Estelle

Actually, from what I've read, there'd be far many reasons to be worried about Shelly-Ann Fraser (who won gold in the 100 m for women) than about him: his results improved regularly in the last few years, with about 0.16 seconds per year, while her results improved suddenly in the last two years (she gained 0.98 seconds in two years), and from what I've read the last two people with such a fast progression were Florence Griffith-Joyner and Marion Jones... dirac, I agree with you about the female cliothes (or actually lack of clothes...)

Estelle, did you read Dickens in English or French? I'd be curious to know how he translates. I didn't finish 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' either. Liking Dickens doesn't mean you have to like all of him. I read it in French. Even now, I don't think I'd feel courageous enough to read it in English (my problem with reading literature in English is that either I spend much time with a dictionary, or I feel frustrated because I don't understand some words or expressions...) and when I read all of them (as a teen-ager) my English was weaker... So I loved the translations, but since I don't know the original works I have no idea of how good they were. I guess that lack of time probably had a role with my failure to finish "Martin Chuzzlewit" (besides the fact that I didn't find the characters especially interesting)- sometimes I'm a bit nostalgic of the time when I could spend whole days reading big books like "Les Misérables" or Dumas' "Joseph Balsamo" series (well, in that period I complained quite a lot about having to spend long summer holidays in a rather isolated house with little to do except reading... Grass always is greener somewhere else )

Estelle, you have to rememember that "when I was a child" is something that happened long, long ago. The book was old even when I found it on a shelf in our attic. Bart, that was not meant to be disparaging about your age :-) Actually, what surprised me most is that I didn't even know that the book was known too in the English-speaking world... I guess I should give it a second try someday. By the way, what a pity that reading an author for school often discourages people from reading some more... (Of course the opposite exists too.)

Oh, I wouldn't have expected Sue's "Wandering Jew" to be in such a list ! I read it as a teen-ager and had found it very entertaining, as well as "Les mystères de Paris", but as other Sue books, it's a strange mix of melodrama and politics (just in the middle of sad stories of abandoned young women, orphans or starving works, wham, long paragraphes against death penalty or reforms of jails or independence of women...) If I remember correctly, most of his books were banned by the Catholic church for decades (well, the villain in "The Wandering Jew" is a Jesuit monk who is absolutely devilish, and kills dozens of people in order to finally become the head of the Jesuits and then the pope...) I've never even tried "Salammbo"... I had to read two Zola books when I was in junior high school and high school ("Germinal", which I unfortunately studied twice at school, and "La Curée") and I disliked it enough so that I never tried another one. I don't have a fond memory of Balzac's "La Peau de chagrin" (studied at school too) and admit I read almost nothing else from him. On the other hand, I really loved "Great expectations", "David Copperfield", "Oliver Twist", "A tale of two cities" and "Hard times" when I read it as a teen-ager (but have started at least three times "Martin Chuzzlewit" later and never finished it...)

Verdy is one of those dancers who really make me regret not having a time travelling machine just to see her dance... She had such a rich and long career, and such impressive versatility. She was already listed in Fernand Hazan's "Dictionnaire du Ballet moderne", which was published in 1957, one year before she joined NYCB: back then, she was mostly known for her early start with Roland Petit's "Ballet des Champs-Elysées" in 1945 when she was only 13 year old, her role in the movie "Ballerina" in 1949, and her role of la Fiancée in Roland Petit's "Le Loup" in 1953 (I wish the POB would perform it again, I've never seen it...) Before joining NYCB at 25, she had danced with quite a lot of companies, including Chauviré's "Ballet de Marigny" in 1952, and also performed as an actor along Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud. Some biographies mention that she had performed "Giselle" with the Ballet Rambert in 1957, and also the following article from Dance Magazine (2001) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m108..._75/ai_80714402 says that: "Roland Petit, whom she first met as a very young student in Paris, considered her, next to his wife, Zizi Jeanmaire, his best Carmen, and she had already danced Giselle as a guest with La Scala, learning much later that Balanchine was one of the people who recommended her for the role." I guess one could schedule a whole season for a company just with ballets she premiered or in which she excelled... Edited to add: she was trained by Madame Rousanne and Victor Gsovsky. Actually the list of pupils of Madame Rousanne is quite amazing (among others: Lycette Darsonval, Serge Peretti, Yves Brieux, Yvette Chauviré, Youly Algaroff, Alexandre Kalioujny, Peter Van Dyk, Jean Babilée, Roland Petit, Pierre Lacotte, Maurice Béjart...).

