Estelle

hermes: yes indeed, Roland Petit used to be the Ballet de Marseille's director, actually he was its foundator. But he left rather suddenly in 1998, for reasons which were not very clear (it seemed that there were some strong conflicts with the mayor or Marseille or something like that). And when he left, he withdrawed all his repertory, so that the company had no repertory at all (and part of his former dancers left soon after the change of direction).

His successor was the former Paris Opera Ballet principal Marie-Claude Pietragalla, but she had to resign after some conflicts with the dancers (who accused her of moral harrassment) and the new director was chosen only a few months ago.

There is no such thing as a Board: the Ballet de Marseille is a state-funded company, financed by both the state and the city of Marseille (and perhaps also the region), and the decisions are made by the ministery of Culture and local politicians. The problem is that they don't seem especially knowledgeable about ballet, or dance in general... When Pietragalla was chosen, she wasn't even a candidate (she still was a POB dancer) and had no experience as a company director, and in my opinion, she was chosen mostly because of her fame as a dancer (and also the fact that she was known by the general audience because she had appeared in some advertisement).

And this time, a majority of the candidates were modern dance choreographers, who were in my opinion not especially interested in the Ballet de Marseille dancers, but mostly in the big public subsidy for the company (it's the second most subsidized company in France after the POB). The choice of the director was a complicated story and took several months, and I have no idea why they chose Flamand, who already had his own modern company in Belgium.

There were some threads about the Ballet de Marseille there:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=2738

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=10476

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=17701

Well, I'm sorry to be getting a bit off-topic, but unfortunately what's happening in Marseille already happened in several French companies, like the Ballet de l'Opera de Lyon, Ballet du Nord, Ballet du Rhin and Ballet national de Nancy et de Lorraine: a company gradually abandoning the ballet repertory, and being transformed in a modern dance company (with sometimes still one or two ballet works, but fewer and fewer). I think it often was motivated partly by financial reasons: programming modern works often costs less, because one doesn't need as many dancers, the sets and costumes often are less expensive, there isn't the cost of pointe shoes, etc. Sometimes the modern works they perform are interesting, but what is extremely sad in my opinion is that there is now about zero opportunity to see any ballet in most French cities (and even in Paris, the choice is scarce this season). And so much of the audience doesn't even know what ballet is... Also, the employment opportunities for ballet students are rarer and rarer.

It seems to me that the situation isn't yet as serious in the US, but it'd be sad if it became as in France.

hermes: thanks a lot for the explanation about "Esplanade". I actually saw it, but only once and it was about 6 or 7 years ago, and had no idea it was such a "dangerous" work to perform... By the way, do you know if the dancers of Paul Taylor's company also get injured as often when performing it (I'm wondering if the dancers' initial training might have an influence) ?

Incidentally, when I saw it, it was performed by a ballet company, the Ballet de Marseille. That's yet another example of company whose repertory became more and more influenced by modern dance under the tenure of its previous director Marie-Claude Pietragalla (who staged a lot of her own "crossover" works, and programmed some works by modern choreographers such as Maryse Delente, Tero Saarinen and Claude Brumachon, while performing fewer and fewer "real" ballets) and now is becoming a modern dance company as its new director is the modern dance choreographer (who never got any ballet training) Frédéric Flamand. They are supposed to have a mixed repertory, but it seems unlikely to me that they could keep a good enough ballet level if they perform only a handful of these every season. And that's sad for the Marseille audience, who will have no opportunity at all to see any ballet (while there are some local modern dance companies, and also some others going there on tour). So far, all the dancers are ballet trained, but I really wonder whether they'll stay with the company (the change of direction is very recent).

Estelle, I'm entirely in agreement with you.  It's preposterous to think the classics can be maintained without proper attention...  That's why I was wondering if there has been a tally done of company repetoire... I think perhaps you have it worse in Europe than we have it here in the US?

Well, I guess the situation in Europe probably depends quite a lot on the country...

