Estelle

Actually, I think that there still are differences about "The Nutcracker": it isn't as strong a tradition in France as in the US, the POB doesn't do it every season, and neither do the (very few remaining) other French ballet companies... I, for one, would be quite happy to see a bit more of "token Balanchine repertory" (and I don't think "Divertimento n.15" has been performed in France in the last decade...)- rather than, for example, the "token Blanca Li/ Jean-Claude Gallotta/ Regine Chopinot repertory" for a ballet company... When having a look at the season programs of companies of Northern Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Denmark), it seemed to me that John Neumeier was ubiquitous in the programs of the National Ballets of Anywhere in Those Regions.

I'm a bit surprised: I had never heard that the NDT III had some former POB dancers... Do you know which ones were there exactly? Actually, there are quite a lot of French people who criticize it too, and it has been an endless subject of debates... But the POB administration is something quite rigid, so any modification takes time; moreover perhaps it is necessary to have the same age of retirement for everybody because of the special status of the POB dancers as it is a state-funded institution (I'm not sure). As I wrote, some dancers choose to leave the company earlier (sometimes to join other companies, sometimes to raise their families or to do another job), also for example Patrice Bart started being a ballet master when he was around 40, before his "official retirement" as a dancer. It also happened (but it's quite rare) that some dancers were fired because they were out of shape and not working enough. Actually I'm not especially shocked that most dancers can be paid until 40 even if they don't dance much, because it's such a hard job, and not especially well paid when one considers how much competition it takes to get there (and it's less paid than the singers and the musicians, for example), so "job security" is a kind of compensation... What is more annoying, in my opinion, is that the dancers post-40 (or post-45) seldom get invited as guests, even though some of them could still give great performances.

I'm a bit surprised: I had never heard that the NDT III had some former POB dancers... Do you know which ones were there exactly? Actually, there are quite a lot of French people who criticize it too, and it has been an endless subject of debates... But the POB administration is something quite rigid, so any modification takes time; moreover perhaps it is necessary to have the same age of retirement for everybody because of the special status of the POB dancers as it is a state-funded institution (I'm not sure). As I wrote, some dancers choose to leave the company earlier (sometimes to join other companies, sometimes to raise their families or to do another job), also for example Patrice Bart started being a ballet master when he was around 40, before his "official retirement" as a dancer. It also happened (but it's quite rare) that some dancers were fired because they were out of shape and not working enough. Actually I'm not especially shocked that most dancers can be paid until 40 even if they don't dance much, because it's such a hard job, and not especially well paid when one considers how much competition it takes to get there (and it's less paid than the singers and the musicians, for example), so "job security" is a kind of compensation... What is more annoying, in my opinion, is that the dancers post-40 (or post-45) seldom get invited as guests, even though some of them could still give great performances.

The POB has a somewhat strict policy for retirement: at 40 for the women, 45 for the men (very recently it has been changed, and it will gradually become 40 for all, with the possibility to continue until 42 if the direction agrees). Of course that is a maximal age, some dancers choose to leave the company earlier. That often leaves some regrets concerning some dancers, as for example Elisabeth Platel who still was lovely in her last season, or Isabelle Guerin. Some dancers are invited as guests with the POB, or continue performing from time to time with other companies, but in general they dance far less... I agree that it must be a very difficult decision. As Paquita wrote, perhaps a gradual retirement is easier. For example, last season Manuel Legris (now 37 or 38) announced that it'd be his last performances as Romeo, and he'll probably restrict or modify his repertory in the next few seasons. But it must take much lucidity to be able to see one's flaws and to decide to stop some roles not too late... Also, even in classical works, there are some roles which require less technique and more acting- pantomime which are well suited for senior dancers (like the Rajah and Brahmin in "La Bayadere", the Capulets in "Romeo and Juliet", etc.) I think it's a pity that such roles often are danced by very young dancers who don't look realistic in the roles and often are not very used to acting and pantomime, while it generally looks better with a dancer with a more suitable experience (but probably it's easier for corps de ballet dancers to accept such roles, than for "stars" who are used to have the main roles...)

