Estelle

cygneblanc, on which channel is this show? (I have no TV at home, but at least I could ask my parents about it...) Did the show also feature his father? From I had read in his autobiography, he met his father for the first time very late, when he was an adult. I wonder how successful was his singing show about Paris was- when it was first done some time ago it wasn't very successful... (By the way, I edited the title of your post to change the spelling of "Dupond", so don't worry if it has changed!)

Françoise, thanks for the information. Pity it isn't on Arte, because I know nobody who receives Mezzo and could record it for me... Well, actually there was much fuss about the Lacroix costumes when it was premiered two seasons ago (reading some articles in the French press, one would have believed that it was a fashion defile and not a ballet, Balanchine was hardly mentioned), but I thought it wasn't so exceptional. I haven't seen the costumes of the original production, so I can't compare, and in general I'm not a specialist of costumes at all... Well, those that I liked the least (I think I have already said it) were those of "Rubies", I didn't like much the color of the women's costumes (a bit too bright) and the men's costumes were a bit weird. Those of the other two movements were fine, in my opinion. Here is a link to a page whch includes some photographs, it will be more precise than anything I could write about it: http://www.culturekiosque.com/dance/review.../rhfjewels.html And also a few ones of Sophia Parcen's page: http://mapage.noos.fr/sparcen/kep/kep23.html And one from "Diamonds" on José Martinez"s page: http://www.josecarlosmartinez.com/enter2.htm (Oh, and also a silly detail: sometimes I found the "décolletés" of the female costumes in "Emeralds" a bit too low, it was not very flattering on some of the dancers...) If I remember correctly, Christian Lacroix also made the costumes for Blanca Li's "Scheherazade" last season, and they were probably among the weirdest and ugliest costumes I've ever seen.

Ed, I think you mean Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of the singer Serge Gainsbourg and the actress and singer Jane Birkin)?

Thanks for the information about the casts, Françoise! Once again, one never knows what to expect as there are so many changes... What a pity that Fanny Fiat won't dance "Rubies", she isn't cast very often in such big roles, what a bad luck! About Marie-Agnès Gillot, I wonder why it hadn't occurred to the direction before that perhaps having her dance so many roles (Rubies, Diamonds, Appartement) at the same time might be a bit too much? It would have been simpler if they hadn't printed her names in the casts, because now probably there are some people who had hoped to see her in "Diamonds" and are disappointed... And having only one cast for "Appartement" is a bit dangerous anyway- there would be some problems if for example Jose Martinez or Clairemarie Osta got injured... By the way, do you know for which channel "Appartement" will be filmed?

Actually I had mentioned only corps de ballet dancers who are unlikely to be promoted, given their ages... But among the younger ones, there are quite a lot of dancers that I like a lot, and especially Fanny Fiat and Dorothée Gilbert.

Diane, could you tell us a bit more about those ballet German companies? It's a bit fascinating for me to see that in Germany there are so many ballet, operas and orchestras, by contrast to the very centralized situation in France... But the French press seldom talks about the German cultural scene. So it'd be interesting to know in which German cities there still are some ballet companies, what kind of repertory they're dancing, etc.

Diane, could you tell us a bit more about those ballet German companies? It's a bit fascinating for me to see that in Germany there are so many ballet, operas and orchestras, by contrast to the very centralized situation in France... But the French press seldom talks about the German cultural scene. So it'd be interesting to know in which German cities there still are some ballet companies, what kind of repertory they're dancing, etc.

Katharine, I think Viviane is right: the Ek- Teshigawara program will be danced at Garnier (you can check it on the POB's web site), not at Bastille. Actually the only ballet program which will be danced at Bastille before the end of the season is the Béjart mixed bill in May-June. I'm afraid I'm totally confused with the Washington, 1972 reference. I had seen "Appartement" when it was premiered; I like a lot of some Mats Ek's works, that one was was only half convincing in my opinion. Its excellent cast was one of its main qualities (I especially remember a humorous solo by José Martinez, a pas de deux with Clairemarie Osta and Kader Belarbi, and also an amusing scene with vacuum cleaners) but I had found the music a bit weird and it lacked unity- I find Ek's works more convincing when there is a clear plot, as in his "Giselle". Last time it was paired with Ohad Naharin's "Perpetuum" (amusing but easily forgettable), this time it is paired with a world premiere by Saburo Teshigawara but I have never seen anything by that choreographer, and have no idea what to expect.