But for example, the present POB season includes:

-on the "classical" side:

-three Nureyev productions ("The Sleeping Beauty", "Cinderella", "Romeo and Juliet")

-one Roland Petit mixed bill

-Lander's "Etudes" and Robbins' "Glass pieces"

-I don't know exactly where to put Forsythe's "Pass/parts" and Neumeier's full length

"Sylvia"

-on the "modern" side:

-a Preljocaj double bill

-a full-length work "Hurlevent" by Kader Belarbi

-a full-length work "Orphée et Eurydice" by Pina Bausch

-two works by Trisha Brown

-some works by Francine Lancelot (inspired by baroque dance), Susanne Linke, Michèle Noiret, Laura Scozzi and Jérôme Bel

The Nureyev classics have quite a lot of performances (and they do seem to sell better than most modern productions) but as you can see, this season includes a larger choice of modern works than classical ones. Given all the training the POB gets, I think the dancers are not really threatened to lose their ballet technique, but what I find a bit worrying is that the POB is almost the only ballet company in France, so if even them dance less and less ballet, that sets a trend for other companies...

Also, *all* the new additions to the repertory this season are modern works (world premières by Bel, Brown, Linke, Preljocaj and Noiret and existing works by Bausch and Preljocaj). And I find that season really quite thin on the 20th century repertory: nothing by Balanchine, Lifar, Tudor, MacMillan, Fokine, Nijinska, only one Robbins...

I find it frustrating as an audience member (if the POB doesn't perform it, then there often is zero opportunity to see it in France- while works by choreographers such as Trisha Brown, Jérôme Bel or Pina Bausch can be seen regularly in other theaters like the Théâtre de la Ville) and I don't think it's very good for the dancers' training either. Also, many modern works premiered by the POB in recent seasons were very short-lived (never performed again after their first season).

And the proportion of ballet works has been even lower for the other few existing companies in France, like the Ballet du Rhin, Ballet de Marseille, etc.

hermes, could you please explain what you wrote about "Esplanade", as I'm not very familiar with that work ? Also, you wrote:

Two, ballet companies have more money than modern companies, so ballet companies get famous works of modern choreographers because they can afford them

I'd say it also works the other way around: a lot of modern choreographers are interested in working with ballet companies because they can get more money (and also better material conditions, e. g. more expensive sets and costumes, a live orchestra, etc.) At least it seems to me that it works like that in France...

Then there's the case of Suzanne Farrell, who grew up dancing Balanchine, and after four years with Maurice Bejart's Ballet of the 20th Century, came back to NYCB and danced Balanchine better than ever.

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Béjart's style is indeed very different from Balanchine's, and I don't know whether he is considered as a ballet choreographer in the US, but from what I've read, Béjart was trained as a ballet dancer (he started a bit late, but studied with the former Maryinsky ballerina Lubov Egorova, and also with Léo Staats, and with Mme Roussane who also trained a lot of famous people like Roland Petit, Pierre Lacotte, Violette Verdy, Leslie Caron...) and had a (short) performing career as a ballet dancer. His works use ballet technique and as far as I know, he always hired ballet-trained dancers for his companies.

So while it must have been a very different kind of ballet for Ms Farrell, I guess it wasn't as much as a change as if she had been performing with a company with a completely non-ballet technique...

Amy wrote:

I think we hurt our argument by claiming that doing any modern at all hurts ballet.

I didn't have the feeling that it was what was being said, but rather that the problem was that the proportion of modern/ crossover works in the repertories of some companies was becoming so high that they couldn't really keep a good enough classical ballet training. And for example, it is indeed a problem for some French companies (like the Ballet du Rhin or the Ballet de Nancy), which used to be ballet companies, but now perform mostly modern/crossover works with only one or two ballets in the season- how can the corps de ballet be properly trained ? I think there's quite a big difference in performing a few modern/ crossover works once in a while, and having a repertory including mostly such works.

And also, as BW pointed out, there seems to be an increased risk of injuries when the dancers have to use some very different styles in a short period of time.

Oh dear. I found his tone extremely condescending, and many of his arguments flawed... How does one translate "mauvaise foi" in English ?

And as Anthony NYC, I really don't understand his argument about the weight of 19th century dancers.

And it would be sad indeed if the New York Times would go the same way as almost all French newspapers (whose dance critics are neither interested nor knowledgeable about ballet, and very rarely review it... But well, there's less and less ballet to be seen in France, anyway.) Mr Rockwell's tone really reminds me a bit too much of the usual style of such critics.

