Estelle

DSanderson (welcome on Ballet Talk, by the way ! ), have you seen the 1972 POB video of Lacotte's production of "La Sylphide" (Paul Parish mentioned it in the thred I linked) ? It is a bit old, but Thesmar's dancing is quite marvellous (I haven't seen the Dupont-Ganio version yet).

Here is a link to a previous thread (in the "Ballet history" forum) about Taglioni's and Bournonville's versions of "La Sylphide":

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...topic=18917&hl=

The Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse also has announced its next season. It will include four programs:

-a mixed bill with Peter Martins's "Fearful Symmetries", Nils Christe's "Before nightfall" and Hans Van Manen's "Black Cake" (Oct 22-23)

-John Cranko's "Taming of the Shrew" (Nov 30- Dec 4)

-the ballet will be involved in the opérette by Lehar "The Merry Widow" (Dec 23-31)

-a mixed bill with Davide Bombana's "Carmen" (world premiere) and Uwe Scholz's "Beethoven 7" (Mar 10-12)

-a mixed bill with Luca Masala's "Nougaro" (world premiere- Claude Nougaro was a famous singer from Toulouse, who died last year), Michel Kelemenis' "Kiki la Rose", Mauro Bigonzetti's "Orma" and Mauricio Wainrot's "The Rite of Spring" (Apr 20-23)

I find a bit sad that the company's repertory, which used to include quite a lot of works by Balanchine (and also some Tudor and Ashton) and some full-length classical works ("Giselle", "Coppélia", "The Sleeping Beauty", "Cinderella"...) now seems to focus more and more on contemporary/ crossover works.

The 2005-2006 season of the Ballet de Bordeaux can be seen on the Opera de Bordeaux web site (though actually it's not very easy to see this, as so far I've been able to access it only in a listing of all performances in Bordeaux...)

It will include:

-"The Sleeping Beauty" (Dec 15-31), choreography by Charles Jude after Marius Petipa (14 performances)

-a mixed bill (Jan 22- Feb 2) including Balanchine's "Serenade" and "Sonatine", Paul Taylor's "Aureole", Araiz's "Adagietto" and Limon's "The Moor's Pavane" (

-"Don Quixote" (Apr 21-28), choreographed by Charles Jude after Marius Petipa (7 performances, new production)

-a Ballets Russes program (June 9- 15) with Fokine's "Pétrouchka" and "Le Spectre de la Rose" and Balanchine's "Prodigal Son" (6 performances)

Charles Jude was "relaxé" in that trial- I don't know the suitable English word, well, it means he was not condamned.

http://archquo.nouvelobs.com/cgi/articles?....nouvelobs.com/

An article in "Le Figaro" (in French) about Ms Maurin's retirement:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/20050627.FIG0066.html?074338

She says that it was important for her to come back after the birth of her daughter Hortense 13 months ago to make her farewell performance, and recalls some memories (her first dance classes at 4, her first "Giselle" with Nureyev in Vienna, the day when she was promoted to étoile in 1988...)

The POB season will end with two programs: Nureyev's production of "Romeo and Juliet" (with the farewell performances of Elisabeth Maurin and Karin Averty, both 42) and a Roland Petit triple bill ("L'Arlésienne", "Le jeune homme et la mort" and "Carmen").

Here are the casts:

-for Romeo and Juliet:

http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/?Rub=Distribu...=Ballets&Id=712

Unfortunately, several dancers were removed from the casts because of injuries (including Manuel Legris, as sophia announced in another thread).

The couples in the main roles will be: Dupont and Moreau, Maurin and Pech, Pujol and Pech, Letestu and Paquette, Pujol and Duquenne, Averty and Duquenne.

I find it a bit striking that none of the 7 present male étoiles is cast as Romeo. The only male étoiles in that program are Wilfried Romoli and Laurent Hilaire, who will dance Tybalt (alternating with the sujets Stéphane Phavorin and Stéphane Bullion).