Mel, don't forget that there also was a post from su-lian from Paris! By the way, I also think that Balanchine's works are not the only ones which enable the audience to see the corps de ballet dancers. In some Petipa works for example, there are quite a lor of pas de quatre, pas de six, etc. which can be an opportunity to see some corps de ballet dancers...

Paul, you can edit your message using the little "edit" icon... I don't see POB performances that often, so I'm not very familiar with the corps de ballet dancers (all the more as the company is really big and some of them don't dance much). And also it is difficult to know if the "sujets" should be counted in the corps de ballet or as soloists (as they perform both kinds of roles). But well, among the oldest dancers of the company, I have a fondness for the sujet Jean-Marie Didière, in his early 40s now, and who dances many of the "bad guys" in all classical ballets, and also roles like "Don Quixote". He has so much stage presence and is very good at mime... And he was especially bright in Kader Belarbi's "Hurlevent" last season. Among the coryphée, Vincent Cordier is a tall dancer with a beautiful line, and for example he looked great recently in the corps de ballet of "Diamonds" in the Polonaise part. Also there are quite a lot of very good and reliable female sujets (one can really feel the difference when they're there or when there are only less experiences coryphees and quadrilles) like the joyful small Sandrine Marache, Nathalie Aubin and her beautiful feet, the very charming and graceful Miteki Kudo, Laure Muret who was so funny as the "girls with glasses" in Robbins' "The Concert"...

Horst Koegler's "Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet" lists "Le Talisman" among Marius Petipa's works (created in 1889) and says its score was by Drigo, but so far that's all what I've found... Perhaps rg or Jeannie could tell you more about it?

Thanks for the information, cygneblanc and Françoise- now I remember reading something about it, but I had forgotten...

Thanks for that interview, Katharine, it's very interesting. Jean Guizerix and Wilfried Piollet are very interesting people. I've read that they had applied to the direction of the Conservatoire de Paris but finally weren't chosen, I wonder what results it would have given... And I'm impatient to know what Jean Guizerix will be doing at the Ballet du Nord (I hope he'll be able to stay there long enough to do some actual work), he's someone with a wide culture and a real interest in the whole repertory of ballet, which isn't that common unfortunately! What he writes about the notebooks of Michel Léon (father of Arthur Saint-Léon- by the way, does anybody know why he changed his name from Léon to Saint-Léon) and of Henri Justamant is fascinating. How great it must be to find such old documents in some libraries and to try to understand the movements it depicts! P.S.: by the way, Katharine, do you know if he's still performing? I have fond memories of some of his performances (actually he was part of the first dance performance I saw, in 1992, dancing Limon's "Chaconne" and a solo by Michel Kelemenis) and of those of his wife...

I came across some web pages about the competitive exams to become an elementary school teacher in France (it's an exam which is organized in each region every year, but the rules are fixed nationally by the ministry of Education)... and to my surprise, it mentioned dance as one part of the exam! More precisely: the first part of the exam includes two written tests (about French and mathematics), and the people who get a good enough mark at that test take the second part of the exam, which included four oral tests. One of those four tests is a physical education one, and there are three possible choices: a 2000-meter race, some badminton matches, or some dance (each test also includes an interview with the jury, dealing mostly with pedagogy). Some other activities used to be possible in some regions (gymnastics, climbing, basket-ball...) but the rules have been modified last year by the ministry. The dance test is supposed to be a solo or a duo lasting between 1 minute and 30 seconds and 2 minutes, and has to be a choreography created by the candidate. I'm a bit puzzled about such a choice of activities (for example, as far as I know, badminton isn't very popular at all in France...), and I really wonder how the jurys are chosen (they're likely to be physical education teachers, and I wonder what they know about dance in general), and how the marks are given- they're supposed to evaluate in a very short time the choreography, the technical and artistic interpretation, and any style is possible... Moreover, it seems that most students don't receive any specific training about it. On one hand it's interesting to see that dance is taken "seriously" by the ministry (even if it's fare more likely to be some kind of contemporary dance rather than ballet), but on the other hand I'm afraid it probably produces a lot of really bad solos and duos... The ministry seems to believe that anyone can become a choreographer easily, which sounds quite stupid (after all, for the French test, the candidates are not asked to write a novel or a short story!)

