Estelle

It's hard to know if they would have had other opportunities later, or if perhaps they would have given up choreography... The same applies, to some extent, to Roland Petit and Boris Kochno (but at least Petit was a POB dancer and could have stayed there). A company which seems to have developed quite a lot of choreographers among its dancers in the 20th century is the Stuttgart Ballet: John Neumeier, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Uwe Scholz... It seems that John Cranko encouraged a lot his dancers to choreograph when he was the Stuttgart Ballet's director. Perhaps that's a separate debate, but it seems that it applied only to male dancers? Who was Paul? (I had to check in Koegler's book about Albert. That's silly but at first I thought it was first names, and so wondered "Albert Whom? Paul Whom?" ;) ) So, for the people who, like me, didn't know about him: Francois Albert, 1789-1865, French dancer and choreographer, premier danseur of the Paris Opera 1817-1835, POB choreographer 1829-1842. I can't resist mentioning the title of his book "L'art de danser à la ville et à la cour, manuel à l'usage des maîtres à danser, des mères de famille et maîtresses de pension". And the list of his choreographies makes me regret that so little of that period remains...) Hmm, was it that dancers were more encouraged to choreograph in that period, or that it was easier to have both a choreographing and performing career (or that on the other hand a not very good dancer wouldn't have been taken seriously as a choreographer)? It seems that his ballets remaining "alive" are mostly his productions of Petipa classics, and perhaps also "Cinderella". His other works, like "Manfred" or "Washington Square", haven't been danced by the POB (and probably not by other companies either) for a long while.

Also I was thinking that taking dance classes is the only way one can know all the steps and the technique; probably someone who would start choreographing without having danced him/herself would have trouble knowing which combinations are really possible to dance and which aren't... It's probably the same for music, are there examples of composers who never played any instrument themselves? (However, one can argue that for example opera composers generally aren't singers themselves). And in the case of dancers turned company directors turned choreographers, sometimes I'm wondering if it isn't also "great, so I'll be able to have my name one more time in the season's brochure: "X's company featuring the famous dancer X in X's unforgettable choreography"... Yes, I remember reading such comments in her autobiography, and also what an agony it was for her to stop dancing, and how hard it was to see other dancers in some roles she had created herself... Such an attitude seems less common among ballet choreographers, as Leigh pointed out. Among the "ballet choreographers choreographing for themselves", I'd list Lifar, and also to some extent Nureyev. Petit created some roles for himself in his early works, like "Les Forains" or "Carmen", but from the start he also created big roles for others ("Le Jeune homme et la mort" for Babilee...) Alexandra, Koegler's book says that Bournonville stopped his dancing career in 1848, agred 43 (he had become the RDB's direcor in 1830), what was his career as a performer? Did he perform much in his own ballets? Well, perhaps I should have written "more good ballet choreogaphers", then. ;) I probably was thinking too much about the French situation, where they are really so scarce... Leigh, I was going to ask you when you decided to become a choreographer, was it very shortly after becoming a dancer? You mention on your page that you were a late starter, as you started ballet only in college. Do you think it was a drawback for your choreographing career (it seems to me that having been famous as a dancer is helpful for choreographers in terms of publicity, and probably also in terms of knowing more people in the world of dance), or an advantage (more time as a child and teen-ager to pay attention to other things that ballet, and to get an academic education)? Also, do you think there are some links between your tastes and abilities as a dancer and your choreographing style? For example, are you more likely to use some steps you used to like doing as a dancer? Of course, if some other choreographers are reading, they are welcome to answer those questions too.