-for l'Arlésienne:

http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/?Rub=Distribu...=Ballets&Id=713

Lucia Lacarra will dance Carmen as a guest artist (she used to dance with Roland Petit's company at the beginning of her career, and he still seems to appreciate her very much), partnered with Manuel Legris as Don José.

The other Carmens will be Clairemarie Osta (with Nicolas Le Riche), Aurélie Dupont (with Manuel Legris) and Marie-Agnès Gillot (with José Martinez).

Amy, the term "Celtic tiger" is a nickname for Ireland, because of its quick economic growth in the 1990s (by analogy with some Asian countries called "Asian tigers", like Singapore, Taiwan, etc.) See for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Tiger

So perhaps Flatley's show is a pun about that expression ?

The list of former dancers is impressive indeed. I remember seeing the competition in 1993, when the winner was Zenaida Yanowsky (it was the first time I heard about her- I didn't imagine that someday she'd become a RB principal !) Unfortunately, I don't even know if a French channel will show it.

Other dancers with "no information available" include:

-Raphaëlle Delaunay, who used to dance with POB, then with Pina Bausch's company in Wuppertal, and now works in France as an independent dancer and (modern) choreographer

-Jesus Pastor, now an ABT soloist

-Dawid Kupinski and Marcin Kupinski, now in the corps de ballet of the Royal Danish Ballet

-Jeroen Verbruggen dances with the Ballets de Monte-Carlo

-Golan Yosef dances with the Ramon Oller company (modern) in Spain

-Maartje Hermans dances with the Scapino Ballet in the Netherlands

It seems that now the competition has shifted more towards modern dance (with one ballet prize and one modern dance prize, instead of three ballet prizes)

Thanks for the casting update, sophia. It's a pity that Manuel Legris won't be able to perform, as I guess many people were looking forward to seeing him as Romeo (his only performance in this role this season) and he has already partnered Elisabeth Maurin so often. Anyway, her farewell performance will be a moving event- I regret not being able to go to Paris for it !

Evilninjax, there's also an old POB la Sylphide, starring the amazing unbelievable Ghislane Thesmar and some awfully good-looking young man......

It was Michaël Denard, who had just become a POB principal a few months earlier (Thesmar, who is Lacotte's wife, was hired directly by the POB as a principal- before that she danced for the Ballets des JMF- and she still teaches there). Denard and Thesmar danced together a lot (there even is a book about them, "Thesmar/Denard", with a lot of nice photos), especially in Lacotte's reconstructions ("Coppelia", "Marco Spada"...) and "La Sylphide" was their "signature ballet", especially for Thesmar.

If I remember correctly, the video was filmed in 1971, a bit before the work was performed on stage by the POB (in 1972).

Anecdotically, one of the first books about dance that interested me in the early 1990s when I was a teen-ager was one about Michaël Denard. And I really regret that I became interested in dance too late to see Denard and Thesmar on stage together !

According to IMDB.com, Bancroft was born in 1931 -- which conflicts with her age listed in the NYT (73)

Well, not really: she is listed as being born on Sept 17, 1931, so she would have turned 74 on Sept 17, 2005, and so she still was 73.

(Sorry, that's the math teacher in me talking ;) )

Did some posters of this forum attend the performance when he was promoted ?

And, to the RB watchers here: what do you think of his promotion ?

I've just seen on the web site of the Maison de la Danse of Lyon that there will be a performance on June 15 with several POB dancers: a homage to the late POB dancer and choreographer Jacques Garnier (former director of the Théâtre du Silence with Brigitte Lefèvre). Three works of Garnier will be performed by some students of the Lyon Conservatoire ("Aunis" (1979), "Le cordon infernal" (1977) and "Pas de deux/ Webern" (1970)), and there will also be Gsovsky's "Grand pas classique" by the POB dancers Joshua Hoffalt and Mathilde Froustey, and some works by Francine Lancelot and Susanne Linke by the POB principals Kader Belarbi and Wilfried Romoli.

http://www.dartford.gov.uk/latestnews/Dart...RoyalBallet.htm

"Dartford's own Edward Watson becomes principal dancer at the Royal Ballet"

Last Monday he danced the lead in Ashton’s Ondine with ballerina Miyako Yoshida. After the performance and whilst still on stage, Miyako gave him a kiss. Monica Mason, Director of the Royal Ballet, strode on stage and announced “You have just kissed the Royal Ballet’s new Principal Dancer." By all accounts, Edward was stunned by the news.

