Estelle

rg had mentioned Petipa's two sons called Marius in the following post: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...ndpost&p=173434 so perhaps there was some confusion between "Marius I" and "Marius II" ? By the way, rg, could you post a summary of Petipa's wives and children, because it sounds like a complicated family ? And do you know if there still are living descendants of Petipa ? By the way, I've tried looking for some Petipas in France, and it actually is a very rare name, with only 32 people born with that name in all France between 1891 and 1990 (while there were about 2500 homonymous "Petitpas").

Small world- I hadn't noticed that thread, but yesterday my husband showed my that video, and said he thought I'd like it as it does have some relation with dance. I wonder if Chris Bliss did some other, err, choreographies ?, using other musical scores ?

From what I understood, Poyet is the present director. Actually I found what he said not very credible- he's been working in Aix for years (and while very active culturally, Aix isn't a huge city), the Aix festival has been known for years as one of the main French festivals of modern dance, so saying more or less that "if this festival is good, then it must continue, but I have no opinion about that festival, I was too busy elsewhere" sounds a bit despising for the festival (or not saying negative things by politeness ?) Oh, I'm sorry what I wrote wasn't clearer. Actually, there is a theater in Chateauvallon (actually a outdoors amphitheatre and a indoors theatre), "Théâtre National de la Danse et de l'Image", founded in 1965 by Gérard Paquet and Henri Komatis, and which organized a dance festival every summer. Preljocaj's company was associated with that theater (and its festival) in the early 1990s. But in 1995 a new mayor was elected in the city of Toulon (Chateauvallon is a place in the city of Ollioules, but the closest big city is Toulon, and it brought much of the subsidies of the theater) and he was from the Front National party, a far right party often accused of racism and xenophobia. Preljocaj disagreed strongly with that party and decided to leave Chateauvallon at that moment. And after a lot of complicated political and legal things, the theater closed and its association was dissolved- so the dance festival disappeared around 1997 or 1998. Since then, a new association was created, with different sponsors (not the city of Toulon, but the département, region, the city of Ollioules, etc.) and there are some cultural activities in Chateauvallon, but no dance festival any longer (and also there was a new mayor in Toulon since 2001, from another party, so the situation has calmed down - but well, let's say the politics in this region are very complicated...)

I don't buy French magazines any longer, so don't follow closely what happens in French modern dance, but had heard about the end of that festival a few months ago. It seems that there had been quite a lot of tensions between the festival and Preljocaj's company (the "ballet" in its name doesn't mean at all that it's a ballet company, it's a modern dance one) since the latter settled in Aix ten years ago (before that, Preljocaj was in Chateauvallon, but had decided to leave that place in 1995 when there was a far-right newly elected mayor of the neighbor city of Toulon, one of the major sponsors of the Chateauvallon theater and festival). Actually, it's not at all "the first in a long series of budget cuts" in French dance- but some of them were for ballet companies transformed into modern ones (e.g. for the Ballet de Nancy, Ballet du Rhin, Ballet du Nord...) In that particular case, the decision to transfer the funds from the festival to the Preljocaj company came from the mayor of the city. The region and the département, which were the other public sponsors of the company, disagreed, but the festival, having lost 80% of its subsidies, couldn't survive (actually some of the money came from the casino of Aix-en-Provence: the casinos are obliged by the law to use some of their benefits to subsidize cultural activities in the neighborhood, and the festival used to get some part of it, which will now go to Preljocaj's company). Here are a few articles (in French) I've found about the closure of the Aix festival, dating from November 2005: http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2005-11-15/2005-11-15-817934 An interview of Patrice Poyet, director of the festival. http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2005-11-15/2005-11-15-817935 An article by Muriel Steinmetz. http://www.humanite.fr/journal/2005-11-21/2005-11-21-818350 A reply by Angelin Preljocaj.

