MCB tour to Paris, July 2011

[CM]

First time ever at the ballet for the two audience members at the beginning of the clip:

That goes right to the subject of ballet marketing I touched on above. CM - or anyone - is there any indication of how those two neophytes came to be in that audience? (Yet another time I regret not having studied French!)

I believe that one of the aims of "les etes de la danse" festival in Paris is to broaden the appeal of dance. The festival wants to attract a wide audience including those who might be nervous of attending more formal performances at the theatre or at the opera.

The festival has been running for quite a few years now so I would guess that they have by now worked out how best to publicise the program. They seem very pleased with the audience numbers this year - more than 26,000 for the MCB season.

[Jack Reed]

26,000! Yes, I think they would be pleased! For 17 performances? That's about 1500 people per performance, not bad. I'm still curious whether the two in the audience near the beginning of the clip dropped any clues about why they happened to choose this, though.

[CM]

26,000! Yes, I think they would be pleased! For 17 performances? That's about 1500 people per performance, not bad. I'm still curious whether the two in the audience near the beginning of the clip dropped any clues about why they happened to choose this, though.

I think the commentator is saying that as usual (for the festival) there are people in the audience that are new to dance and then there are the two interviews.

The link

http://www.lesetesdeladanse.com/presentation/

gives some background to the festival. I think the section in french is slightly more specific on the intentions of the festival, e.g.,

"L’objectif des organisateurs : enrichir Paris d’une grande manifestation au moment où la plupart des théâtres de la capitale ferment leurs portes, offrir aux amateurs éclairés de danse des spectacles de qualité, et enfin permettre à un large public de découvrir un art trop souvent réservé à un cercle d’initiés."

"The goal of the organizers: enrich Paris by a major event when most theaters in the capital closed their doors, offer connoisseurs of quality dance performances, and finally allow a wide public to discover art too often restricted to a circle of insiders. " - google translate

So it seems to me that they have a strategy and plan in place to achieve their aims , and , looking at the english part of the link, they have some high powered support.

Valery Colin says that the presentation has an immediate emotional impact - there isn't the need to have a knowledge base to enjoy the performance. Having said that, there is a need to sell that to the public. I would guess that the TV and press coverage, the positive reviews and the various Miami/US references, e.g., baseball, cheerleaders, beach boys (possibly Miami Vice as well), that the press have been able to use in their articles, must have all helped in this.

[cubanmiamiboy]

..Miami/US references, e.g... cheerleaders, beach boys...

[bart]

I'm still curious whether the two in the audience near the beginning of the clip dropped any clues about why they happened to choose this, though.

Etes de la danse gets a lot of publicity. Using the fnac chain of stores to sell tickets offices helps, too.

They seem pretty imaginative in selecting the places in which the visiting companies perform. In 2005 we saw San Francisco Ballet -- a program including Square Dance -- in the courtyard of the Hotel de Rohan-Soubise, not too long a walk from the Chatelet. It rained a bit, but that didn't matter. (SFB also brought Don Q, but we passed on that.) Even in 2005, early days for the festival, you could not miss the SFB signs all over the center city and in the metros.

TV in Paris -- especially the influential morning shows -- seems willing to devote time to interviews and features relating to the classical arts. More than in the US, anyway. "Culture" is still a matter of national pride in France, even among those who don't care much for it.

To follow up on a comment by CM, I agree that "Miami" is a powerful brand name in France, suggesting all sorts of tempting. hip,and exotic experiences. Whoever decided to bring MCB over was surely aware of that. "Prejlocaj" is already well known in Paris; Miami may have benefited from being little known but highly praised. Paris has always loved the "new" (new to Paris, I mean).

I was glad to see that the woman who never went to "ballet" decided to take a chance. I hope she loved it and will come back again and again.

[Jack Reed]

The link

http://www.lesetesdeladanse.com/presentation/

gives some background to the festival.

...