The big reason is people come to see the partnership, not the ballet, and so they wield too much power.

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That's interesting... But following that logic, then the directions of ballet companies should discourage the existence of "stars" ?

Also I'm wondering if it has a link with the fact that now, principal dancers are expected to dance more and more different roles in the same season, and so it often leads to many different pairings (and complicated schedules, probably).

Ballet lovers, thanks for your detailed posts about the great couples of Russian ballet.

You mentioned Agnès Letestu and José Martinez among POB dancers, they are indeed often paired together (especially as Agnès Letestu is very tall and so needs an even taller partner), however they tend to be cast less and less often nowadays. Letestu often is paired with Bart, but I think the pair doesn't work as well as with Martinez.

Some other examples of French ballet couples would also be Ghislaine Thesmar and Michaël Denard in the 1970s and early 1980s, especially in "La Sylphide" which was something like a signature role for Thesmar, and more generally in Pierre Lacotte's reconstructions. I've never seen them on stage, but on photographs they look wonderful together, both blond elegant dancers. During the same period, Noëlla Pontois and Cyril Atanassoff also often were paired, and Wilfride Piollet and Jean Guizerix (who happen to be husband and wife).

In the "Nureyev generation" of POB principals, there also was Isabelle Guérin and Laurent Hilaire (who were promoted to "étoile" the same day), and Manuel Legris and Monique Loudières, but later in their careers they also danced with a lot of other partners. Now there are so many different casts for each ballet that the pairings change a lot... Delphine Moussin often danced with her husband Lionel Delanoë, but now, even though he's only 37, Delanoë almost never performs and

works mostly as a ballet master (he suffered from a very serious back injury a few seasons ago). And the only couple of husband-and-wife POB principals, Nicolas Le Riche and Clairemarie Osta, seldom perform together, because Le Riche is much taller than Osta.

The DVD of Nureyev's "Sleeping Beauty" also is available in France, for example on http://www.amazon.fr (but in European format only). It features Manuel Legris and Aurélie Dupont in the main roles, and also in smaller roles Jean-Guillaume Bart, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Delphine Moussin... Actually, Isabelle Guérin was planned to be filmed in it, but didn't perform in that series because she was on maternity leave, so Dupont was filmed instead.

Giannina, as far as I know, there is no DVD of "Romeo and Juliet" with Legris and Maurin, only the one with Legris and Loudières.

By the way, there isn't actually many available videos of Maurin, as far I know (and it's likely there won't be much, as she's going to retire at the end of this season): she was filmed in 1988 in Nureyev's "Nutcracker" (the role in which she was promoted to principal), and as far as I know that's all. Pity...

Like GeorgeBfan, I'm fealing jealous ! :grinning-smiley-001: The Four Temperaments is one of my favorite ballets, even though I got only three opportunities to see it (one of them being by the NYCB in Edinburgh four years ago- and I treasure the memory of Peter Boal and Albert Evans in that work...) And I wish I could see "Divertimento n. 15" someday (the POB used to dance it, but as far as I know they haven't danced it for more than a decade )

I guess that they probably aren't too strict about the "brevet des collèges" for foreign dancers...

By the way, Daniil, you might be interested in the other board "Ballet talk for dancers", in case you haven't found it yet (it is for dance students, professional dancers, and dance parents):

http://balletalert.com/dancersforum/index.php

Also we don't have many people posting from Germany, and if you see some interesting performances, please feel free to post some comments about it !

An article (in French) about the POB competition, by Gérard Mannoni:

http://www.altamusica.com/danse/document.p...cRef=2286#Ancre

But I have still some more questions:

1. What is different from the "surnemeraire" contract and the permanent one? Does it differ only in lenght (one year), have you the "right" to dance the same things as a normal corps dancer?

I'm not sure, but I think the only big difference is the length, and also the "surnuméraires" are not listed among company members (but they are listed on the cast sheets when they perform). They generally dance only corps de ballet roles, a bit like the quadrilles (the lowest rank in the POB hierarchy).

2. Do you need any diploma to be accepted at the opera? My mother is teaching me ballet and so in a year, when I'm done with my school, I won't have any ballet education diploma. I've won a few Int'l competitions, but I'm worried that I need any diploma.