The POB has a somewhat strict policy for retirement: at 40 for the women, 45 for the men (very recently it has been changed, and it will gradually become 40 for all, with the possibility to continue until 42 if the direction agrees). Of course that is a maximal age, some dancers choose to leave the company earlier. That often leaves some regrets concerning some dancers, as for example Elisabeth Platel who still was lovely in her last season, or Isabelle Guerin. Some dancers are invited as guests with the POB, or continue performing from time to time with other companies, but in general they dance far less... I agree that it must be a very difficult decision. As Paquita wrote, perhaps a gradual retirement is easier. For example, last season Manuel Legris (now 37 or 38) announced that it'd be his last performances as Romeo, and he'll probably restrict or modify his repertory in the next few seasons. But it must take much lucidity to be able to see one's flaws and to decide to stop some roles not too late... Also, even in classical works, there are some roles which require less technique and more acting- pantomime which are well suited for senior dancers (like the Rajah and Brahmin in "La Bayadere", the Capulets in "Romeo and Juliet", etc.) I think it's a pity that such roles often are danced by very young dancers who don't look realistic in the roles and often are not very used to acting and pantomime, while it generally looks better with a dancer with a more suitable experience (but probably it's easier for corps de ballet dancers to accept such roles, than for "stars" who are used to have the main roles...)

What about something by Kylian? "Romeo and Juliet"? Preljocaj? MacMillan's "Manon"?

What about something by Kylian? "Romeo and Juliet"? Preljocaj? MacMillan's "Manon"?

I've always been a bit puzzled with the interviews you mention (Maurin, and also in earlier issues Platel, Legris, Guerin...): all of them defend Nureyev's choreographies, while I really don't find them interesting in general (the French word which comes to my mind about it is "tarabiscoté"), and well, they are people who have danced so many great choreographies that they should be able to recognize it when they see/ dance it- so I always wonder what I'm missing. I understand what they mean about the fact that it helped raise the level of the company (and also it probably gave more roles to the male corps de ballet and soloists), but for me it just isn't a good argument to put a ballet on the stage- else there would be piano concerts with just training exercises (I don't know the English words for "faire des gammes")... One point they mentioned is that it had become part of the style of the company- and well, I've never seen the company pre-Nureyev, but I'm not sure that it's a good thing to have a style with so many complicated useless steps. And now it is getting danced more and more by younger dancers who never were trained by Nureyev, and, as Marc pointed out in his review of the recent series of "Bayadere", a lot of details are getting lost or modified, and we might get all the negative aspects without the passion he had managed to communicate to the dancers he coached... I also wonder if one of the reasons why Nureyev's choreographies have become so much the "reference" productions of the POB might be that there were not many full-length classics in the repertory before. It might seem strange now, but a lot of full-length classics entered the POB repertory quite late: "Swan Lake" in 1960 (Bourmeister's version- it was last danced in 1992, and I've read many critics preferred it rather than Nureyev's version at first), "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker" in the mid or late-1970s, "Don Quichotte" in 1981, "Romeo and Juliet" (Cranko's version- Lifar's version was only one-act long, and on a different score) in the early 1980s... So the audience and the dancers probably weren't very familiar with them, and doing new productions was easier. It probably would have been different if the POB had had some productions in the repertory for a longer time, like Sergeyev's "Sleeping Beauty" for the Royal Ballet.

I have seen it only on photographs, or in documentaries about the POB (plus in some Degas paintings, of course). But I've never done a touristic visit of the Opera- perhaps it can be visited that way... Well, actually I saw it once, but from far away: when the company does the Defile in Garnier, the iron curtain which is at the back of the stage is open, and so one can see the Foyer de la Danse which is behind, with lit candles. There are mirrors in it, so everything looks twice as long as it really is, and the dancers arrive from there on the stage. It's quite an impressive sight- and also the beginning of the defile is moving, with a tiny little girl of the school opening the defile alone, walking from the foyer to the front stage... Glebb, you have to come and see it someday!

Thanks for the explanation katharine, now I understand what you mean. I hadn't noticed that tendancy, but when I saw Fanny Fiat she was dancing Cupid which is a soloist role. I was surprised too that she wasn't promoted at the competition. To me, the promotion of Nolwenn Daniel was fair, as she was extremely musical and charming in her free variation, but it was absurd to promote nobody for the second available position. I haven't seen much Veronique Doisneau, she hasn't been cast that much (and I believe she was absent some time ago for maternity leave- she is indeed older than Fiat, probably in her mid-30s now, one of the "senior" sujets who sometimes get a bit too ignored by the casting policy in my opinion)- but I agree that when two people are dancing such role, unity is essential, and it's not a good idea for one of them to try to catch all the attention...