The costume of the man looks somewhat Spanish... Is it from a production of "Don Quixote" ? I had also thought about Massine's "The Three-Cornered Hat" but the woman's costume doesn't seem related to that balle( (what bizarre asymetric sleeves...)

Thanks for your reply, Nanarina ! Have you seen some performances during your trip ?

Thanks for posting the results, cygneblanc ! What is your opinion about these results ? I guess Marie Ganio-Khalfouni is Mathieu Ganio's little sister ? (But why doesn't he have Khalfouni in his name too, as he is the son of Dominique Khalfouni too ?) The only dancer of the list that I remember seeing is Takeru Coste, I have a good memory of him in José Martinez's "Scaramouche". That must be a really hard period of the year for the students of the school, with so many talented students and so few positions... Also, are there some explanations about the high number of students who were rejected from the school this year ? 19 sounds unusually high...

Lucky New Yorkers ! I'm jealous, I've only seen "Violette and Mr B" (unfortunately, even in France, there are very few opportunities to see Mr Delouche's films, especially if one doesn't live in Paris...) and also his documentary about Monique Loudières "Comme les OIseaux", which is not in this list... But the whole series looks wonderful. I wonder if "La Fille mal gardée" is a documentary, or a filming of the whole ballet ? If I remember correctly, the reconstruction by Ivo Cramer was staged in the 1980s for the Ballet de Nantes, and a bit later for the Ballet du Rhin (alas, the Ballet de Nantes disappeared and the Ballet du Rhin now dances almost only modern dance, so that reconstruction isn't visible any longer). I only saw a pas de deux from it, performed in during an open rehearsal of the Ballet du Rhin in Grenoble around 1995, but it had made me want to see more of it. I think I saw some excerpts of the Chauviré documentary in some other programs. Chauviré is such a remarkable dancer (and also coach and teacher), I wish I could see that one. And also the program about Peretti (1905-1997): he was a POB principal in the 1940s and a teacher at the POB school for decades, I remember an interview of him in the early 1990s and his enthusiasm about young dancers...

Nanarina, I hope that you will be able to see Legris as Onegin. And please, when you're back from your Paris trip in July, tell us about the performances you saw ! :-) As far as I know, the POB never releases official information about its dancers pregnancies, and the "gossip" press is not very interested in ballet dancers (better for them, actually... :-) ) Here's all what I've found online about Aurélie Dupont's pregnancy, it dates back from December and just said that her baby was expected for "the beginning of the summer" (by the way, it's striking to see that they managed to choose such unflattering or badly focused photos- what an unfortunate choice, especially as finding nice photos of such a good-looking dancers shouldn't be difficult !) and that the baby's father is fellow étoile Jérémie Bélingard. By the way, I can't say that it's an interesting site... http://www.purepeople.com/2309--EXCLUSIF-A...te-etoile-.html

Yes indeed, he's danced it several times at the Paris Opera. By the way, "Suite of dances" will be part of the POB-NYCB gala at the Paris Opera on Sept 16. The cast list isn't known yet, but I wonder if Le Riche will be performing "Suite of dances" ? (Legris danced it too with POB-I liked both in that role, but found Legris especially wonderful...)