I've never heard about the need for a diploma... There used to be some citizenship conditions, but I don't think that it's still the case, as there are several company members from various countries (Italy, Spain, Korea, Hungary...)

Indeed, contacting Sophia Parczen could be a good idea, as she joined the company in 1998 as a surnuméraire, and then got a full position one year later.

Thanks for your review, chiapuris !

It seems to have been a very enjoyable evening. I wish I could have seen such a performance... During a very short trip to Paris, I had tried to get some tickets for the Dec 22 performance, also with Dupont and Legris, but unfortunately after one hour of queuing, we were told that it was sold out (and even the people who had some tickets were not very lucky, as the performance had to be stopped at the end of Act II because of a problem of fire backstage...) I'm sad that I probably will never get an opportunity to see Legris as Désiré on stage (I just saw him on video, as Dupont and him were filmed in that ballet a few seasons ago).

One advantage of such ballets it that it enables one to see a large number of corps de ballet dancers, so you got an opportunity to see some of the recently promoted dancers, like Julien Meyzindi, Emilie Cozette and Laura Hecquet, as well as more senior "sujets" like Fabien Roques, Natacha Quernet and Sandrine Marache (also I'm glad to read that Fanny Fiat is back on stage and in good shape: she was absent for about one year, because of maternity leave). Actually December must have been very busy for the company, as they performed in two different programs ("Sleeping Beauty" in Bastille and the Lancelot-Brown-Forsythe mixed bill in Garnier) and also had to prepare for the annual competition, which was on December 23rd.

There are some auditions, usually at the beginning of the summer, but as far as I know, there are two kinds of auditions: one for the students of the POB school only, and one open to anybody but it is only for some "surnuméraire" jobs, i.e. temporary contracts (and also, it often happens that such positions are in fact given to some POB school students who were not successful at the first audition). However, some "surnuméraire" contracts can be transformed into permanent contracts; for example, as far as I know, that was the case for Alessio Carbone, Sophia Parczen, Simone Valastro and a few others.

The auditions are announced on the POB web site:

http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/

However, as far as I know, not much is known about the number of available positions each year, and it can be announced quite late.

Wasn't there a ballet where either Delibes or Lalo composed alternate acts, and the other ones were by Minkus?

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Well, I didn't know about it, but I just found the following information on the ENB web site:

http://www.ballet.org.uk/reference/notes/c...ia/delibes.html

"A cantata celebrating the return of Napoleon III from Algeria gained the Emperor's approval and this led to Delibes being commissioned to write the ballet music of La Source in collaboration with Ludwig Minkus, each composing two acts. Delibes' share proved to be superior and an extra waltz, the pas de fleurs, he wrote for the 1867 revival of Le Corsaire proved so popular that he was given the sole commission for Coppélia."

So "La Source"'s score was indeed written by both composers...

Also it seems that "Naila" and "La Source" are the same ballet.

Now I'm wondering which score was used in "Soir de fête"...

There is not as much of Delibes' score used by Balanchine as there was used by Lifar to make "Suite en Blanc", but there's a good lot of it.

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Err, Mel, I think you might be confusing it with Leo Staats' "Soir de Fête", which is indeed on Delibes' music (while "Suite en blanc" is on Lalo's "Namouna").

By the way, I've always regretted that "La Source" isn't in the POB's repertory...

cygneblanc: thanks for the explanation.

Natalia: Platel has given some interviews recently, and it seems that she is continuing Bessy's policy, but with a few changes (and in my opinion, improvements): for example, the students will be allowed to have a mobile phone to contact their families (before they could only phone their families using one phone booth in the school, which must have been complicated as there are many students), there will now be a nurse and a nutritionist at the school and the students will be able to see a physiotherapist (that was one of the main complaints of the official report of 2002 criticizing the school), and also she'd also like the students to have a better musical education. All that sounds very promising (and she seems to have a less harsh personality than Claude Bessy...)

Surprised that this year's gold medalist at Varna, Mathilde Froutsey, was topped by Aurelia Bellet in the promotions from the Coryphee (into Sujet) category. Is Bellet that fabulous? Sorry, I've never seen her.

Actually, it seems to me that so far Bellet has been cast mostly in modern dance roles, and I haven't seen her that much...