When looking at the season's programs of some French ballet companies, I realized that several of them programmed works choreographed by their directors, who are or used to be ballet dancers (Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Charles Jude, Eric Vu-An...) and who started choreographing quite late. I must confess I'm a bit cautious about the people who seem to discover they are interested in choreography only after they have become company directors (mostly because of their fame as ballet dancers), so that they have a company and can experience what they want without much risj It made me think about what typically is the career of a choreographer. All choreographers seem to have started their careers as dancers (does anybody know some counterexamples?), some were famous as dancers, like Petipa, Massine, Lifar or Martins (and to some extent Petit), while others had relatively short careers as dancers, like Balanchine or Béjart; also some of them were late starters, like (correct me if I'm wrong) Tudor and Ashton. I think it'd be interesting to try to list their performing careers, and also whether they continued dancing after starting choreographing (Lifar being an example of choreographer often tailoring his ballets of his own performances...), and if they stopped, why (health reasons- limited dancing abilities- choice to spend all their time choreographing...) Also it seemed to me that most great choreographers started choreographing quite early: from Koegler's book, Ashton's first choreography was in 1926 when he was 22 ("A tragedy of fashion"), Balanchine on the same year when he was 22 too ("Jack in the box", "Pastorale" and "Barabau"), Lifar in 1929 when he was 24 ("Les creatures de Promethee"), Petit in 1945 when he was 21 ("Les Forains"), Massine in 1915 when he was 20 ("Soleil de Nuit"), Petipa in 1838 when he was 20 in Nantes, Tudor when he was 23 ("Cross Garter'd")... Was it a sign that there were very motivated, and precociously gifted, or was it also a consequence of the circumstances (being supported by Diaghilev for Balanchine and Massine, by Kochno for Petit...)? Which leads to a related question: what should be done to have more ballet choreographers? I'd be interested in your thoughts about that topic.

In fact, in many French cities, the only ballet companies that people get to see are companies from Russia, Ukraine or some other Eastern European countries. For example, the Ballet of Kiev seems to tour regularly in some middle-sized French cities, there are also various companies from Moscow but I don't know how big they are or which are their level. The production values often seem ot be not very high (taped music, old sets...) but at least people see some ballet. Probably those companies are more present because of economic factors, and also there is a large number of ballet companies in Russia; but also I remember reading some interviews of directors of French regional ballet companies complaining that for some theater directors, ballet was associated with Russia, and so they'd rather hire any Russian company, even not very good, than hiring a French company (it was a few years ago, when there were more active ballet companies in France).

In fact, in many French cities, the only ballet companies that people get to see are companies from Russia, Ukraine or some other Eastern European countries. For example, the Ballet of Kiev seems to tour regularly in some middle-sized French cities, there are also various companies from Moscow but I don't know how big they are or which are their level. The production values often seem ot be not very high (taped music, old sets...) but at least people see some ballet. Probably those companies are more present because of economic factors, and also there is a large number of ballet companies in Russia; but also I remember reading some interviews of directors of French regional ballet companies complaining that for some theater directors, ballet was associated with Russia, and so they'd rather hire any Russian company, even not very good, than hiring a French company (it was a few years ago, when there were more active ballet companies in France).

Marjorie, welcome on this board (as I see it is your first post)! Clicking on the link in my post (on the second line) should lead you to the page with the casts. The cast announced for Oct 1st is: Letestu (Odette-Odile), Martinez (Siegfried), Belarbi (Rothbart), Abbagnato, Averty, Bélingard (pas de trois). That for Oct 2nd is: Gillot, Moreau, Saïz, Fiat, Hurel, Thibault. So, unless there is some last minute change, it should be different. The casts for the other program haven't been announced in detail on the site yet: there is a list of performers, but no dates. Alymer: yes, Le Riche and Letestu is a strange pairing too (I hadn't noticed it at first). I don't know Le Riche's height, but yes, she might be a bit too tall. And Letestu's style is much more reserved that that of Le Riche...The casting policy of the POB is hard to understand. Probably the fact that there are not many active principals doesn't help: there are only 4 female principals, and among them Aurélie Dupont, who would have surely danced Odette-Odile, is absent for injury (she's really unlucky: since she became a principal, she was absent a lot of time because of some injuries), that leaves 3 principals (Letestu, Maurin, and the newly promoted Pujol) for 25 performances, and Pujol also dances in the Robbins-Petit program. Maurin is close to retirement (she'll turn 40 in january), and doesn't seem to be very much appreciated by the direction given the way she's cast, Pujol has never danced it before, that's probably why the direction chose to invite Zakharova again, and to give 7 performances to Letestu... And there are not so many active male principals in it, as Hilaire and Legris who had danced it previously won't perform it this time, and there probably is a lack of tall prince-ish premiers danseurs now (Moreau only is a sujet, and I don't know if he is that tall). I would say that when reading those casts, I realized that it really was a change of generations- many principals have retired in the last few seasons, or have stopped doing prince roles (like Belarbi and Hilaire). A few years ago there were too many dancers for such roles, but now there doesn't seem to be that many people ready to replace the previous generation of principals.

