96 replies to this topic

[miliosr]

10 choices -- from the sublime to the ridiculous.  You only get one vote.  Happy voting!

[cubanmiamiboy]

I voted already! Manuel Legris, for many reasons...

[pherank]

cubanmiamiboy, on 09 December 2012 - 07:21 PM, said:

I voted already! Manuel Legris, for many reasons...

I had chosen Legris too, Cubanmiamiboy - he seems the most obvious good fit. Guillem would be an interesting choice, but I don't think she necessarily has the all the managerial skills, and perhaps temperament, to run a large company. Forsythe, MacGregor, Ratmansky - all interesting to think about, but I have to believe they want to stay close to the art of choreography, rather than spend their time in arts management and 'human resources'.

[Mashinka]

Another Legris vote here, Parisians I've spoken to believe he would steer the company back in
in the direction of classicism.  Surprised Kadar Balarbi's name isn't listed though.

[ksk04]

Legris was smart to leave when he did and manage the company in Vienna. Didn't POB have to emergency borrow some of his dancers for DQ this week?

[miliosr]

Mashinka, on 10 December 2012 - 02:01 AM, said:

Surprised Kadar Balarbi's name isn't listed though.

No other reason than keeping the voting options at a manageable length.  I also didn't include Pina Bausch (via seance)!

ksk04, on 10 December 2012 - 02:37 PM, said:

Legris was smart to leave when he did and manage the company in Vienna. Didn't POB have to emergency borrow some of his dancers for DQ this week?

Interesting.  If true, is the Opera so thin on-the-ground in terms of pure, classical dancers that they have to import them from up the road?  The Opera certainly doesn't seem to have a problem casting the modern/contemporary works Madame Lefevre loves so much.


Given the vote count as of Monday evening, I see an interesting dynamic shaping up with Legris and Hilaire 1-2 in terms of vote-getting.  If Legris gets the nod, does Hilaire stay?  It certainly would be humiliating for him to be passed over when he was the "company man" who held the classical end of the company together during the Lefevre era.

[ksk04]

miliosr, on 10 December 2012 - 03:56 PM, said:

ksk04, on 10 December 2012 - 02:37 PM, said:

Legris was smart to leave when he did and manage the company in Vienna. Didn't POB have to emergency borrow some of his dancers for DQ this week?

Interesting.  If true, is the Opera so thin on-the-ground in terms of pure, classical dancers that they have to import them from up the road?  The Opera certainly doesn't seem to have a problem casting the modern/contemporary works Madame Lefevre loves so much.

According to the schedule, Maria Yakovleva and Denys Cherevychko from Vienna danced on 11/24, 11/27, and 12/3. From what I've read they were short notice substitutes though for whom I am not sure.

[Helene]

I don't think there's a shortage of classical dancers at POB; however, sometimes a number of them are dancing the contemporary works.

Do people think that Legris has the upper leg because of his administrative experience in Vienna?

[miliosr]

Helene, on 10 December 2012 - 09:04 PM, said:

I don't think there's a shortage of classical dancers at POB; however, sometimes a number of them are dancing the contemporary works.

There may not be a shortage of classical dancers at the Opera but there may be a shortage of (a) classical dancers who have been trained up to the demands of carrying a full-length ballet, and/or an overabundance of (b) classical dancers (particularly etoiles) who only want to dance the one-acts.  How else to explain having to provide coverage from outside the troupe?  (Does the hierarchy come into play with who can and cannot dance leads in a full-length?  If so, the hierarchy is counterproductive in this instance because the company wound up importing dancers from Legris' Opera-in-exile.)

Some of it may have been poor planning and bad luck -- trying to mount two dozen+ performances of Don Quixote and the William Forsythe/Trisha Brown program side-by-side while dealing with who knows how many injuries.

[cinnamonswirl]

Injuries have certainly come into play. There is a distinct shortage of Basilios this year. Lots of Kitris. Josua Hoffalt, Mathias Heyman and Stephane Bullion, all etoiles who would presumably have danced Basilio, are injured. Mathieu Ganio, not initially expected to dance, had to be drafted in as a last minute sub. But that still has left poor Karl Paquette (one of the weaker Basilios, IMO) scheduled for 13 performances with 3 Kitris - Ludmila Pagliero, Dorothee Gilbert and Svetlana Zakharova (who was announced as a guest ages ago). Plus, Pierre-Arthur Raveau, a sujet dancing Basilio, only managed 1 performance before pulling out due to injury.