Thanks for your reviews, Jack! By the way, do you know if there is any hope that the MCB will tour to France someday? They were supposed to come to Lyon in 1998, but that tour was cancelled a few months before, much to my disappointment, and they don't seem to have any plans to come to France someday... Also I guess that there are quite a few POB fans (including myself) who would be glad to see Eric Quilleré again...

It reminds me of a POB performance I had attended around 1996 with an American acquaintance met on a.a.b., after the show I had to go to the "entrée des artistes" of the Opera Garnier to take something a dancer of the corps de ballet had left for me (I was making a page about her). It had never been to the "entrée des artistes" before, and even though I knew approximately where it was, I was not really sure... We crossed two young gentlemen who seemed to be coming from the right direction, asked them where it was and they politely replied. And a few meters later, I realized with surprise that one of them was Manuel Legris, whom we had seen shortly before in Ashton's "Rhapsody"... Well, that was the only conversation I ever had with Manuel Legris ;) Farrell Fan wrote: " This is a pleasant anecdote, but it got me wondering about people (I'm sure there are many) who ask for autographs from "celebrities" of whose identity they're not sure." I remember a POB performance I once attended in Lyon at the Maison de la Danse. After the end of the performance, I was near the artists's door, and there were two teen-aged girls waiting there. One of the first people to go out was Jean Guizerix, a former POB principal who was then one of the ballet masters of the company. The girls rushed at him asking for an autograph, and he replied with a smile "well, you know, I wasn't dancing today", thinking that perhaps it was a mistake from them, but they did know who he was and wanted an autograph from him...

In the last performance of "Jewels" that I attended, I really wished that the two children around 8 in the next loge weren't there, especially when the boy started making a lot of disgusting noises with his mouth in the middle of "Emeralds"... But I think that in general it's a matter of education by the parents (they're the ones who should be blamed), and also a matter of choice of the program. Some works are better suited to young children than others- one of my cousins was 8 when she attended her first ballet performance, and behaved really well, but it was a narrative ballet ("Giselle") and I had told her about the story before so that she wouldn't feel lost, also she took dance classes then and so was interested in seeing the dancers. But I wouldn't have brought her to see an abstract work, for example, or a work with a too complicated plot: for example, I have an awful memory of sitting next to a family with two kids in a POB mixed bill with Tudor's "Lilac Garden", Taylor's "Speaking in Tongue", and MacMillan's "Song of the Earth"- they spent most of the evening complaining that they were bored and they wanted to go home... I suspect that their parents had no idea what the ballets look like when they booked some tickets, but clearly it was some wasted money for the kids! Probably the main problem is that there is quite a difference between bringing a child to the ballet because you think that s/he will enjoy it, and bringing him/her because you don't want to spend some money to pay a baby-sitter... Perhaps it would be wise for ballet companies to write in their season brochures a minimal age for each program (perhaps not compulsory, but to give some advice to the parents). Also I wouldn't be shocked by having a minimal age for all performances if it's really low- I don't think that a child before, say, 4 would benefit much from a ballet program (except when it's targeted especially at children). Some theaters do special programs for children, for example the Maison de la Danse regularly programs some (with cheap prices, and some special subscriptions for the adults going with the children), and it sounds like a good idea to me. Also some orchestras make special concerts for a family audience (generally shorter than usual concerts, with an introductive talk, and a reduced price- for example the Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio-France will make such concerts about Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in March at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the seats will cost 4,5 euros each but only the adults with children will be authorized to attend it...)

