cygneblanc

There is an exam at the end of each division but the first one where it is a competition. It means that in the case of an exam, all of those who haven't failed have to be promoted. In the case of a competition, you know before the beginning that there will be one, or two or more contracts. The winners won the contracts, though the judges aren't under the legal obligation to give every contract, if they feel they shouldn't be attributed. That's the case for each competition that allows you to become an employee of the State. The specific rules for these exams and competitions exist in the official rules of the POB school which unfortunately aren't available on the web but only on a printed paper. Everything is explained in : the exams of the youngest and the competition for the oldest, and theirs modalities. I wouldn't take the risk to denaturate the text with a poor translation. [Edited by Helene to add: cygneblanc provided us with a "soft copy" of the text in French, which is archived here: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=20058]

What I've seen from Melle Plagliero hasn't convinced me at all and that's it. Maybe I'm blind after all. I know people from outside can be as good, and I don't necessary approve the POB school methods. Thus, generaly speaking, I'm not pro french, and the ones who know me here know there isn't any problem. The fact is there is a school wich is there for providing dancers for the POB. They are a lot of excellent girls and boys here which have to prove their value in some unbelievable conditions during a lot of years. And then, you are asking us to approve this policy of the POB that is to offer some contracts that should be given to kids school ? If they were bad or if they were real lack of talent, that would be fine. That's not the case. Miss Pagliero may have proven her value during three years but the girls from Nanterre have proven theirs during at least five years. I wouldn't have a problem if the contract was have been given to a foreign girl educated in Nanterre.

Got some results by phone for the "surnuméraires": "our" Daniil est third! Congrats. I don't remember the names of the others boys, except Allister Madin (6) The girls : 1. Ludmilla Pagliero (what a surprise :rolleyes: ) 2. Marine Ganio 3. Marie-Astrid Casinelli 4. Amandine Albisson Claire Galdolphi, Lucie Fenwick, Julia Weiss, Cynthia Siliberto, Fanny Gorse, Valentine Colasante are behind but I don't remember the order. Congrats to the girls who were in the first division this year, and both to Julia and Cynthia. You all deserved the first place ! Have a productive year in the corps or in the school for the youngest who will choose to repeat the 1st division !

There are a lot of sad stories which can't be said on a public forum . Edit: sorry, of course I wanted to say can't be said in first!

The citizenship wouldn't be an issue if these dancers would have been trained by the school. I can tell you there is a big difference in the training you get here and the one you get in other schools. Jose Martinez and Eleonora Abbagnato are the first ones to tell that! Your impressions are right Estelle. There are more and more surnemeraire contracts and less and less steady positions. But POB students were getting a lot of the surnumeraires contracts. That's not true anymore, especially for the girls. I don't think there will be some extra budget for the POB in the next few years for steady positions. They might have some CDI (some contracts without a time limitation) soon.

No, it isn't someting academic. This is theorically an assessment of the ballet accomplishments. The grade they get at the exam is divided into two parts: one which is marking their work of the year and the other is marking how they performed at the exam. Each of this two marks is counting for 50% of the total. But if something is wrong (the body, if the director doesn't like you..), then they can give you a low mark even if you're quite good. [

It may be a shame to lose these surnumeraire but it is worse to lose some great talents from the school. These surnumeraire maybe proved their worth but pupils from the school proved theirs everyday during a lot of years. So there shouldn't be any questions, and if the POB wants to keep the school running with the current funding from the State, they should have a serious look at their politics of recruitment.

Why that smiley? I speak as a general matter, but if you wish an exemple, just take the one of the last year. And this year, it will probably be a girl who isn't from the school who will get the contract. As far I'm concerned, it insn't right.

Yes and some from others countries from Europe, too. It would be understandable if the there were a lack of talent in the school or if there were a lot contracts...But when you have so few contracts and so many talented girls in the school

Nine girls competed, and for the boys, I don't know exactly, I will tell that tonight when I'm at home. And for the contracts of "surnumeraires", I can't tell something now, since a new brand of contract might be available this year. I guess we will know that tonight, the day is going to be long. And for the girls, I'm very angry with the POB direction. They are so many of them which are excellent in the school and they are taking some girls from abroad I can't understand that !

Marie-Astrid is second and Marine is fourth. They're going to try out today for a one year contract. I think Marine will repeat her first division in september, with Amandine, Lucie, Valentine and Claire.

Each year, in order to move up, the pupils have to take an exam. If they are sucessful, they move up. Otherwise, they may be asked to repeat the grade or to leave. You can repeat a grade several times during your time at the school, eg the 5th and the 3th. It's quite common. Something else of very rare is you can be asked repeat the same grade two times. A girl had two do that for the 6th grade, and two others did it for the first one.