Thanks for your review, katharine. You didn't mention at all Benjamin Pech, who danced Basilio on that program. What did you think of it? I wonder if part of the problem might be that dance easily get lost on the huge stage of Bastile.. When I was there on May 8th, I was happy not to have forgotten my theater glasses, because everybody looked so tiny from the back rows of the parterre! I'm not sure I understand well what you meant about Fanny Fiat in: "No matter how irritated one might be at being "stuck" for another year in demi-soloist roles, care has got to be taken not to "disrupt the picture", not to give the impression, albeit unconsciously, that one is elbowing the weak out of one's way, because, at the end of the day, art suffers." Do you mean that you had the feeling that she was jumping too high and trying too much to show her qualities at the expense of the rest of the corps de ballet? I agree about Myriam Ould-Braham's qualities, and I hope that she'll get more roles next season. By the way, I find that it's a pity that there is no "Young dancers" program this season, as it is one of the only opportunities to notice some corps de ballet dancers (especially those who hadn't been given big roles in the school's programs). That's a bit off-topic, but last saturday I had a look a some part of the documentary "Les enfants de la danse" filmed at the POB school around 1987-88. katharine, if you want to see Emmanuel Thibault as a kid (about 12-13) in class, and rehearsing a variation with Roland Petit, you must see it! It can be seen in the collection of videos of the Forum des Images in the Forum des Halles. I didn't have enough time to see the four parts of the documentary (each of them lasts about 40 minutes), but it was quite moving to see dancers like Nicolas Le Riche, Jean-Guillaume Bart, Vanessa Legassy, Clairemarie Osta, Aurelie Dupont, Raphaelle Delaunay, Benjamin Pech as teen-agers or little kids (and also a baby-faced Jeremie Belingard, I think, with a tiny voice). And also quite sad to see how cute Ghislaine Fallou (who has now been absent from the stage for three years for health reasons, and might never come back) was as a kid...

Hi luv2dance513, and welcome on this board! There has been a discussion about Lucia Lacarra some time ago, you might be interested in having a look at it. Here is its URL: http://www.balletalert.com/forum/showthrea...ghlight=lacarra

Thanks Nanatchka- well, perhaps it'd be a funny feature (I must have read too many detective stories as a kid ;) ) but it doesn't happen to me often to find photographs of unknown ballets (I've had a look at the rest of the catalog, and even to the previous issue, but the other photos are non-balletic things like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Rialto bride in Venice, the Saint-Peter Basilique in Roma, etc.)

balletowoman, I agree that it's a bit frustrating that the promotions to "etoile" no longer take place on stage. I wonder why the direction has decided to have such a change: it was a wonderful event for the audience, and I think it probably was great for the dancers (being applaused never hurts... )

Nureyev's production entered the POB's repertory in 1981, nine years after he had staged a first version for the Australian Ballet, and has been danced quite regularly since then, as it was its 143th performance on May 8. This season, the sets and costumes, which used to be by Nicholas Georgiadis, have been changed: the sets were by Alexandre Beliaev, and the costumes by Elena Rivkona. "Don Quichotte" is not a ballet I feel much attracted to: before that performance, I had seen it only once, by a Russian company (I think it was the Grand Ballet Classique de Moscou) touring to Grenoble, and had disliked quite a lot the score and the complicated plot. My opinion didn't improve much after seeing that production: for me, it is barely more than an opportunity to show great dancing, virtuosity and Spanish-flavored character dance, plus a few comical moments, but from a dramatic point of view it'd be hard to make anything moving or interesting with such a far-fetched plot... And I'm afraid the humor didn't work well on me (for example, did they really need to have Gamache wear too much lipstick and an horrendous green costume to be funny?) So my main motivation in attending it was that it was an opportunity to see many dancers of the company, as there are two big roles, plus many supporting roles with decent variations. From that point of view, I wasn't disappointed. The Spanish born Jose Martinez was an elegant and proud Basilio (perhaps a little bit too restrained, though), and the premiere danseuse Marie-Agnes Gillot, who had danced her first Kitri a few days ago, was a virtuoso Kitri with a strong personality and a great stage presence. Gillot is especially tall (about 5'9''), and rather large shouldered, so that there are not many suitable male partners for her in the company, but Martinez partnered her very well. Christophe Duquenne was an Espada with much panache, while Nathalie Rique, back from a three-year absence for health reasons, was sometimes a little bit tentative but had much style as the street dancers. One of the most enjoyable moments of the evening was seeing the charming and musical Fanny Fiat as Cupid in the third act (even in the corps de ballet as one of the "girls of Barcelona" in the first act, she attracted the attention), she was a delight to watch. In the same act, Melanie Hurel, Myriam Ould-Braham and Dorothee Gilbert were a lobely trio, while Emilie Cozette was technically good as the Queen of Dryads but left me somewhat cold (also that whole part was lit very poorly). In the last act, the young quadrille Dorothee Gilbert displayed a radiant smile and a great musicality, making me regret once again that there was only one available position of coryphee at the last competition. I should also mention Jean-Marie Didiere as Don Quichotte, showing once again that his great acting talents, Fabien Roques as Sancho Panca Laurent Queval as Gamache, Yann Saiz as the Gypsy, and Nathalie Aubin and Vanessa Legassy as Kitri's friends- plus the excellent corps de ballet. The company also performs a Stravinsky mixed bill during the same period in Garnier, and it must be a bit hard for some dancers to rehearse all the roles. The most striking example is Marie-Agnes Gillot, who danced three different roles in "Don Quichotte" (Kitri, Queen of Dryads and the Street dancer), and will also dance a role in "Violin Concerto". There are at least six different casts for "Don Quichotte", plus two for the other program, and one wonders how the dancers can be coached properly for the roles (and also it isn't especially surprising that the number of injured dancers is growing).