I'm also a bit surprised that Dorothee Gilbert ranked only 3rd in the list of Sujets (into Premiere D.), with only Cozette having been promoted. Would this be because Gilbert was promoted to Sujet fairly recently? How often does POB see dancers who are promoted every single year?

I don't think that being promoted last year was a problem for Gilbert, as for example

among the men, Josua Hoffalt had been promoted to coryphée last year, and got promoted this year to sujet; for example Mathieu Ganio had been promoted quickly from quadrille to sujet too. Being promoted every single year is not very common given the small number of positions and the large number of candidates (especially among the quadrilles, where there often are something like 25 dancers competing for 2 or 3 positions), but it happens.

Actually, I think that it was a surprise to many POB fans that Gilbert wasn't promoted, considering that she was given several big roles during the season ("Concerto Barocco", "Etudes", the main female role in the second cast of Trisha Brown's new work, alternating with Aurélie Dupont...) and was considered quite successful at it.

Didn't Ould-Braham dance Aurora in Beauty, recently? She, too, was topped by Cozette...who must be pretty special.

Yes indeed, Ould-Braham did dance Aurora recently (quite unusual for a sujet- but it seems that the POB direction is far less strict about hierarchy than it used to be, as more and more corps de ballet dancers are given chances to perform major roles).

How much of the results are based on the actual day of competition & how much as on the recent body of work from each competitor?

That's a tough question... If I remember correctly, there is a mark given by the administration, but in fact almost everybody gets the top mark, as it depends only on how often the dancers have attended the classes and rehearsals (perhaps cygneblanc could give more details about it ?). Theoretically, the marks depend only on what is done on the day of the competition... But in fact, what has been done during the seasons counts too. But for example, a dancer who has had a great season but is in poor shape on the day of the competition and fails his/her variation has very little chance to be promoted.

Also sometimes there are some conflicts among the jury (which includes 10 people: five dancers elected by the corps de ballet - dancers not involved personally in the competition, so étoiles, premiers danseurs, or "senior" corps de ballet dancers who have given up competing-, and the director of the Paris Opera, now Gérard Mortier, the director of dance, now Brigitte Lefèvre, the ballet master in chief, now Patrice Bart, and two "exterior" people, this year the former étoile Monique Loudières and the Pina Bausch dancer Dominique Mercy) and it can lead to unexpected results. For example, about a decade ago everybody expected either Agnès Letestu or Delphine Moussin to be promoted to première danseuse, but the jury couldn't find a consensus about any of them... and Nathalie Riqué ended up being promoted.

Being promoted to premier danseur means that the dancer won't be obliged to dance corps de ballet roles any longer. But the direction has no obligation to give them major roles either, so some dancers aren't cast much after their promotion, for example it seems to have been the case with Nolwenn Daniel (who later was absent for a season because of maternity leave); some premiers danseurs get almost as many major roles as the étoiles, while other mostly dance some less important roles.

Last question:  Isn't it true that the POB management can decide to raise a Sujet to an Etoile, skipping the Premiere D. rank? It could be that POB management has bigger things in store for Ould-Braham or Gilbert, feeling that Cozette will remain at P.D. status? Just curious.

Yes indeed, the POB direction can raise any dancer to Etoile (even a quadrille if they wished- I don't think it has ever happened, but I think it might have happened in the 1940s or 1950s that a coryphée was promoted directly to étoile, perhaps Michel Renault). For example, a few months ago Mathieu Ganio was promoted from Sujet to Etoile (he was expected to have a great career, but his being promoted so quickly was quite a surprise for everybody, as he's only 20 and had danced only two important roles before being promoted).

It is indeed possible that Gilbert or Ould-Braham could get promoted directly to étoile- but it seems unlikely to me that it'd be for that reason that they didn't get promoted to première danseuse... Perhaps it was simply that Cozette danced better variations on that very day.