Hierarchy also plays a role. Instead of importing principals, they could have given more performances to, say, Mathilde Froustey, who made a ravishing debut (as expected). But she's sujet, and so not entitled to as many performances as premiere danseuse, who entitled to as many as an etoile (assuming their are any who want the role).

That said, POB is notorious for having injuries up the wazoo this time of year. They insist on performing contemporary and classical works at the same time, ignoring the strain on dancers' bodies from switching between the two styles. The administration knows that. So, the wisdom of doing 25 performances of Don Q, a strain on even a large company like POB, PLUS the Forsythe is questionable at best, IMO.

Going back to Lefevre's sucessor, I do think Legris has a bit of a leg up on Hilaire given his administrative position in Vienna. He's done a very nice job with the company.

[silvermash]

Well I think it's definitely poor planning. It's always the same in December and it can be worse as the winter is not so bad until now and illness has not yet added to injuries.  But it's also bad luck because Bullion and Magnenet who were on Don Quichotte are usually injury free and very reliable on classics. They saved Swan Lake and Cinderella the two past years. Some Premiers danseurs are also injured. I think Thibault was supposed to dance at first...

However, no one really understand why only two Etoiles (Bullion and Paquette) were originally on Don Quichotte... They only called Ganio when Bullion was injured,  to back up Paquette, I guess just in case to partner Gilbert for the live broadcast and Zakharova in the event of Paquette being unable to dance...

I don't think all the Etoiles are needed on this Brown/Forsythe bill... It's really a pity to see Le Riche, Bélingard or Moreau dancing about 10 minutes in Garnier while Paquette is labouring 2 hours on a half 12 times in Bastille... Well Nureyev Basilio is really hard to dance and some Etoiles might be too old or too fragile... or simply not willing to take the risk...

Regarding the topic, I don't feel Legris has proven much imagination in Vienna, it's more or less copying what has been done in Paris the past years... Perhaps someone outside the company will give a fresh input more than needed?

[miliosr]

cinnamonswirl, on 11 December 2012 - 06:12 AM, said:

But that still has left poor Karl Paquette (one of the weaker Basilios, IMO) scheduled for 13 performances with 3 Kitris

silvermash, on 11 December 2012 - 06:26 AM, said:

It's really a pity to see Le Riche, Bélingard or Moreau dancing about 10 minutes in Garnier while Paquette is labouring 2 hours on a half 12 times in Bastille

All of which speaks to Madame Lefevre's apparent lack of a conscience . . .

[silvermash]

miliosr, on 12 December 2012 - 04:23 PM, said:

cinnamonswirl, on 11 December 2012 - 06:12 AM, said:

But that still has left poor Karl Paquette (one of the weaker Basilios, IMO) scheduled for 13 performances with 3 Kitris

silvermash, on 11 December 2012 - 06:26 AM, said:

It's really a pity to see Le Riche, Bélingard or Moreau dancing about 10 minutes in Garnier while Paquette is labouring 2 hours on a half 12 times in Bastille

All of which speaks to Madame Lefevre's apparent lack of a conscience . . .

Well Paquette is not such a slave that he couldn't refuse...  the direction would have been long faced to its lack of organisation if he was just doing his normal share...

[miliosr]

silvermash, on 12 December 2012 - 10:31 PM, said:

Well Paquette is not such a slave that he couldn't refuse...  the direction would have been long faced to its lack of organisation if he was just doing his normal share...

How does that work within the strict rules of the hierarchy?  Can etoiles more senior to Paquette and who are uninjured (in this case, Le Riche, Ganio, Pech, Moreau and Belingard) outright refuse to appear in Don Quixote or only consent to appear in a certain number of performances (i.e. Ganio)?

Even if Paquette could refuse on hierarchical grounds, he may feel that being an etoile carries with it a certain responsibility in times of crisis.

[silvermash]

Honestly, I don't know.
But why this run of Don Quichotte started with 12 shows for Paquette? This is ridiculous. During the last classics, it has been seen that due to different injuries during the run, dancers like Bullion, Paquette  and Martinez danced a lot of shows, but at a last minute replacements (even if it tends  to become more and more frequent and less and less last minute).
But starting 26 shows of Don Quichotte with only two etoiles and three Premiers danseurs (with one Thibault really fragile) is a lack of foresight, especially after what happened last season with Cinderella and Bayadère.
So of course, Paquette is convenient... It is convenient from an administrative point of view, but is it from an artistic point of view?