"The goal of the organizers: enrich Paris by a major event when most theaters in the capital closed their doors, offer connoisseurs of quality dance performances, and finally allow a wide public to discover art too often restricted to a circle of insiders. " - google translate

So, CM, much awareness and little competition in a place where so many are favorably disposed to begin with? I understand better now how a neophyte might attend, and to some extent how those specifically concerned to "enrich Paris" - nice phrase - might bring their "high powered support", as you say, to the Gala Committee mentioned at the end of that linked page.

(And I also enjoyed the images there, not only the brightly exciting one of Catoya and Penteado, two of my favorite dancers of today, but also the quietly exciting one of the other two dancers (from San Francisco Ballet, I think) in the wing, already making their entrance though not yet visible to the audience. Just taking their first step, it looks like. Great sense of anticipation in that shot! Either that photographer has an excellent sense of the moment or very good luck sometimes.)

How do you say? Merci beaucoup!

[cahill]

A review written by Shelia Cross

ballet.magazine

[bart]

Thanks, cahill. I suspect that more has been written about MCB in these three weeks than about whole seasons earlier on. Some of the most interesting writing and video journalism have come from Miami dancers themselves, quite an articulate bunch of young people.

Here are Rebecca King's "reflections" on the Paris visit, from her blog, Tendus Under a Palm Tree.

Reflecting. - Aug 01, 2011

Now that our three week tour to Paris has come and gone, I have had an opportunity to look back and reflect on this land-mark event for Miami City Ballet and it’s dancers. I feel as if we all grew as artists in this short period and the lessons that we have learned will never be forgotten. Here is what I learned:

-The company’s sense of community is extremely real. If you were to stand in the wings during any of our performances in Paris, you would find almost all the other dancers who were not dancing to be standing in the wings watching, stretching, and warming up. The backstage crew had to remind us numerous times that because of the extraordinary acoustics in the Châtelet, we were not allowed to celebrate in the wings as we normally would. After a solo, or an extraordinary moment in a piece, we would all want to clap and yell a “Bravo” from the wings in encouragement. This is the kind of support and love we have for our peers.

-This company is an unlimited source of inspiration. During this summer season, if I was not performing until the end of the program, my favorite way to prepare for the performance was to sit in the wings and allow myself to become inspired by the talent around me. I would stand off stage, smiling and dancing along in my head as I watched. I would be sure to never miss the girls section of Square Dance, the fourth Pas de Deux from In The Night, or In The Upper Room. The dancers would all radiate energy that touched those of us backstage as much as the audience.

-With difficult programming, you need to be able to pace yourself and work smart. When you are dealing with a schedule of that magnitude, you need to be able to plan out the day, do only what you have to during rehearsals, so that you feel fresh for the show at night. Each day we had an hour and a half class followed by three hours of rehearsals, then a half hour to grab dinner before preparing for the show. Dancers in companies such as New York City Ballet have that sort of schedule throughout their seasons, but since it was new to us we got the opportunity to learn how to work in this manner. You would think that we would find all the work exhausting and would be looking forward to falling back into our normal pattern, but we all feel the exact opposite. Getting to dance different ballets every night, 5 nights a week, while rehearsing during the day, is the most exhilarating schedule we could ever hope for!

-Parisian audiences are fabulous. If you had been keeping up with the Paris tour via TENDUS, you may think that I am beginning to sound like a broken record when I speak about the audiences that packed the Châtelet every night to see us dance. But the reason that I keep re-iterating this point, is because the audience is the most important element in live theater. Those people in the red-velvet seats are why we put ourselves out there night after night. We dance with the hope of touching an audience member in a way that only ballet can. The two times that I was able to sit with the Parisians in the house of the Châtelet, I would take a moment during a piece to look around at the faces of the people sitting around me. I was delighted to see smiles and looks of intense concentration, as they were leaning forward in their seats as if to get closer to the action. I only wish the dancers could have seen how the audiences’ faces lit up the dark house.

[cahill]

Two videos with some interesting behind-the-scene clips of the Paris Tour including an interview with Edward Villella.

Pointe Magazine

Americans in Paris-Tendus Under a Palm Tree

[iwatchthecorps]

Corps member Rebecca King has posted a video made of short interviews with dancers and staff of MCB including Edward Villella.

See her video at Tendus Under A Palm Tree