Paris has the POB, but not so many big foreign ballet companies tour there: the Kirov will be coming soon, but it makes many years it hasn't been to Paris, the Royal Ballet last come about 9 or 10 years ago... In fact not many theaters in Paris besides the Paris Opera program some ballet (a little bit on the Chatelet and the Theatre des Champs-Elysees and that's about all), there are theaters outside Paris showing some ballet but they are smaller and probably don't have a big enough budget to invite prestigious companies. About touring: a good idea might be to develop exchanges, as what was done last season between the SFB and the POB (the SFB performing in Paris and the POB performing in San Francisco). It's less expensive than "normal" tours because both companies lent their theaters to each other, and also the SFB performances were in the season's subscriptions for the Paris Opera (and vice-versa) so they were sure to have a minimum of audience (and benefitted from the publicity in the POB brochure). I had had the opportunity to talk with a former member of the board of the SFB who had been involved in organizing that exchange; it had required a lot of work and, as LMCtech wrote, there was a strong will of the board to organize tours. Himself said that, when arriving on the board, coming from a corporate environment, he was wondering about the interest of touring, because financially it's often not profitable, but realized later that it was good for the reputation of the company, for the dancers' training, and for the atmosphere inside the company (the dancers feeling closer to each other in tours, having the feeling to be the representatives of their company and their home town).

The casts for "Swan Lake" have been posted on the POB page. http://www.opera-de-paris.fr/0203/fiche/fi...470_distri.html So there will be (Odette-Odile/ Siegfried/ Rothbart): -Letestu/ Martinez/ Belarbi or Romoli -Gillot/ Moreau/ Saiz -Pujol/ Bart/ Belarbi -Letestu/ Le Riche/ Martinez -Zakharova/ Bart/ Belarbi -Maurin/ Pech/ Paquette or Romoli (I'm still a bit puzzled: why do they pair Maurin and Pech so often, as their styles seem quite different to me... :confused: ) So it is a bit different from what had been announced: no Manuel Legris as Siegfried, no Bridard or Delanoe as Rothbart, and Marie-Agnes Gillot gets to dance Odette-Odile once. In the pas de trois, there will be (I'm too lazy to type the exact casts) Abbagnato, Averty, Daniel, Osta, Fiat, Hurel, Aubin, Ciaravola, Kudo, Cozette, Zusperreguy, Cordellier for the women, and Bélingard, Saiz, Thibault, Duquenne, Moreau, Carbone, Gaudion for the men. Of course all that is likely to change again...

Well, if that stuff is built and looks like what is on the pictures, then by comparison the Opera Bastille will look positively lovely! :eek: Also I wonder if they have considered all the technical aspects of what's inside. A lot of mistakes were made when the Opera Bastille was built, making the jobs of the technicians more difficult and requiring some further repairs (and some of them had been noticed by the technicians before it was built, but nobody listened to them).