The RB web site does not seem to have been updated...

sophia, thanks to the correction.

There's a very short article about Delphine Moussin's promotion in the latest issue of the weekly magazine "VSD" [correction: "Paris-Match"] (and a longer article about the POB school), and it mentions the fact that she's three month pregnant with her second child (she and her husband, POB former dancer and ballet master Lionel Delanoë, already have a 6 yeard old son, Paul). So I guess it means we won't see her much next season... But that's great news for her and her husband !

Marga, do you know what the article called "Scandinavian classical choreography" ? Do they mean Bournonville, Lander, or some more recent Scandinavian choreographers ? (And I think that "Nordic taste" is a kind of generalization- for example Mats Ek is Scandinavian too...)

http://filinfo.france3.fr/popup_afp.php?na...160133.yq3wy1ki

The direction of the POB has just announced that Elisabeth Maurin has been appointed teacher of the POB school, she will start teaching there next fall.

(Actually the article includes one mistake: it mentions Francesca Zumbo as a former étoile, but as far as I know she never was an étoile).

Is there any precedent of an artistic director stepping down to become resident choreographer?

It was the case for Jiri Kylian at the Nederlands Dans Theater, stepping down a few years ago (around 1999, I think) from artistic director to resident choreographer and "artistic advisor" after more than 20 years of artistic direction. The present artistic director, Anders Hellstrom, isn't a choreographer as far as I know.

Thanks for the explanation, Alexandra ! I haven't read "Madame Bovary" for about ten years and don't remember much about the circumstances of its creation (except the problems of censorship) but even though it was published as a "feuilleton", I wouldn't see it in the same category of "popular novels" as, say, those of Dumas, Sue, Ponson du Terrail, etc. (e.g. Flaubert's books commonly are studied in high school here, while Dumas', Sue's, etc. aren't).

Actually, "Madame Bovary" isn't really a good example.  Substitute "The Faerie Queen."

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Alexandra, could you explain why you find that "Madame Bovary" is not a good example ?

It seems to me that Carla Fracci still performs from time to time (at least there still were reviews mentioning her a few years ago- well, probably with some roles including mostly acting, but still on stage anyway...)

Among POB dancers, Yvette Chauviré retired at 55, and

Noëlla Pontois at 50. Charles Jude still performs at 51.

Thanks for the news, sophia. Do you know if anything has been published about it yet (I haven't found anything on the POB site) ?

I too think Moussin is a lovely dancer, she has danced many great roles (Odette-Odile, Kitri, Gamzatti...) and also has been especially good in the Balanchine and Robbins repertory (I have fond memories of her in "In the Night" and "Liebeslieder Walzer", for example). Gérard Mortier's policy is quite surprising indeed, as no female dancer had ever been promoted to étoile so late (she'll have to retire in only 6 years). Actually it's difficult to know what to expect now for the next promotions...

The RB season does look exciting indeed ! And what a sharp contrast between the RB's and the POB's policy: Monica Mason looks as motivated in preserving her company's heritage and respecting its history as Brigitte Lefevre isn't (see for example the homage to Ninette de Valois vs the absence of Lifar in the POB's programming). If I still lived in Paris, I guess I'd just start saving some money for Eurostar tickets instead of POB tickets... ;)

By the way, I haven't had a look at the press releases yet, but are there any plans of foreign tours for the RB ? (I'm not sure, but it seems to me that their last French tour was quite a long time ago, alas).