Wow! Thanks Alymer! (Did you recognize it before seeing the photo or after? ;) ) I had told my fiance that surely on balletalert there would be someone to recognize the work- and it worked! Now I wish Ashton's works would be present on the French stages and not only on the French mail order catalogs...

Thanks for answering! Well, it might be some Lifar, but the only Lifar work that I've seen so far is "Suite en Blanc" (the reason being that it's the only Lifar work which has been programmed since the early 1990s, except "Istar" and "Romeo and Juliet" in galas), and it doesn't look like "Suite en Blanc" to me (I wouldn't swear it, as it was in 1996 and I saw it only once... But the costumes do look different.) I have never seen "Icare", but next season the Ballet de Bordeaux is going to dance it in Paris, so I hope to see it then (I'm keeping my fingers crossed). Fortunately Charles Jude does care about the Lifar heritage. I don't know which version they'll perform. (And they will also perform Massine's "Le Tricorne"- another work of the POB repertory that is getting neglected). The sets of the photograph reminded me of "Soir de Fete", but I think the costumes were different (but again, having seen it only once and five years ago, it's hard to be sure)...

I have scanned it (and the result is not so bad, actually much better than what I expected): http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~esouche/dance/...let_inconnu.jpg

Well, it seems that no one is inspired... but that's not surprising, considering how unprecisely I depicted the picture (and how hard it is to recognize a ballet from a single photograph). I'll try to scan the photo and put it on a page (but I'm not very optimistic about the results, as it is small and rather dark...) I had forgotten to add that there might have been a higher number of performers on stage at that moment (at the left and at the right of the nine dancers). Perhaps I should start derivative threads with topics like "Do you know some ballets where the female dancers have gloves?" "... where the sets look like a wrought iron gate?" The only works coming to my mind with gloves would be the last part of "Vienna Waltzes" (what is on the Balanchine Celebration video- I don't know the rest of the ballet), and perhaps Massine's "La Symphonie Fantastique" but I'm not sure.

Thanks to all the people to posted their reviews! There are so many ballet events I'd have never heard of it that site didn't exist... It's interesting for me to read the comments about Bigonzetti. His company (Aterballetto) was near Paris last season, but I couldn't see it. I saw two pieces by Bigonzetti so far, one for the students of the Lyon Conservatoire about 5 years ago, and one for the Ballet de Marseille in the last season of Petit's tenure. Both reminded me quite a lot of Forsythe's style, for the first one it was so obvious is almost looked like plagiarism or pastiche... And, as if Forsythe, I didn't like much the way it was a bit brutal and contorted sometimes.