In the case of Pina Bausch (or Forsythe, for example) I think there's also a "fashion" phenomenon, there are some people who are not especially interested in dance but who rush to see their performances because it's fashionable. Ari wrote: Well, there are sometimes when they are quite obvious. When looking at most of the works premiered at the POB in recent years, I think that even with a very large definition of "classical", by no means works like Gallotta's "Les variations d'Ulysse" and "Nosferatu", Mats Ek's "Appartement", José Montalvo's "Le rire de la lyre", Blanca Li's "Scheherazade", or Odile Duboc's "Rhapsody in blue" can be considered as classical. Those choreographers have had no ballet training, and use a vocabulary which is very different from ballet, with only a few cosmetic elements here and there (pointes for Montalvo and Li- used in a very bland way), it really is a different world. Alymer, I wonder too how Ashton would have looked on Bejart's dancers (but similarly I wonder what Jorge Donn looked like when he danced as a guest with the NYCB...) However, all Bejart dancers have had a ballet training, so there is probably less difference than between, for example, Gallotta's own modern company and the POB. And who knows, perhaps it would have made Ashton's works better known in France! I'm not surprised by the critics' reaction (how long ago was it?), there was a period when ballet life in France was very much centered on Lifar and so it probably influenced the critics. Now I don't know why the POB doesn't dance any of his works (they only danced "Rhapsody", and for one season): is it because the direction thinks that it wouldn't be suited to the POB's style (which doesn't seem very likely, as they don't seem to care much about indigenous style when choosing choreographers like Lock or Tehigawara for the next season...)? It is because they think it wouldn't sell much? Or they just don't like Ashton? Or is it because of copyrights? That's puzzling. That's a kind of "experimentation" that I'd much better see than much of what was done in recent seasons...

In the case of Pina Bausch (or Forsythe, for example) I think there's also a "fashion" phenomenon, there are some people who are not especially interested in dance but who rush to see their performances because it's fashionable. Ari wrote: Well, there are sometimes when they are quite obvious. When looking at most of the works premiered at the POB in recent years, I think that even with a very large definition of "classical", by no means works like Gallotta's "Les variations d'Ulysse" and "Nosferatu", Mats Ek's "Appartement", José Montalvo's "Le rire de la lyre", Blanca Li's "Scheherazade", or Odile Duboc's "Rhapsody in blue" can be considered as classical. Those choreographers have had no ballet training, and use a vocabulary which is very different from ballet, with only a few cosmetic elements here and there (pointes for Montalvo and Li- used in a very bland way), it really is a different world. Alymer, I wonder too how Ashton would have looked on Bejart's dancers (but similarly I wonder what Jorge Donn looked like when he danced as a guest with the NYCB...) However, all Bejart dancers have had a ballet training, so there is probably less difference than between, for example, Gallotta's own modern company and the POB. And who knows, perhaps it would have made Ashton's works better known in France! I'm not surprised by the critics' reaction (how long ago was it?), there was a period when ballet life in France was very much centered on Lifar and so it probably influenced the critics. Now I don't know why the POB doesn't dance any of his works (they only danced "Rhapsody", and for one season): is it because the direction thinks that it wouldn't be suited to the POB's style (which doesn't seem very likely, as they don't seem to care much about indigenous style when choosing choreographers like Lock or Tehigawara for the next season...)? It is because they think it wouldn't sell much? Or they just don't like Ashton? Or is it because of copyrights? That's puzzling. That's a kind of "experimentation" that I'd much better see than much of what was done in recent seasons...

dirac, sorry for the confusion: I meant that I could access the list, but when clicking on the links on that page to other articles (hoping to find some information about how it was compiled) , I couldn't. Yes, the movie list is made with online votes, so young American people probably are over-represented. Alexandra, I remember hearing something like that about Princess Diana's death. It's a bit like when, in polls asking about the 20th century most important invention, people reply "the Internet" or "the television", forgetting things like antibiotics (or the fridge- spending a week without a fridge being quite harder than a week without TV...)