"Choreography from George Balanchine" says that "Movements for piano and orchestra" and "Monumentum pro Gesualdo" were performed together "occasionally since 1965 and consistently since 1966". By the way, are they in the repertory of any other company than NYCB? Another example of "uncoupled" work is "Rubies" from "Jewels". "Choreography by GB" mentions that it was performed "alone" by the POB in 1974, but I wonder if it was performed alone by other companies before? Anyway, I find it more interesting with the two other parts of "Jewels" than alone, I prefer to have the contrast in colors, music and style.

I saw two performances of that program: the season premiere, on Feb 8th, and the first performance of the second cast, on Feb 12th. The first performance included the Défilé, a rare treat these days, and also "Allegro Brillante"- unfortunately, the only performance of that ballet this season. Our seats were very high and we couldn't see one part of the stage (and also the back of the stage with the Foyer and the mirrors during the défilé), so the défilé was a bit less impressive that usually, but it nonetheless was a wonderful event. It started with the female students of the POB school, from the youngest to the oldest, and then the female company dancers, all of them in white tutus: the quadrilles and the coryphées surrounding the premières danseuses (Hurel, Romberg, Daniel, Abbagnato, Gillot, Moussin, Riqué, Averty), then the sujets aroung the female étoiles (the most recently promoted first: Osta, Pujol (their first défilé), Letestu, and Maurin (perhaps her last défilé- she was welcomed with much enthusiasm by the audience). Unfortunately, Aurélie Dupont, who has been absent because of an injury since the beginning of the season, was absent. Then all the men: the POB school first, then the quadrilles and coryphées surrounding the premiers danseurs (Moreau, Paquette, Carbone, Bélingard, Romoli, Delanoë- infortunately Pech and Bridard both were injured), and then the male étoiles (Bart, Martinez, Le Riche, Belarbi, Legris and Hilaire). I regretted that it was the only opportunity of the season to see "Allegro Brillante", as it is a fascinating work which has rarely been danced in France (it had entered the POB's repertory in 1996 and had not been danced since then except on tour) and would require more viewings to be fully appreciated- also to me the music is less immediately suited to dance than, say, that of "Serenade", it's not so easy to get used to it... I had last seen it danced by a group of young students two or three years ago during the summer festival "Paris quartier d'été", and while the students were quite good they looked a bit too tense and ill at ease so some of the "flowing" of the ballet was missing. Here the main roles were danced by Elisabeth Maurin, very graceful and musical, and Jean-Guillaume Bart, supremely elegant and an attentive partner, and the corps de ballet (Melles Doisneau, Fiat, Muret and Wiart, MM Belem, Duquenne, Gaudion and Thibault) was in top shape. In "Jewels", I especially appreciated the two performances of Clairemarie Osta, on the 7th in the "sicilienne" role of "Emeralds" and on the 12th in the ballerina role of "Rubies": she was wonderful in both roles, extremely musical, very poetic in "Emeralds" and daring, witty and playful in "Rubies" (one of the very best performances of her that I've seen). In the first solo, Laetitia Pujol was good but not as poetic as Elisabeth Maurin, and as their respective partners Karl Paquette looked quite absent, while Wilfried Romoli was far more interesting. Kader Belarbi danced the second role both times (by the way, what a pity to see him to rarely on stage now), with elegance and stage presence, partnering Osta the first time and Daniel (a bit less impressive than Osta, but interesting too) the second time. The new premier danseurs Hervé Moreau danced the pas de trois both times, once with Eleonora Abbagnato and Nolwenn Daniel, and once with Mélanie Hurel and Myriam Kamionka. In "Rubies", I wasn't very satisfied, as was already the case two seasons ago, with Christian Lacroix's costumes: the red of the women's costumes isn't the same as that of the men's and in general they look less satisfying to me that those of the previous production ("Rubies" used to be the only part of "Jewels" in the POB's repertory until 1996), the female costumes are not very flattering for the dancers. Both performances were excellent, once with Delphine Moussin, Manuel Legris (one of his best roles in my opinion) and Marie-Agnès Gillot, and the second time with Clairemarie Osta, Jérémie Bélingard (whose dancing was not as precise as that of Legris) and Karin Averty. In "Diamonds", Agnès Letestu and José Martinez were very elegant but a bit cold as usual, while Delphine Moussin and Jean-Guillaume Bart were perhaps a bit more moving. Actually it's a part of the work that I appreciate more and more, and especially the corps de ballet parts, with the references to "Swan Lake", and sometimes even a little bit of "Petrouchka" (or at least Russian folk dances)...