And it's really hard to make any kind of prediction about the POB promotions. For example Thibault is 30 and has been a sujet for 12 years, after a very quick rise at the beginning of his career, and even many of his fans were losing hope to see him promoted someday. Also last year, Isabelle Ciaravola was promoted to première danseuse while being already 31 or 32, even though it was often thought that the chances of promotion after 30 were close to zero (I believe she was the oldest dancer promoted to première danseuse in at least two decades). Also Marie-Agnès Gillot was promoted to étoile after a performance of Carolyn Carlson's "Signes", and I think it was the first promotion ever to take place after a modern dance work. And for example, a few seasons ago, eveybody expected Eleonora Abbagnato to be promoted to principal very quickly, and now nothing is sure, on the other hand Laetitia Pujol became an étoile after a period when she was given very few roles by the direction... So anything can happen ;)

By the way, the official results are announced on the POB web site (also giving the ages of the promoted dancers):

http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/?Rub=ALire

Thanks for posting the results, cygneblanc !

I'm happy to see that Laura Hecquet, Alice Renavand, Charline Gienzendanner and Josua Hoffalt got promoted, as I had liked their work in the corps de ballet (this is not meant to criticize the other dancers who were promoted, I just had fewer opportunities to see them).

The new premiers danseurs are a bit surprising: Thibault because he has been a sujet for about ten years (he's 30 now) and would have had many opportunities to be promoted earlier (and some have criticized his partnering skills), but it seems the direction has changed its opinion about him, as he recently got his first big role (Basilio in "Don Quixote") and Cozette because most POB fans expected either Dorothée Gilbert or Myriam Ould Braham to be promoted, as they had already danced with success some important roles during the season. Personally I have seen Thibault only in a few roles (virtuoso pas de trois or solos) and can't say much about him, and am a bit disappointed with Cozette's promotion as I have found her quite bland and not very musical so far...

It is indeed a regular event, for which tickets are sold:

http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/?Rub=Fiche&Genre=Ballets&Id=715

Generally, there are three performances every year. And they seem to seel very well, especially as a lot of ballet teachers bring their students to see it.

The German choreographer Uwe Scholz passed away at 45 (and not 47 as said in the article)

http://actu.voila.fr/Depeche/depeche_media...1.t5uwh3kk.html

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/arts/article/art...2004,852100.php

He was born in 1958 and had been the director of the Leipzig Ballet since 1991.

An interview of him:

http://www.culturekiosque.com/dance/inter/rheleip.html

Green with envy... (But where is that green smiley when you need it ;) )

I'm looking forward to reading your other reviews.

Yes, it seems that poor Clairemarie Osta is injured (she was supposed to come back after about a year of absence, for maternity leave- she gave birth to a daughter last summer).

The detailed casts have been posted today on the POB web site:

http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/?Rub=Distribu...=Ballets&Id=711

So the pairings will be:

Pujol/Bart (2), Hurel/ Ganio (2), Pujol/ Pech (2), Ould-Braham/ Duquenne (1, both are sujets, and it will be Ould-Braham's first great role), Zakharova/ Martinez (2), Pujol/ Ganio (2), Letestu/ Bart (2), Gillot/Martinez (2), Letestu/ Martinez (1), Dupont/ Legris (3), Gillot/ Bolle (2). Wow, that's quite a lot of different casts ! :blush: And it must be difficult for some dancers to rehearse with two or three different partners... Also some of them (Legris, Dupont, Gillot, Pech, Duquenne) will perform in the Brown/ Forsythe/ Lancelot triple bill at Garnier during the same period.

The casts for the Bluebird pas de deux also are listed, there will be Hurel, Moussin, Daniel (nice to see her back on stage ), Muret, Wiart, Zusperreguy, Abbagnato, and Pech, Thibault, Paquette, Gaudion, Carbone and Valastro.

And of course, all that is likely to change.

PS to Panda: please don't hesitate to post your questions in this thread, if you have any.

Ooh - that must be hard for Pech, having danced the role in performance already.  Yet it looks like those cast (I haven't seen all of them, though) are more appropriate to the role.

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Actually, from what I've heard it's very possible that Pech will be dancing: there are some unofficial categories of "remplaçant dansant" (dancing understudies) and "remplaçat non-dansant" (non-dancing understudies), and the "dancing" ones often get one opportunity to perform the role, often in a matinee. So even though only principals and guests are listed, some others are likely to perform too.

Message to Panda: I hope that this thread answers your questions a little bit. And in general, don't hesitate to open a new thread if you have a question and it isn't related to the already existing thread !