One can access that page directly using the following link: http://www.kgl-teater.dk/dkt2002uk/ballet/...le/Balacour.htm Err, I'm a bit lost in the Martins family. So he is Nilas Martins' half brother on his mother's side? (That's off-topic, but it was interesting to notice that the former POB school student Cedric Lambrette was hired in the RDB's corps de ballet). There seem to be quite a lot of dancers called Carreno, aren't they?

About Pina Bausch, I beg to differ: every time her company comes to Paris (one or two series of performances each year) it has sold out performances and is extremely successful. It's a bit the same with Cunningham, for example. So it depends probably quite a lot of the city and context, and, as Ari wrote, is probably more a question of familiarity than a question of classicism or not (for example I suspect that, since Ashton is very little known in France, an Ashton program might not sell very well...)

About Pina Bausch, I beg to differ: every time her company comes to Paris (one or two series of performances each year) it has sold out performances and is extremely successful. It's a bit the same with Cunningham, for example. So it depends probably quite a lot of the city and context, and, as Ari wrote, is probably more a question of familiarity than a question of classicism or not (for example I suspect that, since Ashton is very little known in France, an Ashton program might not sell very well...)

Morris Neighbor, thanks for your explanation about TV and radio. That "list of forbidden words" looks a bit odd seen from France, I've never heard about any bleeping of TV or radio programs in France, it seems to me that American people are more cautious about bad words than French people... What you say about the public television and radio being "obsessed by numbers" is worrying indeed. I think that has been a problem on some French public channels too: the main publich channel, France 2, depends more and more on advertising, and so is more and more likely to copy its main private competitor TF1 (whose quality is in general very low) and to program stupid or vulgar things. All those people obsessed with numbers really forget that a number reflects the percentage of the audience who watched a program, but not at all the quality of the attention and the consequence on people's lives... How many people have started being interested in ballet because they saw some ballet on TV by chance and became hooked? There have been two TV programs which had a lasting influence on my life. One was a series of programs about Nijinsky, shown about 1990-1991, including "Afternoon of a faun" performed by the POB, it was the first ballet I ever saw, and made me feel interested in ballet. The other one was a program that my husband saw around 1992 at late night: the end of a documentary about the writer Georges Perec. It interested him so much that he quickly bought several books by Perec, and later made a web site about him, and it was thanks to that web site that I met him (being also a fan of Perec) in 1995- actually at our wedding when we did a little speech of thanks at the beginning of the dinner, we even thanked Perec ("who unfortunately couldn't attend the dinner"- well, he died in 1982 ;) ) Both those programs were shown then by a public channel called "La sept", which in fact showed some cultural programs on saturday afternoons and evenings on another public channel FR3, later it became a real channel ARTE. The audience of those cultural programs was very low indeed- but it didn't mean it was unimportant!

Thanks for the information, KayDenmark! It's interesting to see that Pierre-Francois Vilanoba still performs with his former POB fellows from time to time. In fact it should be "stars of the POB and the SFB"... The only two works of the program which are not in the POB repertory are Petit's "Ma Pavlova" and "Flames of Paris". Which "L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune" will it be? (If it Nijinsky's, they'll have to bring quite a lot of sets...)