I was shocked by the tone of that review too. Also, I don't know about the conditions in which that performance took place: did they have much time to get used to that stage, recover from jet lag, etc.? It's a bit harsh to judge young students so severely after only one performance, especially when they are in an unusual environment for them (and probably quite nervous because of that).

Yesterday evening at the Opera Garnier, a cell phone rang no less than three times at the beginning of "Emeralds"... :rolleyes: I wish there were such laws in Paris too!

Mel, your knowledge of French geography is quite amazing- I didn't even know before that there was a Lisle in France (in Loir-et-Cher, it seems), I only knew about Leconte de Lisle (the guy who created "La Marseillaise"). But probably BilboBaggins meant "Lille"... By the way, what are the BEF?

Yes indeed, Monique Loudières was born in 1956 and officially retired from the POB in 1996 (she came back a little bit after that as a guest, though), so that video was filmed shortly before her retirement. But she still was wonderful, and in her last official seasons danced a lot of difficult roles... I wish I had seen her more often. I'm not a fan of that "Romeo and Juliet" (and of "Romeo and Juliet" in general, indeed) but Loudieres and Legris are so magical together that for me it's the main interest of the tape... And I do regret that they weren't filmed in other ballets, for example it'd have been great to have a video of their "Giselle" or their "Sylphide"...

Thanks cygneblanc! There also was something about it in yesterday's 1 PM news, with some short interviews of Agnès Letestu, José Martinez, Clairemarie Osta and Mathilde Froustey (one of the youngest members of the corps de ballet). The quality of the video is quite good. It is at the end (it starts around the 41st minute). How to access it (well, their site is quite a mess and it's not easy to find the direct URLs!): go to http://www.france2.fr/semiStatic/61-481-NIL-NIL.html# and then click on "journal de 13h" (the photo in the middle), and it will open a smaller window, then it s the line "lundi 10/02" (you can save it or see it directly). Or to see it directly with realplayer: try to paste this in your realplayer plugin: rtsp://rmedia.francetv.fr:554/infos/f2/13h/13h_20030210.rm

Actually, sometimes even waiting for the cast list to be published on the POB web site isn't enough, as there can be some last-minute changes (mostly because of injuries). It seems to be (but it's just a personal hypothesis) that perhaps Hilaire wouldn't be young enough to dance the main role in Béjart's "L'Oiseau de Feu", as it generally is danced by younger dancers. I know too little about the other works to know if he's likely to perform it... Perhaps we'll know more about it later? I saw him yesterday evening in the défilé (he was the last étoile in it, as he's the one who was promoted the earliest), but as you wrote, he hasn't been dancing that much in recent seasons, partly because of injuries. Also he seems to be more and more involved in coaching other dancers, his name often appears in the program sheets as one of the people who supervised the rehearsals- I wonder if he intends to become a ballet master later? It is a bit surprising that he won't appear in Manon if he's danced it recently in London (as it means it's not physically too hard for him), but perhaps it's because the performances of "Manon" will take place in the same period as some of the performances of the Béjart mixed bill?