I see them each year since I'm a little girl. You have a little shop at the Palais Garnier but they don't sell a lot of things. You can order the Dvds and books they are selling from amazon.fr, whey they may be the cheapest. And I'm afraid that some bookstores in the city have a lot of more choice than the POB Store.

He's french and he's from Nice (it's a city on the Cote d'Azur, in the south of the country). I think he has trained at the POB school during the last 6 years

No, you won't see two identical performances. On the morning, you should see the younger kids (6th, 5th and 4th grades) in ballet, character, mime, choir, folk and the oldest kids in contemporary. You will see the oldest kids (3th, 2, and 1th grades) on the afternoon in ballet and adagio, with a character class.

The competition for the pupils of the school was today and here are the results: Are admitted: Girls : Eleonore Guérineau Boys : Florimond Lemort and Daniel Stokes Congrats to them and all my thoughts to the others, especially the girls

Yes, he was there and gave her some flowers. Jose Martinez, Wilfried Romoli, , Kader Belarbi were alo on stage too. Miss Maurin was very well received and got a 30 minutes standing ovation! She looked completely overwhemed and was crying, taking some bows with pain. She also got a lot of flowers, which is very rare in Paris!

Just a few words to say it was a wonderful night. Miss Maurin was into the part so much. I saw Aurelie Dupont too and I thought her Juliette was just too clean. I will never forget this day. An exceptional dancer said goodbye to the POB tonight ! What a musicality and what an actress! I had some tears in my eyes. During the last few years, as far I'm concerned, I think her dance was smaller than when she was younger but it was really big tonight and she let herself go into her part. A lot of her fellows were in the audience, including Aurelie Dupont (who by the way wasn't wearing any jewellery ), Laetita Pujol, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Agnes Letestu and some others. I was seated near Ghislaine Thesmar and she was very nice. The "etoiles" who were in the audience came on stage at the end to take some bows with Miss Maurin and congratulate her. And the conductor, the american Kevin Rhodes, was a very pleasant surprise. The POB orchestra usually is quite bad, but he's doing a very good job with our damned musicians! And finally, if Miss Maurin ever read this: thank you so much for everything !

Well, Rkoretzky, From what I have read about that work, it's definitively very dark. It's divided in four sections: the mourning, the fierceness, the peace and the death. The goal of PB was to exploring the great pain of the dramatis personae, teared between their double sides, the "one-dancing" and the "one singing". I think we can't compare PB and Balanchine, that's just so different. But the experience may be quite interesting, even if you aren't a fan of contemporary dance.

Atm711, No, I don't think that discutable promotion has something to do with retirement benefits... And Daniil, you didn't miss anything, he's an Etoile.

Sophia, Welcome here . I don't wish to offend you but I just want to make it clear to others that I refuse to read the forum you mentionned and the info was given to me by a british journalist who got an ad from TDK. And as far I'm concerned, I don't think it's a good idea to refer to some french forums here, whatever they are ..

According to TDK's website, the DVD of the Sylphide wil be released in Europe in May

No need to apologize for being grumpy Estelle, I'm not very excited either. I realize now that I don't like a lot of the works of the next season.. BL said the Lifar Tribute will be in 2006-2007. A bit late to my mind ! NL only creation was featured in Musiques au Coeur (it's a french TV programme) and well, I fell asleep ..It was featured at 2 AM..It was very modern.. I think I will try to see both the school demonstrations and the school performances, the Lady of the Camelias, and the young dancers. Maybe Jewels, the Parc, the Swan Lake and the Bayadere too, but since I have seen them several times, I'm think I may try to go to Hamburg once instead. Tickets aren't that expensive (77 euros for the most expensive ones and you can go there with easyjet..) . I'm also looking forward to see the ROB again..

Yes, Naoko, that's better and yes, it's official, they're going to London with le Parc at Sadlers Wells. I like both Balanchine and Jewels very much but one more time Jewels! There are a lot of Balanchine's works that are so interesting, I hope we will got them in the future. A choreo by Nicholas le Riche is a strange idea as I didn't like his first one but we never know.. I hope one day either Jean-Guillaume Bart or Jose Martinez will create something for the ballet, their previous creations were a lot of better than NLR one!

It just has been announced to the AROP, so here is it ! Le Parc Caligula, a new creation made by Nicolas Le Riche Jewels Dega's Litlle Ballerina The Swan Lake Demos by the POB School School's triple bill Balanchine's Divertimento n°15 Lifar's Between two rounds Bejart's Variation Don Giovanni Trisha Brown Dance Company Forsythe's triple bill Approximate Sonata Herman Scherman Artifact Suite The Bayadère Tripe bill Lagraa, Kylian, Teshigawara Breathe of the Time Air Bella Figura Nosferatu Neederlands Dance Theater POB's young dancers POB's young choregraphers Bejart's triple bill Mandarin Merveilleux Creation Bolero Neumeier's The Lady of the Camellias