I'll have to look up "hokey conceit" in a dictionary, but I wonder whether those images of Monique Loudières walking on the roof of the Opéra Garnier are a reference to a TV miniseries "L'âge heureux" (The happy age), written by the actress Odette Joyeux (who had studied at the POB school as a child), which took place in the POB school. I've never seen it but it was very successful in the 1960s (several dancers mentioned it as their initial motivation to take dance classes), and from what I've read some parts took place on the roof of the Opera (which was of course a forbidden place for the "petits rats" of the POB school, and so even more attractive...) What does "Autour de la Sylphide" look like ? And how long is it ? I've only seen photos of this (one of the first dance-related books that caught my attention was a book about Michael Denard, and it included some photos of it).

Hi Alaspuria ! As I see that it is your first post here, welcome to Ballet Talk ! And if you wish to introduce yourself, don't hesitate to do so in the "Welcome" forum: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=9 I've tried to find some news about Benito Marcelino using google, but it's not easy... He was listed as a dancer of the Karlsruhe Ballet in Germany in 2002-2003, but isn't listed among their dancers any longer. Also many of the web sites mentioning his name were in German or Dutch, two languages I don't speak... For example, he's mentioned on the following page in Dutch dating from December 2004 (it seems to be about an opera): http://www.villatutti.nl/main.asp?item=tut...&d2=itemlist&p= He is listed in the following article in German dating from september 2004 (about a ballet performance in Eisenach, Germany): http://www.tanznetz.de/forum.phtml?page=sh...c33ecf3c68c1418 This is the most recent information I've managed to find so far. Edited to add: he's listed among the dancers of the Theater Eisenach: http://www.theater-eisenach.de/redesign/co...tensemble_a.htm http://www.theater-eisenach.de/scripts/ang...149042?layout=4 I don't know what the note "*für einen Teil der Spielzeit" means (perhaps "for one part of tthe season" ?)

Golden Gate, we're looking forward to reading your comments about the Bayadère when you're back from your trip- however, it'd be better to open a new topic about it, as this one is about the 2006-2007 season. cygneblanc, will you see "La Dame aux camélias" at the end of this season? The full length works of the season will be: -Neumeier's "La Dame aux camélias" (already performed this season) -"Giselle" (production by P. Bart and Polyakov) -"Coppélia" (P. Bart's production) -Nureyev's "Don Quichotte" and "Cinderella" -Petit's "Les Intermittences du coeur" (1974, new in the repertory) -Robin Orlyn's "L'Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato" (world premiere) -Ashton's "La Fille mal gardée" (new in the repertory) and the mixed bills with be: -Lifar (Suite en blanc, Les Mirages)- Malandain (L'envol d'Icare, world premiere) -Duato (White Darkness, 2001, new in the repertory)- Lock (Andréauria)- Millepied (Amoveo, world premiere) -Balanchine (Apollo, Agon)- Brown (O złożny / O composite)- Forsythe (The Vertiginous thrill of exactitude) So the new works in the POB repertory next season will be 3 full-length works (Ashton's "Fille", Petit's "Proust" and the world premiere by Robyn Orlin) and 3 shorter works (two world premieres by Millepied and Malandain and Duato's "White Darkness"). I'm really happy that they finally decided to program some Lifar again: "Suite en Blanc", which was last danced about 1996 or 1997, and "Les Mirages" which was last danced around 1990 or 1991 (I never saw that one- and I never managed to find its score on CD...) From the few things by Malandain I saw, I think it's a good idea to commission something from him, but I regret that they didn't show a third ballet by Lifar: "Suite en blanc" and "Les mirages" are his best known works, but it would have been interesting to stage another work, as long as there still are some living dancers who had worked with Lifar... Now only the school performs some of his works regularly. I'm glad that we're going to see some Ashton at last (and by the way, it's a pity that "Rhapsody" was performed one season only !), but I wonder about the choice of "La Fille mal Gardée", as the POB already had performed at least two other productions of that work in the 1970s or early 1980s (Lazzini and Spoerli) and also the POB school performed it a few years ago (I don't remember which production). And I'm not sure something like the "chicken dance" will be received well by the audience, it might be labelled "for children" a bit fast... Well, let's hope that it will be successful and that it will lead the company's direction to stage some other Ashton works later ! I regret that once again, the season is a bit thin in Ballets Russes works (only "Apollo", which already had been programmed quite a lot in recent seasons, and no Fokine, Massine, Nijinska, etc.), and wouldn't have minded seeing for example some Robbins, some older Petit works (like "Le Loup" which hasn't been danced for a while), some Tudor, some more Balanchine (and what a strange idea to pair it once again with some works by Trisha Brown- and will they stage again "Liebeslieder walzer" ?) but on the whole it's quite an interesting season.

