cygneblanc

Former POB principal Jean Guizerix has been promoted at the position of temporary manager of the Ballet du Nord as a replacement for Maryse Delente.

No Estelle, of course, life of ballet students and especially in France POB'ones is very, very difficult !

For gymnastics (and figure skating also) it is a general problem, but it is aggravated in some countries like Romania, Russia, and China. The romanian coach, Octavian Belu, has recently been accusated of both moral and physical harassments by some retired gymnasts, including some world champions and olympic medalists, especially after the death of 12 girl Alexandra Hucci (she officially died of an inborn heart disease, but the results of the autopsy are being kept secret). Another romanian girl died after her coach hit her. In the USA, Bella's Karoly's (former coach of Nadia Commanecci, who deserted Romania in the early 1980's and then had a very sucessful career in the States where he trained among many others 1984 all around olympic gold medalist Mary-Lou Retton, 1991 all around world champion Kim Zmeskal, Dominique Moceanu and Kerry Strug, members of the 1996 team who got a gold medal at the Atlanta Games) methods of training, were discussed during the 1996 olympic games, and in France methods of training were critized during the Elodie Lussac's case (what I found hypocritical in her father's saying is that actually he was a french national coach when she got injured and he coached her during most of her career.

Well, I have to say Miss Guillem is right about gymnastics. As I have already said I'm a former figure skater. I attented the french equivalent for the Children's Professional School in New York and some of the girls were doing gymnastics. One day, in grade 2 (7 years old) their coach got furious with them, and had them doing the uneven bars without their hands-protective equipements. The poor girls couln't write anymore and things like that were happening all the time . The coach has later been dismissed from his coaching position of the national team, and they closed the training center and opened a new one in Marseille with some new coaches, but nothing has really changed there. Even in the POB school kids aren't treated like they are in gymnastics. And for those who are sucessful, most of the time, they're finished about 18 because of injuries or/and puberty. I hope that can help to explain Miss Guillem's words

Here are the infos I promised about Giselle.

It seems that the original version was performed for the last time in the POB in 1868. The first performance was on June 28, 1841 with Carlotta Grisi dancing Giselle. It was given until 1849 (89 performances). Then we have a 3 years break, and it was performing again in the POB in 1852 and avril 1853 (only 2 performances). Again a break (10 years) and it was played again in 1863 with some new sets and costumes. It was very sucessful and they kept playing it until 1868. Then it diseapeared and was scheduled again in 1924 because Jacques Rouché took on Olga Spessivtzeva and wanted to program Giselle for her, so he asked to Mr Sergeev to recreate it for her, according to the last version of Marius Petipa presented at The Marie Theater, with Alexandre Benois for the sets/costuming

I'm sorry, I don't have a lot of time, french students are having some exams at this time of the year and I have to correct what they wrote, and it isn't fun at all

For those who are interested in, I have found the infos in a book written by Serge Lifar, "Giselle apothéose du ballet romantique

Katharine,

For each seat the governement give to the Opera about 100 euros (it varies each year), so for an empty seat of an "A" performance prize, the opera is losing 73 euros and the taxpayer 100 euros. Sylvia, financially speaking, is a fuss, but what an idea to program that piece at Bastille during the holidays. Everyone is going to Garnier for Paquita !

Alexandra, I'm not sure if people of the French Finance State Department are very sentitive about the "art" road ( For their defence, they 're being paid each month for saying what they're saying".

We have to remember that in France, the "government of culture" as we call it, is a very polemic subject, partly because of our history and the fact that some french kings were looking to control art, especially Louis XIV. In the last century problems were related to two personnalities: André Malraux and Jacques Lang, the most known state secretaries of culture. Also important is François Mitterand and his "grands travaux " : I have no good translation to offer but during his two mandates he had a lot very big and expensive cultural edifices constructed among them the Bastille Opera. it is sometimes said France isn't cultural-free, because of the state -control on culture.

Well,

I don't have a lot time now, so my response will be short, I hope I will have more time later : for some of my schoolwork during my undergraduate studies I had to interview some people in the POB and in the Chatelet, and we have to notice that in the POB case both the financial aspect and its legal statutes are primordial; The scheduling has to be done according to the legal rules governing the POB : shortly it is a "state institution" (not a municipal one as the Chatelet) financed by the State and whose management is controlled by "the Cour des Comptes" and the French Finance State Department. So they can't do what they want, when they are doing the schedule they have do deal with that, and the POB can't be a "laboratory", as the Chatelet Theater for exemple, because of its legal statute. There is a lot of fuss made by some people about the cost of the Paris Opera (you have to notice that financially speaking there is no separation between ballet and opera) and about the Bastille Theater and about the running of the National Theater of Opera.

