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2015-2016 Season


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The latest from the New York City Ballet-Parisian campus:

http://madame.lefigaro.fr/celebrites/benjamin-millepied-variation-libre-300115-94145?a1=DOL-83150&a3=77-4208565&a4=DOL-83150-77-4208565

Can anyone translate Millepied's remarks about Madame Lefevre for us? I used Google Translate but the result was odd.

In the 1st group photo (w/ everyone jumping), I can identify Axel Ibot, Sebastien Bertaud, Alessio Carbone, Millepied, Nicolas Paul, Audric Bezard and Florian Magnenet. Who am I missing (left to right)?

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Audience video of the (rehearsal) defile:

https://www.facebook.com/catherine.boudebbah/videos/10153281905998577/

I can't even begin to express how much I hate the switch from Berlioz to Wagner. I know Lifar wanted to use the Wagner after the war and the management vetoed it (with good reason, I might add.) There's just not the same build or majesty to the Wagner music the way there is with the Berlioz march.

It looked like a lot of people were missing, including Marie-Agnes Gillot and Jeremie Belingard, who were in New York performing in Wayne McGregor's latest overblown spectacle.

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It looks like the "all Jerome" night now includes a new Millepied:

https://www.operadeparis.fr/saison-15-16/ballet/jerome-bel-jerome-robbins

Is there really that much demand for a new Millepied in Paris? (That's more of a rhetorical question than an actual question.)

And it also looks like Benjamin Pech is bidding "adieux" on February 20th with "In the Night" (Robbins) and "Le Parc" (Preljocaj).

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Well two things perhaps to mention: This double bill was selling poorly which is extremely rare in Opera Garnier always full of tourists so perhaps Millepied thought his show biz fame would fill in with new audience (he had a documentary on him shown on TV in December broadly covered by the press)… Also he surprisingly (with no info, we discovered it on POB website) withdrew from the new Nutcracker so perhaps he’s recycling some already prepared material.

Yes Benjamin Pech is retiring. He wasn’t dancing much the past years due to permanent injury but from the middle of last year, he’s Millepied personal adviser.

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Well of course this is just my impression but I think it was the case at the beginning of December but both Garnier and Bastille were pretty full at the end of December. I think French audience at least is back. But Paris Opera has sent a lot of huge discount offers the past weeks for both operas and ballets and most of them are still available. I even received another one for Werther this morning. I think the past years, they used to sell a lot to tour operators and that is maybe the problem cause I've heard the tourist industry is still suffering cancellations.

However, you can't disregard the fact that the ballet programme is not very exciting this season. I know quite a number of friends who have given up subscriptions this season and are not even coming just for one show...

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I'm wondering if some of the attendance trouble is due to the recent violence in Paris

However, you can't disregard the fact that the ballet programme is not very exciting this season.

I have to agree with silvermash. You can blame poor ticket sales on terrorism or the Moon being full or Mars being in Retrograde . . . or maybe the programming just sucks! Talk about a floodtide of Jerome Robbins -- he's on three separate programs this season. And then there was the spectacle at the annual competition with so many people choosing Robbins for their free variations.

Can't wait to hear how the Justin Peck nights sell!

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Well of course this is just my impression but I think it was the case at the beginning of December but both Garnier and Bastille were pretty full at the end of December. I think French audience at least is back. ... I think the past years, they used to sell a lot to tour operators and that is maybe the problem cause I've heard the tourist industry is still suffering cancellations.

Ah, I hadn't thought about that feature -- I imagine you're closer to the mark than my speculation.

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Well two things perhaps to mention: This double bill was selling poorly which is extremely rare in Opera Garnier always full of tourists so perhaps Millepied thought his show biz fame would fill in with new audience (he had a documentary on him shown on TV in December broadly covered by the press)… Also he surprisingly (with no info, we discovered it on POB website) withdrew from the new Nutcracker so perhaps he’s recycling some already prepared material.
Yes Benjamin Pech is retiring. He wasn’t dancing much the past years due to permanent injury but from the middle of last year, he’s Millepied personal adviser.

has the new season(2016-17) been posted?Hoping there will be more classical ballet.

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it will be out February 10th on POB website

This upcoming season will be the real test for Millepied. The novelty of his celebrity will have worn off and he'll be judged based on repertory and how the execution of that repertory comports -- or doesn't -- with the French style.

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Millepied is a lot like Madame Lefevre -- what he says and what he does are two different things. Just this Fall the POB performed in the de Keersmaeker night and the Wheeldon/MacGregor/Bausch triple bill. And the contemporary dance Nutcracker is looming on the horizon as well. There's been a lot of stuff performed already that wouldn't classify as neo-classical (let alone classical).

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BM has repeatedly stated that he wants a stronger emphasis on "classical ballet," but he also says he does not like the term "neo-classical," so in referring to more "classical" I suspect he means more of himself, Wheeldon, Ratmansky, Peck - en pointe.

I know, it bothers me when folks use the term "classical" only to mean "not modern dance". (But we have another thread somewhere on the semantics of that.)

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Millepied is a lot like Madame Lefevre -- what he says and what he does are two different things. Just this Fall the POB performed in the de Keersmaeker night and the Wheeldon/MacGregor/Bausch triple bill. And the contemporary dance Nutcracker is looming on the horizon as well. There's been a lot of stuff performed already that wouldn't classify as neo-classical (let alone classical).

Anti-classicism spreads to Italy with the appointment of Bigonzetti as AD in La Scala, as per an earlier post. Paris, Milan, Berlin (Nacho)...

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I know, it bothers me when folks use the term "classical" only to mean "not modern dance". (But we have another thread somewhere on the semantics of that.)

I'm thinking I'm going to start a separate thread for this, but just to keep the thought close to the reminder -- the Society of Dance History Scholars is sponsoring a conference in May on "Contemporary Ballet" -- some of the conversation will be academic in nature (that's who they are), but anyone here in New York at the time might want to sit it -- I have a feeling there will be heated discussion.

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