Estelle

Hi Jean-Marie, and I'm glad you have found us ! I am French too, I attend fewer performances than what I used to when I lived in Paris a few years ago, but am looking forward to any POB-related discussions. You might also introduce yourself in the "Welcome" thread (which might be read by more people than this POB discussion). Best wishes for your eyesight recovery, and if you see some performances (or for example want to discuss some ballet DVDs), feel free to start new threads !

I wonder from whom the "fraudulent statement" comes from ? Stanko Milov has a page on the PNB web site: http://www.pnb.org/company/bio-milov.html it says that before joining the PNB, he used to dance with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, joining PNB as a principal dancer in 1999. His own web site: http://www.stankomilov.com says the same, so perhaps the wrong statement doesn't come from him, but from the article's author, or the IBT press ofice ?

Yes, the Maison de la Danse is a nice theater indeed- but I regret that they schedule so little ballet... By the way, is José Martinez known as José Carlos Martinez in Spain ? Here he's always called "José Martinez", without "Carlos"... But perhaps he added "Carlos" on his web site because "José Martinez" is such a common name (Martinez is quite common in France, and I guess even more in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries) that he preferred to avoid being confused with homonyms ! It is good that ballet schools (previously the POB school, and now the Conservatoire) give him some opportunities to choreograph... Parts of his work "Scaramouche" were shown in NYC by the POB school some time ago, so perhaps you could find some reviews of it either in this forum or on the Danceview Times web site. Also Agnès Letestu (his former partner, and still his stage partner regularly) created some very original costumes for his ballets, I wonder if she has some plans to work as a costume designer later when she stops her career as a dancer ? But selfishly I hope that José Martinez's new activities as a choreographer will leave him enough time to continue performing often enough, as he's one of my very favorite dancers

I think the extra syllable isn't a typo (I've seen that title written like that elsewhere), perhaps the final "ita" is intended as a sort of Spanish-like diminutive form ? Actually José Martinez had already done a choreography called "Mi Favorita" (I don't remember if it was on the same music as this one, but it was a work for a group of POB young dancers and was performed in a "Jeunes danseurs" program. I saw it a few years ago, and also another choreography he had made later for the POB school ("Scaramouche"). Both works were entertaining, humorous, clever pieces (including some parodies of bits of well-known ballets), well-suited to their young performers, but I can't say I have a very precise memory of it, and it's hard to know about Mr Martinez's choreographic skills after just those two pieces. CarolinaM, your post made me nostalgic of the period a few years ago when I used to live just two metro stations away from the Paris Conservatoire and used to attend their annual performances (which also had the advantage to be free)... Unfortunately I live far from there now. I hope that some other posters from this board will be able to attend it.

I haven't followed the company very closely in recent years, since I've moved from Paris to Lyon, but I fully agree with what you've written: under Ms Lefèvre's direction, the classical repertory has been shrinking, and I'd say especially the 20th century neoclassical repertory (e.g. Lifar's works were completely neglected, the Tudor repertory that Nureyev has brought has disappeared, the Ballets Russes works haven't been performed much...) and she definitely seems fare more interested in the modern dance premieres, even though most of such works were very short-lived.

Thanks for that beautiful photo, rg ! So far I had mostly seen photos or videos of Golovine as a POB teacher in his later years (he also was Claude Bessy's husband in the last two years of his life). The Golovine family seemed quite gifted for dance, as his brother also was a dancer (under the stage name Georges Goviloff) and also his sister Solange Golovine (a dancer for the Marquis de Cuevas, and later a reputed ballet teacher).

Oh, how sad It must be hugely disappointing for all the fans of Hilaire who had bought tickets for that performance, what a pity ! Do you think there's any hope his farewell performance could be postponed to next season, if nothing is suitable this season ? I never really understood the procedure for farewell performances, especially with the new rules about the retirement age which make things more complicated (for example, when is Kader Belarbi expected to retire ? His age probably is quite close to that of Hilaire...), for example if I remember correctly Carole Arbo never really got a "real" farewell performance, her last performances were in Robbins' "Other Dances", in the middle of a program (and not in a full-length work like "Giselle", "La Sylphide", "Romeo and Juliet", etc. as it generally is the case).

Well, who made that claim anyway ? I haven't seen it in that thread.

Azulynn, lucky you !! Please report back- and also about other performances if you see some...

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/20112006/202/ball...a-scene-de.html The POB has officially announced that Laurent Hilaire will have his farewell performance on December 10, as Albrecht in Giselle. Since March 2005, he's one of the ballet masters of the company (I guess that perhaps he took that position a bit before the retirement age because a position was available at that moment and such opportunities don't happen often), and was not listed among the "étoiles" any longer, but this performance will be his last official performance as "étoile"... I guess that performance must have been sold out weeks ago !

Yes probably... The other performance in the same period is "Coppélia", but it is not Patrice Bart's recent production, not a traditional production (and the next full-length classics this season will be Nureyev's production of "Don Quixote" in February-March and "Cinderella" in April-May). All that makes me think once again about the logic of the programming at the POB, with so many modern works And also, for example, it seems to me that "The Nutcracker" hasn't been performed for years (in France it doesn't have the same status as in the US for example, however I think it would surely attract quite a lot of audience, especially in the holiday season).

nikyia79: there can be some returned tickets in Paris as well, so sometimes there are some tickets which are sold on the evening of the performance. If I remember correctly, the box office opens 45 minutes before the beginning of the performance (so usually at 6:45 PM as performances start at 7:30 PM), but when a performance is sold out people start queuing long before, so to have a chance to get a ticket one should go there much earlier (sometimes as early as 2 hours before the performance- better bring a book !) Actually it makes me wonder why the POB hadn't scheduled more performances "Giselle", as the tickets have been sold out so quickly...