So here's a summary:

Shortly, they have to programm some works that are 1) not too expensive 2) POB must sell the maximum of tickets

Alexandra, I'm afraid you have been already aware of that but here's what Odette Joyeux wrote in her book " le monde merveilleux de la danse" (the wonderful world of ballet" about Carlotta Zambelli.

She was known as Mademoiselle. She was born in 1877 in Milan, Italy and became an "Etoile" of the POB in 1894. She has been desribed as a very focused woman with a great determination, . She wasn't looking to be an eminent personnality of the parisian life and disliked both eccentricity and turbulence. She was a very demanding women who didn't know the word" fatigue" and gave her whole life for the POB.

I will look tomorrow in some of my books for the Giselle issue

Well,

I don' t think you have to worry about customs duties, unless the parcel is really big. I'm a PhD student, I live in France. I need for my research to buy a lot of second hand books in the USA, and I have never been asked to pay custom dusties, but the parcels were not too big, I mean for ballet books it can be different. But shipping and handling from the USA to Europe is not cheap, $10 for air mail, $6 for surface mail (delivery : about 2 months but it works !).

You can try the following websites (a lot of choice, you can find books in English even on the German Websites, and they often are less expensive than in the English/ American ones) :

abebooks.com, sfb.at, zvab.com, chapitre.com, galaxidion.com (in french) or go to yahoo.com, search for second hand books, and you will get a lot of good websites !

An article in Le Monde (for those of you who don't understand french, actually that article isn't saying some really new things :

www.lemonde.fr/

I tried to put a direct link, but I'm sorry it doesn't work . Once you're on the Webpage of Le MOnde, please scroll down and under the heading "politique culturelle", you will find the article:D

I made an error while entering theURL, Estelle, I'm sorry! I edited a new one, and it is working , at least now! The article was published in The Times of London yesterday monday 13th)

It looks like she has been removed from her position of Ballet du Nord's (in Roubaix, France) artistic Director.

www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=6091e1d4-c0d7-4707-a995-86c7ba8865f9

It has something to do with moral harassment. After the National Ballet of Marseille (Marie-Claude Pietragalla's company), the school of the POB, here's a new issue of moral harassment:(

Well, I don't really know what to say :confused: . Mlle Pietragalla as an explanation told she had been treating her dancers of the same way Nureev had treated the POB's ones.

Nothing in the french press yet.

I saw it Katharine, but since I don't have a lot time today, my summary will be short.

She said she had always been told being too fat, that her teacher had the students being corrected with a wand, not with her hands, that some girls had performed while being injured, especially with some stress fractures, that once a girl during a rehearsal had fainted and nobody had reacted, that when Mrs Bessy was hating you it wasn't good at all for you.

She also said that nobody spoke because everyone was afraid.

They showed a part of a rehearsal of La fille Mal Gardée (students performed this piece during their annual performance last year). Marie-Laetitia Diederichs was playing la fille, and they showed Mrs Bessy while telling to a boy (maybe Jossua Hoffalt, I'm not sure) with sticked out ears to put his ears under his hat, because ears out the the hat weren't looking nice and she made a gesture with her hands to show how the sticked out ears outside the hat were looking bad.

Finally, Miss Roppers said she wouldn't do that again, and she had suffered during all her childhood.

For those of you who live in the USA, you may be interested in reading a book called Little Girls in pretty Boxes by Joan Ryan. It is about gymnastics and figure skating, but it is speaking about exactly the same problems than the ones pointed in the report about the POB school.

Please do it when you have time, Alexandra:) I can't wait for reading them !

Elisabeth Maurin has been featured on TV today during a short period of time. They got her there for speaking about the Tribute. She said all the dancers would have a very special feeling during that night and she would be more nervous than usual. She also explained of which way Rudy influenced her dance. She said his narrative choregraphies helped her do develop her interpretations especially on the dramatic aspect. When she was asked about her future, she responded she would like to pass on what she has learnt. I mean in more explicit terms, she 's aspiring to teach. Claude Bessy said once in an interview that Melle Maurin would teach at Nanterre after getting retired

Well, I have never been sucessful with the online booking. I tried to have som free tickets for the Passeport via that way, and it has never worked. A friend of mine has been more sucessful, but until now she hasn't received the tickets yet ! It seems like Estelle said there are a lot of problems with the Opera Website.

Thanks for the URL, Estelle! Vulnerability and humanity are the perfect words for describing Claire-Marie Osta!

Alexandra,

I think you can find courses on ethics in the departments of Philosophy. I know it is (or was) teached at Harvard, and to college students as a mandatory course !

Well, to my mind, a lot of ballet directors in France would have been happy to have been given the opportunity to study problems related to their work.

Right now, directors have a lof of problems they don't know to solve and handle, especially Maryse Delente in the Ballet du Nord and Marie-Claude Pietragalla in Marseille. In Marseille they now have a director for the "Business related issues". MC. Pietragalla is only in charge of the artistic side, and I heard her on TV complaining about the fact she never got a real training and education about her new job!