The POB has an especially low turnover: most dancers stay there from the end of their training at the POB school until their official retirement at 40 or 45. Leaving the company must be a tough decision, as their status is very steady and relatively well-paid, they have the opportunity to work with many choreographers, and going elsewhere means taking more chances- and also most of the POB dancers have been trained at the POB school and are very attached emotionally to the company. There were some cases of dancers having a successful career after leaving the POB, like the principal Dominique Khalfouni who became a principal in Roland Petit's company in Marseille, and premiered many of his works, or of course Sylvie Guillem in London, and some others whose career was a bit disappointing, like Eric Vu An who was considered as a future big star but whose career was shortened by injuries and administrative problems. But there have been more dancers leaving in recent years, and I thought it would be interestring to try to list all the former POB dancers in other companies, and what they're doing... So far it is a work in progress. -Guillaume Graffin: joined the POB in 1983, left between 1983 and 1986 when he was a coryphee (his bio on the ABT web site isn't very precise) for the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, joined ABT in 1988 as a principal dancer. -Olivia Grandville: joined the POB in 1981, left in the late 1980s or early 1990s to join the modern company of Dominique Bagouet, after Bagouet's death in 1992 she created her own company and started choreographing. -Sylvie Guillem: joined the POB in 1981, became a principal in 1985, left around 1990, now a guest principal with the Royal Ballet in London. -Raphaëlle Delaunay: joined the POB in 1992, left in 1997 while being a coryphee, joined Pina Bausch's company in Wuppertal, and in 2000 joined the Nederlands Dans Theater. -Pierre-Francois Vilanoba: joined the POB in 1990, left the POB in 1998 while being a sujet to join the San Francisco Ballet as a soloist, became a principal there in 1999. -Rachel Rufer (Vilanoba's wife): joined the POB in 1990, left in 1998 while being a coryphee to join the SFB for one year, then went to the Grands Ballets Canadiens as a soloist, promoted recently as a principal. -Marie-Claude Pietragalla: joined the company in 1979, became a principal in 1990, left in 1998 to became the director of the Ballet National de Marseille. -Gilles Porte: joined the POB in 1992, left the company as a quadrille in 1998 to join the Zurich Ballet for one year, and then went to the Ballet de Marseille as a soloist. -Julien Lestel: left the company in 1998 to join the Zurich Ballet for one year, and then to the Ballet de Marseille as a soloist. -Marie-Gaëlle Communal: joined the company in 1989, left the company around 1999 to join the Ballet de Marseille, later joined the Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon. -Peggy Grelat: joined the POB in 1992, joined the Frankfurt Ballet in 2000 (while still being a quadrille, I think). -Séverine de Cussac: joined the POB in 1993, left around 2001 to join the Dresden Ballet as a soloist. -Eric Quillere: joined the POB in 1984, became a premier danseur in 1990, guested more and more frequently with the Miami City Ballet and left in 2001 or 2002 to join the MCB as a principal. --Delphine Baey: joined the company in 1989, left the company in 2001 as a sujet to join the Ballet National de Marseille as a soloist. -Sébastien Thill: joined the company in 1991, left the company in 2001 as a coryphee to join the Hamburg Ballet. -Jean-Sébastien Colau: joined the POB in 1996, left in 2002 to join the National Ballet of Canada. -Lise-Marie Jourdain: joined the POB in 1995, left in 2002 to join the National Ballet of Canada.

By the way, I've noticed that the former POB dance Rachel Rufer (wife of Pierre-Francois Vilanoba, who is now a principal with the San Francisco Ballet) now is a principal with the Grands Ballets Canadiens.

I agree that having only one big company is a problem, as not many people get exposed to it. Actually I'm likely to find Patrice Bart very representative of the way most things are centralized in France (all big institutions being in Paris), and quite "Parisianist". The people living in France far from Paris can come to Paris to see some ballets, but it's time-consuming and expensive, and only motivated people would do that (another problem is, I think, that there is very little dance on TV at "normal" hours. I've read quite a lot of interviews of dancers mentioning that what made them want to study some ballet was seeing one on TV, in the 1960s-1980s there were some cultural programs like "Le Grand Echiquier" which showed some ballet from time to time around 9 PM, now it's more around 1 AM ) I think that France is large enough to have more than one ballet company; the problem is that it takes time (and money) to build a good company, and a lot of regional companies disappeared rather silently. But in my opinion there should be more middle-sized ballet companies like those in Bordeaux and Toulouse. Also, I agree that experimentation shouldn't be ballet companies' business (or only experimentation clearly rooted in the ballet vocabulary). But I suspect there are several factors, and especially media attention and the attraction of novelty (it's perhaps easier to get many articles in the newspapers with a new work than with a classical production), and also there are many modern/contemporary choreographers who are interested in working with ballet companies because ballet companies have more money and sometimes better working conditions (money for sets, costumes, an orchestra...) than small contemporary ones.