I was looking in a catalog of a mail order company, and something caught my attention: on the pages about TV, on one of the featured TV sets there was a picture of a ballet. So, can anyone help me identify this ballet? It's hard to depict it precisely, but here's a try... There are 9 dancers on the photograph: six male dancers and three female dancers, all of them in white (or pale yellow or beige, it's hard to distinguish). The female dancers have rather long tutus, pointe shoes, long white gloves (a bit higher than their elbows), small white ear-rings (perhaps pearls), necklaces (probably golden-colored) and something on their heads, perhaps a kind of small tiara. The men wear tights, and tops with long sleeves (large at the elbow level but narrow at the shoulder and wrist levels). One sees only their backs, so I don't know how the front of their costumes looks like, but it looks like a costume that could be worn in a work like "Romeo and Juliet", for example. The background is dark, and the only visible elements of the set is a metal gate, which is almost open and looks a bit like wrought iron with some gold on top (a bit like the entrance of a large park, for example). The dancers are like that: (backstage) F1 F2 F3 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 (audience) with F referring to female dancers and M to male dancers. The female dancers are in arabesque (left leg around 90 degrees, right leg on the floor, not on pointe), facing the audience, with their right arms raised and their left arms horizontal (approximately parallel to their left legs). The male dancers are sitting on the floor, showing their backs to the audience, their right hands on the floor and their legs extended at the left. The men M1-2-3 seem to look at the female dancers, while the three other men look at the left side of the picture and extend their left hand (palm facing what would be the left wall of the stage). Well, it's just curiosity, but I wonder if someone on this board could identify that ballet...

This evening I attended a performance of Nureyev's production of "Don Quichotte" at the Opera Bastille, with Marie-Agnès Gillot and José Martinez in the main roles. It's getting a bit late now and I'll post my impressions tomorrow (briefly: I really don't like much this ballet, but the dancers were great), but first of all I'd like to say a big THANKS to the direction of the Opera for an unusual event. For once, I had decided to try to get last-minute seats at the box-office. My fiance and I went there around 6:45 PM (the performance started at 7:30 PM), but there was a long file of people standing... and no seat could be sold because of a big problem with their computer system. We waited and waited, and at 7:25 PM we were ready to leave. But an official of the Opera came, and, perhaps moved by the sight of tenths of sad-eyed balletomanes waiting for a miracle to happen, said that exceptionally, the people queuing would be able to get a seat *for free*, provided that we would stay in line, walk slowly and make as little noise as possible when entering the room and trying to find available seats. So we did, and so for the first time in my life I attended a POB performance for free, in a seat at the last row of the orchestra. I've often criticized the policy of the Paris Opera, but this time I'm very thankful for their generous gesture!

As someone who turned 27 recently and realized in the last two years that in France there are a lot of things which are cheaper for students under 27, 26 or 27 (or often for everybody under that age), in cultural institutions but also for trains, subway, or even insurances (and turning 27 doesn't make you become magically richer), I can understand Britomart's original message... And while I understand the fact that the NYCB does need as much money as possible to balance its budget, I'm afraid that if I had received a message with that tone my reaction would have been something like "next time I'm able to make a donation, I'll give it to some other institution" or even "next time I have to choose between two programs, I'll chose another one". There were ways to explain they did need more money without writing something so rude and sounding like "you stupid, you should have saved more money and shut your mouth!" Most French theaters do have lower prices for several categories of people (depending on the theaters, it might include people under 18 or 25, students, people over 65, unemployed people, large families, etc.) Considering that those institutions are subsidized by the state, the regions or the cities, it sounds quite normal to me that they should make some effort to be available to as many people as possible. The Paris Opera is an exception: there are special prices for students, people under 26 or over 65 and unemployed people but only for the seats which are left 15 minutes before the show (which means that there often are no such seats, and that when there are some, you have to stand up for at least one hour to hope to get one). Also there is a "under 26" special price, but only for a handful of shows every season (and for the dance it's mostly contemporary stuff), and only at the box-office and for a limited number of seats, so in all the years when I was in that age category I never could use if once. Considering that the Paris Opera is *by far* the most subsidized cultural institution in France, I find that policy a bit shocking.

An article by Rene Sirvin about Pujol's promotion: http://www.imagidanse.com/francais/presse/...titiaPujol.html

No, she wasn't (unlike Gillot or Abbagnato). Now I hope that she will actually be given some roles, because so far she hasn't danced that much this season... I forgot to add that the last role in which I saw her was Catherine in Belarbi's "Hurlevent", and that I found her very good. The first cast in that role was Gillot, who was excellent too but with a very different style- and the connection between Pujol and Belingard worked much better than that between Le Riche and Gillot (but I've read it improved in subsequent performances).