The 2006-2007 season is announced there: http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison0607/Ballets.asp I have to leave now and so will comment later, but the "big" news are, in my opinion: some Lifar at last, Ashton's "La Fille mal gardée", and also "Napoli" (pas de six and tarantella) by the POB school...

The official POB web site http://www.operadeparis.fr/ will give the next POB season tomorrow (on March 15th). There are already quite a lot of rumors, but let's wait until an official announcement...

Thanks for your comments. Was it his first Solor ? And did you see him before in other big roles ? Well, the politics of étoile promotions seems to be so complicated (and to vary so much -several years with zero promotions, and then many in a short period, people promoted unusually late, etc.) that I'm more or less giving up understanding it ! But before Agnes Letestu's retirement, there will be Delphine Moussin's retirement, as she is older ? Also it seems to me that the number of étoiles of both genders varied quite a lot in some periods... If I'm not mistaken, there are now 6 female étoiles (Aurélie Dupont, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Agnès Letestu, Delphine Moussin, Clairemarie Osta, Laëtitia Pujol) and 9 male étoiles (Jean-Guillaume Bart, Kader Belarbi, Mathieu Ganio, Manuel Legris, Nicolas Le Riche, José Martinez, Hervé Moreau, Benjamin Pech, Wilfried Romoli), which is indeed far more than a few years ago (which, by the way, makes me feel a bit doubtful about the arguments then that "there is not promotion because no position is available...), also the number or positions of premiers danseurs is very high (and most of them are quite young). There are more male étoiles than female ones, but one must take into account the fact that three of them (Belarbi, Legris and Romoli) dance fewer and fewer classics, while all the female étoiles are quite active (except Delphine Moussin now because of maternity leave). I guess that some young dancers now might experience the same problem as some of a previous generation, when most of the étoile positions were filled by dancers born around 1961-64 (Guérin, Maurin, Pietregalla, Arbo, Gaïda, Hilaire, Legris...) and there were very few promotions for several years- and back then there also were not so many premiers danseurs, and it seems to me that also the sujets and premiers danseurs got fewer opportunities of big roles- at least Dorothée Gilbert got an opportunity get promoted young as a première danseuse, and to dance several big roles (Liebeslieder Walzer, the Brown new work, Forsythe, Concerto Barocco...) when she was only a sujet... Even someone like Agnès Letestu, who was considered as very brilliant when coming out of the school, had to wait quite long before being finally promoted as étoile...

Brilliant? Looks like English, but the French is the same, as in Balanchine's Allegro Brilliante (feminized). The double L in French makes a sound like our initial Y (You). Actually, though "brillante" (no "i" after the two "l"s) is French indeed, "Allegro brillante" doesn't make much sense in French ("allegro" would be masculine)- perhaps it's in Italian (like "allegro vivace", "allegro molto agitato", etc. on music sheets).