I agree that having only one big company is a problem, as not many people get exposed to it. Actually I'm likely to find Patrice Bart very representative of the way most things are centralized in France (all big institutions being in Paris), and quite "Parisianist". The people living in France far from Paris can come to Paris to see some ballets, but it's time-consuming and expensive, and only motivated people would do that (another problem is, I think, that there is very little dance on TV at "normal" hours. I've read quite a lot of interviews of dancers mentioning that what made them want to study some ballet was seeing one on TV, in the 1960s-1980s there were some cultural programs like "Le Grand Echiquier" which showed some ballet from time to time around 9 PM, now it's more around 1 AM ) I think that France is large enough to have more than one ballet company; the problem is that it takes time (and money) to build a good company, and a lot of regional companies disappeared rather silently. But in my opinion there should be more middle-sized ballet companies like those in Bordeaux and Toulouse. Also, I agree that experimentation shouldn't be ballet companies' business (or only experimentation clearly rooted in the ballet vocabulary). But I suspect there are several factors, and especially media attention and the attraction of novelty (it's perhaps easier to get many articles in the newspapers with a new work than with a classical production), and also there are many modern/contemporary choreographers who are interested in working with ballet companies because ballet companies have more money and sometimes better working conditions (money for sets, costumes, an orchestra...) than small contemporary ones.

Well, I do hope that it won't be the same with some other American company directors in Europe, like Nanette Glushak in Toulouse or John Neumeier in Hamburg... However, those two directors seem quite popular in their home cities, so that doesn't seem very likely to happen- except perhaps if there is a need of budget cuts... Diane, thanks for your explanations. I hadn't heard about the changes in the tax system, that's an interesting element. It seems that unfortunately some German companies are going the same way as some French ones: the cities want to spend less money on the arts and cut the budgets, and it's less expensive to have a small modern company than a ballet company...

As it has been written, in the POB hierarchy, "coryphée" is more or less the equivalent of "demi-soloist" (and "soloist" is "soliste" in French). The terme is used for both males and females, it comes from Greek but I don't know much about its etimology. The POB hierarchy now is: -étoile (=principal) -premier danseur (for men)- première danseuse (for women) (=first soloist) -sujet (=soloist) -coryphée (=demi-soloist) -quadrille (=corps de ballet) Major Mel, either the terminology has changed or you made a mistake about the quadrilles (though indeed, it would be more logical if it was for people dancing in groups of four). Earlier (I don't know exactly until when, perhaps the 1950s) there were two more categories: the quadrilles were divided in premiers quadrilles and seconds quadrilles, and the sujets in petits sujets and grands sujets. To get up in the hierarchy, the only way is the annual competition (except for the étoiles, who are chosen directly by the director of dance, and might be picked up in any category, for example I think that in the 1940s Michel Renault was only a coryphée when he became an étoile at the age of 17), so the careers couldn't be very quick! Today the hierarchy is less strict, and sujets and even coryphées can be given major roles from time to time. However, a rule I've heard about is that the premiere of any series of performances must include all the dancers of the highest rank among those which are cast for each role. For example: assume that you have one principal and two premieres danseuses in the role of Aurora, then the principal must dance the premiere, if you have two sujets and two coryphées for the role of Puss-in-Boots, then one of the sujets must dance the premiere, and so on. It probably can cause some problems when there are some last-minute injuries... Also, while the coryphees and sujets still can be asked to dance "basic" corps de ballet roles, the premiers danseurs can't. I remember reading some comments of newly promoted premiers danseurs saying that they were relieved because, even if they weren't sure to be given interesting roles, at least they wouldn't have to dance corps de ballet roles any longer! Major Mel, the anecdote about the "ballerines près de l'eau" (with a grave accent- "prés" with an acute accent means "meadows" so at first I wonder about what those "water meadows" where ;) ) is fascinating! And I know a dancer (Delphine Baey) who danced the same "first shade" role as Nanette Glushak, it must have been tiring indeed (and in general, it seems to me that "La Bayadere" must be a rather tiring ballet for the female corps de ballet, isn't it?)

