seems that will dance those who are popular with the direction at a given moment. For example, Alice Renavand who wasn't that young (I mean she was 25 when the other girls were 16-19!) performed during the last YAD. She was given some nice parts and was promoted at the same time. It's the same thing for Charline Giezendanner now. She's a lovely dancer and could have been promoted early but wasn't.

Yes, I will see la Somnanbule later this week. I observe that Elizabeth Platel seems to like Balanchine a lot. Since she has been director, we saw Divetimento, the Tombeau de Couperin and now another work...It's an amazing opportunity for the teens who are cast but I'd like see more from the compagny...

No, I don't think Manuel Legris tried to choregraph something else. I applaud the fact that is ballet and not an insignificant contemporary thing. It's quite nice to watch and easily enjoyable.

Yes, Aumis is really lovely. The audience was clapping...

There are some videos of the 2009 YDN on youtube...

[bart]

What a pleasure to read this !!!  Thank  you, cygneblanc.  

The photos, too, are marvellous.  I loved the solo shot of Charlene Giezendanner.  There's something about her that makes you want to see more.

Question:  what is the story behind that unfortunate costume Marine Ganio is wearing?  For an instant,  I thought it might be something a Ballets Trocadero dancer might be told to wear.

Quote

They were very fresh. A lack of rehearsal was sometimes visible in the group but each individual performance was excellent.

One of the great pleasures of watching young dancers develop in a company is  observing the process by which they learn to fit their talents into the piece as a whole, and in relationship to the others on stage.  Good luck to all these young dancers -- and to all who dance with them.

[cygneblanc]

Well, the costume is supposed to be a romantic tutu.

The pas de deux was originally choregraphed by Marie Taglioni for Emma Livry and it was restaged by Pierre Lacotte for himself and Dominique Khalfouni in 1976.

The story is that a prince a prince has captured a butterfly and then realize that it's not really a butterfly but a young girl to which a cast was spelled.

[rg]

the long-skirt tutu w/ the butterfly-wing detailing at the waist is the same, or nearly the same, as that worn by Irina Kolpakova when she danced this pas de deux w/the Kirov (you can see it on a video that includes Sergei Berezhnoi as the princeling partner.
i think it may be a design of Lacotte's own, based on a similar costume worn by Livry?
i think there are versions of it some lithographs of the period, perhaps, if mem. seves. in some of those reproduced in Migel's GREAT PRINTS OF THE ROMANTIC ERA, a Dover paperback publication.
i think there might even be one such print of Marie Taglioni the Younger in a similar costume.
here's the book i'm thinking of:
Great ballet prints of the Romantic Era / [compiled by] Parmenia Migel.
New York : Dover Publications, 1981.
109 p., A-H p. of plates : chiefly ill. (some col.) ; 31 cm.

[rg]

i found my copy of the book in question and see i misremembered most of what's suggested above.
the two scans show the cover  - with a winged tutu but not from PAPILLONS, rather it shows Louise Fleury as Myrtha in GISELLE, 1842  - and a print of Marie Taglioni the Younger w/ horns not the wings i mistakenly recalled, in SATANELLA, 1853.

Attached Files

•  PMcoverWM.jpg   297.2K   14 downloads
•  PMprintWM.jpg   228.78K   12 downloads

[cygneblanc]

Thanks a bunch RG!