The fact that the director is sometimes a principal of the company doesn't always help, I mean.

I saw Elisabeth Maurin and Benjamin Pech. It was a deliberate choice. This year I want to see Elisabeth Maurin as much I can because she is scheduled to retire at the end of the season and I enjoy her dance very much. It was said she had been losting her technical skills. I have to admit that, of course, it's right.

She was just so so..but the fouettes were correct though .(Alexandra should I try to translate ? I think in English, ballet terms are in french ? ) , But what an interpretation ! She just is the character she's playing, she's appropriating it so well !

Well, for B.Pech, he was very good in the 3 &4 parts, but not in the 1&2 ones! I was under the impression he was sleeping (compared to parts 3&4 ) ;) . I think he was technically flawless, but that was all !

The napolitan dance with M.Kudo and E.Thibault was good, as well the pas de trois (E.ABbagnato, N.Daniel, J.Belinguard) but I wonder if N. Daniel was a good match with the two others ?

Overall, I enjoyed the performance, but there was nothing really new, a good traditional performance from the POB!

Alexandra, yes, I heard about the Nuereyev's choregraphy, but I liked it. I have to say that I'm not aware enough of the others" ones!

And no, I didn't get the chance to see Zakhravova, but I heard a lot of good things about her, especially her arms!

Well,

I got to see the Swan Lake by the POB, and since nothing has been really new, I choose to attend Kirov Performances, and I wasn't disapointed. I saw their new "historical" version of the Bayadere, and well I liked it. It is less spectacular that you may expect ( I think to the destroying of the temple) and a little kitsch, but it's still an enjoyable event. Should I tell more or do I need to the Kirov Area ?

I would like the POB invite some dancers from abroad for a little more variety. They got some russians the last year and the public seemed to appreciate them, as far I remember.

I'm very sorry Alexandra and please accept my apologies. I was speaking of promotions in general and the way of people are discussing them in general. On some french parts of the Web that I think Estelle know (but you may know them if you're able to understand french) the promotions are discussed in an excessive way (or with too much passion :rolleyes:confused: ) to my mind. I have noticed that nowhere on the English speaking parts people are discussing in a such drastic way. I was reffering to that when I said that Estelle would understand. Once again, please accept my apologies

Alexandra,

Because of personnal reasons, I know very well the inside of the POB and I'm very aware of gossip and of every problem linked to that .

In Paris, trying to guess who gets promoted isn't fun at all, , and you're going to think I'm mad but for certains cases it shouln't be so inappropriate to speak of a war:mad:

I mean Estelle is understanding what I have in mind, and maybe the others, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to discuss these issues:confused:

Well Alexandra, I was writing the precedent message when you posted yours ! I think the issue is that Claire-Marie is maybe to reserved on stage, I don't really know how to put that into words and don't wish to speak about her "off stage" personality but what I can say is she's a very well rounded and interesting person, and she is to my mind (or was) to "schoolish" in some of her interpretations, she tried too much to suit the etablished patterns, and was too afraid to shock, if I can say. She also suffered from the fact of being the wife of the one you know!

I read somewhere (I won't tell where) that Marie- Agnes Gillot (and I like her a lot, and wish she will get what she deserves, to be an "Etoile") didn't get to be promoted because "she isn't the spouse of one very influencial etoile"

Now she's an Etoile I hope she'll fell free, and let people know what she's. And I think Giselle will allow her to do that !

Thank you for welcoming me Estelle and Alexandra

Estelle, have you already seen a piece danced by Leriche and Osta called Rodin ? I don't remember the name of the choregrapher but the music was one of my favorite pieces, Mahler's Fifth Symphony. I liked their interpretation a lot.

Well, they might not be a very aestheticcaly pleasing match but I think that could have some very interesting consequences on their interpretations ! And I really would like to see them in Giselle or in Romeo and Juliette !

And to etablish them as a pair on stage could be very beneficial for the two of theirs : Claire-Marie would show more drama and Nicholas, whose I think right now he's extinguished (and I appreciate him) would be more passionate !

Hello everyone,

I'm new here.

Well, what I can say is that I was very happy when I learned that Claire-Marie finally got the title she deserves fully to my mind. As Estelle said , it was a real surprise, but a very nice one !

Yeah, it's right she will never be a Platel, a Guerin, or a Loudières but she's a very delicate and romantic ballerina. Elisabeth Maurin's retirement, I think, is scheduled for the end of this season and we are in need of that sort of ballerina.

Thus Claire-Marie is a very intelligent women and she has a lot of sensibility. I can't wait to see her in some new roles, and I hope she will dance Giselle with her husband Nicolas Leriche. That should be a very interesting moment !