Thanks for the big news, cygneblanc ! (I'm going to edit the title so that the thread is easier to find later...) Have you seen his performance in "La Bayadère" ? Who was his partner then ? Here is a page about Hervé Moreau on the POB web site: http://www.operadeparis.fr/ToutSavoir/LeBa...HerveMoreau.asp It seems he's about 28 or 29 now (he joined the company in 1995, aged 18)- so that makes him the second youngest étoile after Mathieu Ganio. Actually that makes quite a lot of new étoiles in less than two years (Gillot in March 2004, Ganio in May 2004, Romoli in February 2005, Moussin in May 2005, Pech in September 2005)- but that's not so surprising given all the retirements... Actually he's a dancer I don't know much, as I rarely saw him in big roles (also there were some periods when he was injured...) Well, cygneblanc (and other POB viewers), feel free to share your impressions about Moreau (and memories of his performances) !

That's an interesting review indeed. What she said about the contrast between rehearsing Preljocaj's work and "The Sleeping Beauty" reminded me of what I had been told by a corps de ballet member of the POB about the contrast between rehearsing a modern work (unfortunately, I can't remember which one) and just after a Petipa classic (I think it was "Raymonda") and how difficult it was sometimes to come back to a somewhat "infantilizing" (does that word exist in English ?) atmosphere- however, in her case, she said that it was probably at least as much a question of personalities of the ballet masters and repetitors than a question of choreographic style itself... Her switch from ballet to modern dance reminds me of a few cases of former POB dancers, e.g. Olivia Grandville who left the company in the mid-80s to join Dominique Bagouet's company and who now works as an independent choreographer, or more recently Raphaëlle Delaunay who danced for Pina Bausch's company for a while. It's great that she was able to get into a prestigious university after several years of dance career. Unfortunately, I think that such a story would be probably impossible in France, as in general the most prestigious universities and schools take only "young" students just after high school (even taking a gap year could often be a problem), and also it generally is quite hard to get a good enough dance training while having good enough grades in school (for example a lot of POB dancers get into the company before finishing high school, and they have to continue their schooling by correspondence to get their "baccalauréat"). Edited to add: the following page lists Ms Coate about the prizewinners of the English language and literature department of Yale http://www.cis.yale.edu/english/Undergradu...nners_04-05.htm It says "Emily Coates ('06), I guess it means she'll graduate in 2006 ?

The Théâtre du Châtelet has announced its 2006-2007 season on its web site: http://www.chatelet-theatre.com/index.php and the dance season will include a series of 7 performances by the ABT, between Feb 6 and Feb 11 There will be five different mixed bills, with a total repertory of 7 works: -"La Bayadère" (Shadows Act), "Dark Elegies" and "Rodeo" (Feb 6) -"Symphonie concertante" and "The Green Table" (Feb 7) -"La Bayadère" (Shadows Act), "Drink to me only with thine eyes" and "Rodeo" (Feb 8 and 10) -"Symphonie Concertante", "Dark Elegies" and "In the Upper Room" (Feb 9 and 11) -"Drink to me only with thine eyes" and "The Green Table" (Feb 10) To me those are interesting programs (even though a bit too focused on modern works for my taste), as "Symphonie concertante" isn't, as far as I know, in the POB's repertory (I doubt it ever was danced in France, or at least in the last decades), "Dark Elegies" is but hasn't been danced since about 1997, "The Green Table" isn't performed any longer by any French company (it used to be in the Ballet du Rhin's repertory in the mid and late 1990s but isn't any longer), "Rodeo" was last seen in Paris, as far as I know, in 1994 during an SFB tour, and the opportunities to see some Morris works are very scarce too. And the wealth of programs in the 10-11 week-end means that even un-parisians such as myself might get an opportunity to see it (but I wonder how fast all that will be sold out...)