CarolinaM, thanks for giving us so much detailed information about the present situation in Spain ! Let's hope both projects will work... and please keep us informed if there are any news about it !

Well, considering that many French dance companies are struggling to get subsidies and that the exposure of the French audience to ballet is getting close to zero in most cities except Paris (and also that when Petit left Marseille, he announced he would settle in Geneva- probably partly for fiscal reasons...), I wouldn't exactly expect such subsidies to be among the French government priorities ! :grinning-smiley-001: As far as I know, besides France, one country where Petit's works were (are ?) performed quite regularly is Italy. He's often worked with Italian dancers (for example Alessandra Ferri was invited as a guest to perform "Carmen" at the POB) and as far as I know, some of his works are in the repertory of the Scala of Milan.

So far, I've been more interested in Petit's oldest works (from the 1940s-50s: "Les Forains", "Le rendez-vous", "Le jeune homme et la mort", "Carmen"- and I really regret not having had opportunities to see "Le Loup") than his more recent ones... Perhaps part of it is due to all the collaborations with various artists that Petit had in his youth (he was lucky to have a Kochno to help him...) I wonder what his "Proust" will look like at the Paris Opera, I don't think it has been danced in quite a long while... The relationship between Petit and the POB has always sounded quite complicated (Petit doesn't have the reputation to have an easy temper, and the complicated POB administration probably doesn't help), a bit like Béjart (by the way, both were part of a temporary project of POB direction around 1968, but I think it never materialized, it was in a very troubled period). There were moments when almost none of his works were in the POB's repertory, but now the relationship seems to be better and there have been many Petit programs in recent years. Also there are some POB dancers that he likes a lot, for example Nicolas Le Riche who has been cast in many of this works and for whom he created "Clavigo". Now the Ballet de Marseille has turned into a mostly modern dance company (yet another one ) and has no works by Petit in its repertory (what a pity, after he spent to many years in Marseille... But the reasons for his rather sudden departure never were known clearly), actually I think the only French company performing it is the POB. Well, the same could be said of most French companies (for example I doubt the Lyon Opera Ballet performs anything dating from before 1980), and even of much of the content of POB seasons in last years (Petit being one of the only exceptions), with a more and more visible preference for the "last Thursday" category...

Thanks for the information, Geier. Do you know when she staged that version ?

There is indeed a sort of link between "The Cage" and "Giselle" (in terms of plot), but as Geier wrote, "The Cage" is a modern work with a different style and also a very different music (Stravinsky instead of Adam). I'm a bit puzzled about the "Giselle- Yvette Chauviré" bit: are there more details about it ? Chauviré was one of the great interprets of the role, but as far as I know she isn't a choreographer- so is it a video of her, or is she mentioned because she staged a pas de deux or coached the dancers ? (By the way, trying to get some information about it, I came across two pages- one in the French wikipedia and one in MSN Encarta saying that Chauviré died in 1996. Well, I guess that then the people who saw her taking bows on stage at the end of the POB "Homage to Chauviré" program in 1998 saw a ghost ? ) dave23, yes indeed 175 euros is not a small price for a ballet ticket... Perhaps you could try to take tickets in a cheaper category so you'd have less regrets if the program isn't so interesting (but well, on the web site the cheapest category I see still cost 75,5 euros, and I don't know about the sight lines in that theater...) As far as I know, there is no company in Brussels, but in Belgium there is the Royal Ballet of Flanders, perhaps you could try to see if they tour in your region and their tickets might be more affordable...

I vaguely remembered that Terence Davies' version of "The House of Mirth" had been discussed here a few years ago... and here it is (in a 2002 discussion about books) : http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...indpost&p=50714

It is interesting to notice that on Dec 10, Laurent Hilaire will be dancing Albrecht (partnering Aurélie Dupont, with also Wilfried Romoli as Hilarion and Marie-Agnes Gillot as Myrtha). Hilaire officially retired some time ago and now is one of the ballet masters of the company, so opportunities to see him on stage are a rare event- I wonder if it will be a sort of farewell performance ? (Patrice Bart, the current ballet master in chief, had retired in the early 1980s before the age limit to become a ballet master, but still had done a farewell performance a few years later- I think it was in "Petrouchka"). It also is interesting to notice that Laetitia Pujol will be back on stage (she had been absent for some months because of maternity leave).

Oh dear. Much as I like bassets hound (and my husband loves them and collects basset-hound postcards), I'm not sure Ms Osta would find such a comparison flattering- and fortunately for her, she doesn't have basset hound legs (or jumping ability)... :-)

Well, I have no idea... And sometimes one has to be careful with the information given on dancers' web sites, as it can change (especially if there are injuries).

The last official performance of the POB étoile Noëlla Pontois at the Paris Opera was in John Neumeier's "Nutcracker", with her daughter (POB sujet) Miteki Kudo, they were dancing the roles of two sisters.

It was not at a ballet, but last week-end at the cinema (showing an Iranian film "Café transit" (Border café)), there was a old gentleman who fall asleep from the first minute of the film and who snored VERY loudly during ALL the film. At first, the snoring noises caused some giggles in the audience, but after a while it really became annoying, especially in all the quiet scenes when the snoring was sometimes louder than the dialogues... I guess most of the audience regretted that his neighbors didn't dare to wake him up.

I remember reading about a ballet company which used to exist in Zaragoza (Saragossa). Has anybody here heard about it ?

I checked the price, it is 6 euros per child. I'm not a specialist of babysitting, but that doesn't seem expensive, considering that it's not only baby-sitting but some music-related activities (the actual name is "jardin musicaux").