Does anybody know how that list was compiled (I couldn't access the linked articles)? Was it an online survey, or a survey by phone? Could people quote any name, or was there a list? How many "great britons" did they have to choose? This kind of "weird list" reminds of the "top 250 movies" on the Internet Movie Database. Recent movies are over-represented, and for example "Lord of the rings" is #4, just before "Citizen Kane".

The POB season will start at the end of september with two programs: -a Robbins-petit mixed bill, at the Opéra Garnier (Sept 27- 0ct 5), including Robbins' "The Cage" and "Other dances", two works which had entered the company's repertory about two seasons ago, and Petit's "Passacaille", created for the POB in 1994, and "L'Arlesienne", created for Petit's Ballet de Marseille in 1974 and which had entered the POB's repertory in 1997. I'm a bit puzzled about the logic of that program: Robbins and Petit both are choreographers which have enjoyed quite a lot of success with the POB, but to me there is little in common between them. Also, the two works of Petit in the program are relatively inferior in my opinion: I had seen the premiere of "Passacaille" in 1995, and had found it relatively boring (and I really didn't find Webern's score much suited to dance) and "L'Arlesienne" was interesting only thanks to the interpretation of the main role... And for Robbins, I'd have preferred to see "Dances at a gathering", which hasn't been danced by the POB for nearly a decade, but I suspect that there might be some copyright issues involved. But well, for me, if I can see Manuel Legris in "Other dances" it will be worth the trip! The POB web site includes some information about the casting (3 casts for 8 performances). Interesting news: Isabelle Guérin will come back for "The Cage", "Other dances" and "L'Arlésienne"! The only principals in the casting are Laetitia Pujol (in "The Cage" and "Other dances", whch she had danced two seasons ago), Marie-Agnès Gillot (in "The Cage"), Nicolas Le Riche and Manuel Legris (both in "The Cage" and "L'Arlesienne"), and Jean-Guillaume Bart (in "Other Dances"). The premiers danseurs will be Eleonora Abbagnato, Delphine Moussin, Clairemarie Osta, Karin Averty, Nathalie Riqué, Yann Bridard, Benjamin Pech and Wilfrid Romoli. In my opinion, it's a pity that the newest premiere danseuse, Nolwenn Daniel, isn't cast in "Other dances", as she was really lovely in a variation from that work during the annual competition of the corps de ballet. -Nureyev's production of "Swan Lake", at the Opera Bastille (Sept 27- Oct 30). Only the casts for the main roles are listed (with no dates). As Odette-Odile, Agnès Letestu, Elisabeth Maurin (probably her last series of "Swan Lake", as she'll turn 40 on Jan 1, 2003), Laetitia Pujol (new to the role) and Svetlana Zakharova. Delphine Moussin, who had danced in the previous time it was programmed, doesn't seem to be cast in it. As Siegfried: Jean-Guillaume Bart, Manuel Legris, Nicolas Le Riche, Jose Martinez, and Benjamin Pech (I think it will be Pech's first Siegfried, but am not sure). As Rothbart, Kader Belarbi, or Yann Bridard, or Lionel Delanoë, or Karl Paquette, or Wilfried Romoli. Two principals are missing from all the casts: Aurélie Dupont and Laurent Hilaire. I don't know about Hilaire, but Aurélie Dupont got injured at the end of the previous season, and unfortunately she seems not to have fully recovered yet. What a pity, it would have been interesting to see her in any of the two programs.