cygneblanc, thanks for the explanation. Do you know what the exact status of the POB dancers is now ? Are they full civil servants, or do they have some other sort of public status (as the status of the Paris Opera itself has changed over the years: from Théâtre National de l'Opéra de Paris to Opéra de Paris in 1990 to Opéra National de Paris in 1994, from administration to établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial...) If I remember correctly what was written in Mario Bois's book about Nureyev (Bois is the widower of the former étoile and ballet master Claire Motte, and both were quite close to Nureyev- unfortunately, the tone of his book often was quite gossipy...), Nureyev didn't just want Greve to "dance frequently", but wanted him to be hired directly as an étoile (permanent job). That's very different from guest artists... From Bois' book, if I remember correctly, actually Nureyev had been extremely unpolite with Platel, throwing something (a glass of wine, I think) on her tutu... I suspect that the hostility would have been much lesser if it had simply been an offer as a guest artist... But hiring a new étoile woud have meant that one position wouldn't have been available any longer for the "home" dancers, and also it seems to me that Kenneth Greve was quite young then, and so perhaps not as well known as now ? (Actually it seems to be such a complicated affair that there probably are many different versions, and it happened when I was a teen and was not interested yet in ballet...) Actually Ghislaine Thesmar had been hired directly as a principal in 1972, and it was the last case of dancer directly hired as a principal (I don't know how well it was perceived by the company dancers then, but she probably was "closer" to the company than Greve, not only because she was French, but because she had been trained at the Paris Conservatoire, and her husband, choreographer Pierre Lacotte, was a former POB premier danseur, and before being hired she had performed with the company in a video of Lacotte's reconstruction of "La Sylphide"...) There was indeed a sort of scandal about guest performers around 1980 (I think it had already been mentioned in some old discussions here), if I remember correctly the direction of the company (the director of dance was then Violette Verdy) wanted to hire Nureyev and Schaufuss for guest dancers for an US tour, but the dancers were upset as for them it meant that the direction considered its own dancers as "not good enough", and there was a big strike, which lead to Verdy's resignation shortly after. Well, of course it's hard to know if there were in fact some other reasons of inner politics in all that...

Alter Ego, I too, like sylphide, find your question a bit confusing There are two different topics indeed: foreigners (i.e. people with non-French citizenship) and people who weren't trained at the POB school. And among the examples you mentioned, Michael Denard is French (he was born in Germany from a German mother and a French father, and was raised in France). Also, Eleonora Abbagnato was trained at the POB school for 3 or 4 years. Also I don't understand your question "How long do they stay normally in the Corps before entering?" as it doesn't really make much sense: the Corps de ballet is part of the company (actually, officially, the corps de ballet is all the company except the premiers danseurs and étoiles) and so when some dancers are in the corps de ballet they are part of the company (and many dancers do spend all their careers in the corps de ballet, whatever their citizenship...) About foreign dancers: I'm not sure, but I think that for many years, there were some administrative things preventing the company from hiring foreign dancers- however, I'm not sure, as there were some examples of foreign étoiles (e.g. Peter Van Dijk- German, Marjorie Tallchief- American...) so perhaps the rules were different for the étoiles... I hope that someone with more experience than me about the POB history can reply more precisely about that. Anyway, now, as far as I know, citizens from all the European Union countries must be treated with the same status as French citizens on the job market (except for a few special jobs like in the army, secret services, etc) so it's probably true for POB dancers too. I don't know how it works for people from other countries: for example, I know that Kim Young Geol and Miho Fujii, who now are part of the POB, are respectively from Korea and Japan, and but I don't know if they had to get the French citizenship to get into the company... As far as I know, the list of dancers of foreign origin (the dancers' citizenships isn't easy to know) includes at least, besides Kim Young Geol and Miho Fujii, Eleonora Abbagnato (Italian, première danseuse) and José Martinez (Spanish, premier danseur), also Simone Valastro (Italian, sujet), Francesco Vantaggio (Italian) and Sofia Parcen (Hungary, quadrille). Ludmilla Pagliero, who was hired last year, might be from Italy, but I'm not sure. About the dancers who weren't trained at the POB school: for many years, it was extremely difficult for the people who weren't trained at the POB school to get into the company, as there almost never were some auditions... One of the only ways to get into the company was to get a gold medal at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, which gave one an opportunity to get into the POB school for one year and then to take the competition with the other "normal" POB students. As far as I know, it was the case for several famous POB dancers, like Elisabeth Platel, Jean-Yves Lormeau, Isabelle Guérin, and more recently Clairemarie Osta and Isabelle Ciaravola. But in fact, their training probably wasn't very different from that of POB dancers, as many of the Conservatoire teachers were former POB dancers (for example Elisabeth Platel's main teacher was Christiane Vaussard, former POB dancer who also taught at the POB school for many years) and so the training style probably was quite similar. Now that way to get into the company doesn't exist any longer, as the Conservatoire system has changed and they don't give gold medals any longer (also the year at the POB school enabled them to get some more "polishing"). Another way to get into the company was to get a prize at the Lausanne competition, which offered a one-year scholarship at the POB school (I think it doesn't exist any longer). It was how José Martinez (originally trained in Cannes at Rosella Hightower's school) and Laetitia Pujol (originally trained in Toulouse) got into the POB school for one year, and then into the company. And the last way to get into the company was to get a temporary contract at an audition open to "exterior" dancers. Those used to be very rare (and for example it was at such an audition that Michael Denard and Jean Guizerix were hired) but now there seems to be some about every year, generally in June or July, just after the special audition for POB students. It seems to be very competitive, especially as some POB students who weren't hired at the "special" audition also compete, and only a few positions are available. Such dancers sometimes get permanent contracts with the company, but I don't know how it works (the "surnuméraires" are listed in the cast list of the performances they participate in, but they are not listed among the company members...), perhaps someone more familiar than me with the company could explain it. I guess such auditions probably are easier for the people who already know well the company... The former POB school director criticized much those auditions, as she said the company should try to hire as many POB school trained students as possible, but I guess that it wasn't really a question of rejecting other students but rather a defence of her own students, as they generally are very focused on getting in the company (and there are fewer and fewer other ballet companies in France for them to join) so she considered it was her duty to fight to get them some jobs... Personnally, I don't care at all about the citizenship of the dancers that I see on stage... On the other hand, I think that having too many dancers trained in a very different style from the POB school could be a problem, as it could threaten the unity of the corps de ballet, but having a few of them wouldn't be such a problem (and I'm not an expert enough to be able to distinguish the training of the corps de ballet of swans, Wilis or Shades I see on stage...)

I remember that Jean-Paul Comelin left the Ballet du Nord mid-season and that there were some serious financial problems with the company then, and also some artistic/political problems to find a successor... The only reference I found online so far is (on the Encyclopaedia Britannica): http://0-www.search.eb.com.library.uor.edu/eb/article-232558 "Another company facing major change was France's Ballet du Nord, where "internal problems" led to the mid-season departure of director Jean-Paul Comelin and the cancellation of further performances of his ballets. There was talk that a new director might be appointed to give the company a more contemporary look." What I had read about it was in the French ballet magazines "Les Saisons de la Danse" (now defunct) and "Danser", unfortunately my collection of magazines is at my parents' place and so I can't have a look at it. By the way, the Ballet du Nord now is called "Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais" (with Carolyn Carlson as its present director) and isn't a ballet company any longer. But perhaps they could reply more precisely to your questions ? Their web site is there: http://www.balletdunord.com/saison2005-2006/

In fact, Lourdes told an interviewer that when she was told an injury would require many months to recuperate, she decided to use that time [pro-]creatively! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It reminds me of Delphine Moussin's pregnancy... except that it happened in a period when it was her husband, Lionel Delanoë, who was severely injured and unable to dance for a whole season (he resumed dancing later, but never fully regained his previous shape, and retired under 40 to become an assistant ballet master). I guess it must have been a difficult period for both of them (from what I've read in interviews, at first after his injury, he even wasn't able to walk correctly) and I guess the birth of their baby made this period much happier !

I guess that the steady POB contracts (and more generally the fact that in France all pregnant women have free full health insurance, 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, etc.) and the relatively long careers probably are more encouraging for the dancers who wish to have children. However, among those listed, several had their children quite late (e.g. in their early 40s for Pietragalla and Maurin), and also it was believed that some of the corps de ballet dancers went on maternity leave at a moment when they didn't expect to be promoted any longer... But some others had long performing careers after being on maternity leave (like Noëlla Pontois who had her daughter at 26 and 27- they actually performed together on stage at the end of her career, and especially during Pontois' last POB performance just before she turned 50, when she and her daughter danced some roles of sisters in Neumeier's "Nutcracker").

There are a lot of mothers among the POB dancers. Right now, among the principal dancers, Delphine Moussin is on maternity leave (her husband is the former premier danseur Lionel Delanoë, now assistant ballet master), and Clairemarie Osta has a daughter (her husband is Nicolas Le Riche); among the premieres danseuses, Nolwenn Daniel had a child a few years ago. And in the corps de ballet, there are a lof of mothers, including Véronique Doisneau, Fanny Fiat, Miteki Kudo (one daughter, Jade, whose father is the dancer Gil Isoart), Laure Muret (second wife of Kader Belarbi), Géraldine Wiart, Amélie Lamoureux, and probably many others. Among retired POB étoiles: Monique Loudières has two daughters (with the former POB sujet Hervé Dirmann), Isabelle Guérin has one daughter (with Jean-Pierre Frohlich), Elisabeth Maurin has one child, Fanny Gaïda has one son (with assistant ballet master Fabrice Bourgeois), Carole Arbo has one daughter, Françoise Legrée has two daughters, Marie-Claude Pietragalla recently had a child, Florence Clerc has two daughters (with former POB principal Charles Jude), Claude de Vulpian has three children, Wilfride Piollet has one son (with former POB principal JEan Guizerix), Noëlla Pontois has one daughter (who is Miteki Kudo, mentioned above), Dominique Khalfouni has at least one son (present POB principal Mathieu Ganio) and one daughter (Marine Ganio, POB school student)... So having children is not uncommon at all for female POB dancers (well, there are quite a lot of dancing fathers, too).

Actually, that was the only problem I had with the recent performances of "Le Corsaire" by the Riga Ballet in Lyon- the Lanquedem character looked really too much like some awful 19th century racist caricatures...

Here's a link to a previous discussion about this DVD: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...ndpost&p=170339

Mario Bois is the widower of the late Paris Opera Ballet étoile (principal) and ballet master Claire Motte (she died around 1986 in her late 40s), I remember that a few years ago he had published a biography of Nureyev (who was a close friend of he and his wife).

On the other hand, in French there often is the habit to call "officially" the female dancers "Mademoiselle" regardless of their marital status (or age), e.g. "Mademoiselle Moussin" even though it is well known that Delphine Moussin has been married for years with Lionel Delanoë. It seems to be an old tradition in dance and theater (the dictionary of the Académie Française says about the word "Mademoiselle" that it used to be used for famous actresses and dancers, regardless of marital status... And from what I remember, it still exists also for the actresses of the Comédie Française, except for the doyenne who is called Madame).

Actually, it seems to me that though the POB dancers are paid by the state, they are not exactly civil servants, but I'm not sure (perhaps cygneblanc knows better ?) It is very rare that a dancer gets fired, but it can happen, I remember reading that if a dancer was considered as unable to do his/her job properly, there was some sort of commission which could fire him/her, it happened a few times. But there probably also are some dancers in the corps de ballet who are cast very seldom. (Also, besides "regular" dancers, there are a few dancers on short-term contracts, whose contract might not be renewed). But I guess it doesn't make much sense to compare the POB, with its huge budget and state subsidies (I suspect that even if there were a few incompetent dancers, they salaries would be very very little compared to what is spent for operas...), and with the French labour laws, with companies from other countries.