He designed the costumes for several ballets, most notably for Roland Petit ("Cyrano de Bergerac", "Notre-Dame de Paris"...) The following page includes some photos of ballet costumes or designs and also two photos of him with Zizi Jeanmaire: http://boomer-cafe.net/version2/index.php/...nt-Laurent.html

Thanks for the reference, volcanohunter. I guess that perhaps dancers jobs are somewhat special as far as German labor laws are concerned, because from what I've read on some official web sites, for "normal" jobs, temporary contracts can't last more than 2 years, and such a contract can't be renewed with the same employer and worker (it has to be transformed into a permanent contract)... I guess that female Hamburg Ballet dancers have either to be confident in their fertility in their late 30s and early 40s, or to plan to retire somewhat early...

Well, I'd have expected the German labor laws to be more protective of employees than the US ones... (e.g. mothers in Germany are entitled to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, vs 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave in the US, and also can take up to 3 years of job-protected leave...) But sorry for turning this discussion into a discussion about labor laws in Germany :-) I only saw Anna Polikarpova in a video of "The Stone Flower" filmed many years ago, but really found her lovely in that work...

If I'm not mistaken, dancers at the Hamburg Ballet don't have permanent contracts or the sort of benefits that would go along with them. Apparently, they go from year to year on annual contracts, which would certainly discourage taking (unpaid) maternity leave. Oh, I didn't know that they had such contracts. It surely doesn't encourage people to take maternity leave... I didn't know that such contracts were possible for German laws. For the sake of comparison: in France, it would be illegal for a company to hire someone on one-year contracts for many successive years, after some time (I don't exactly how long) the worker has a right to have his/her contract transformed automatically into a permanent contract... Also, if an unemployed mother-to-be has worked for a sufficient number of hours in the last 6 months before the pregnancy, she receives some money (paid for by the health care system) during her maternity leave.

Thanks, cygneblanc ! So the numbering is similar to that of Garnier, with seats with small numbers 1, 2, 3, 4... are closer to the sides ? Pity, I'd have preferred to have seats closer to the center (even if farther from the stage) :-( Well, at least the sight lines are not too bad at Bastille...

For the first time of my life I've just bought a subscription to the Paris Opera... actually to see the NYCB next fall (they have a special subscription if you want tickets for 3 of the 4 programs). My husband and I have just received our tickets, but now are wondering about where the seats are (unfortunately, one could only choose the ticket category, but not the area of the theater), as we are not familiar with the numbering system at the Opéra Bastille. So perhaps someone could help ? (cygneblanc ?) Our seats are in the 3rd category, at the parterre (actually I'd probably have preferred a balcony), and -"porte 1, allée A, rang 28, places 9-11" for some of them -"porte 2, allée D, rang 27 or 28, places 6-8 or 2-4" for the others I'd especially like to know if we are on the side (excentré) or not...

Thanks for translating that interview, Delibes ! I wonder how John Neumeier reacted to her comments about him being a "dictator" (even if it's partly a positive comment, as she implies that it's the reason for the company's long existence). I find it quite striking that no dancer there has children, as it generally isn't the case now in most ballet companies... (However, from what I've read, in Germany working mothers often are frowned upon, far more than in most other European countries, so perhaps it has an influence too). By the way, since she says "I want children", and she was born in 1970, I guess that we can expect that her career will end in the very next few years ?

Many thanks for your reviews, Helene ! What a pity I couldn't go to Paris in that period. Now you understand why her promotion didn't exactly create much enthusiasm among many of the POB fans... :-( I saw that program too, on April 15th, and my feelings were more or less similar to yours: a somewhat strange program, with "The Four temperaments" often looking a bit mechanical and slow (but I really loved Wilfried Romoli as the Phlegmatic), "Raymonda" which looked a bit strange on such a bare stage with no sets(I never saw the full work, but those excerpts didn't make me look forward to seeing it...) I found the first part of "Artifact" a little bit annoying (too many tricks, as though Forsythe was trying to tell the audience "ha ! I'm smarter than you"), the second part was more interesting but unlike you I had never seen it before.

Well, how do you say "c'est l'hôpital qui se moque de la charité" in English ? I'm always amazed by the complete lack of logic between what Ms Lefèvre says and whay she actually does.

Great ! The retirement rules are a bit complicated now (with a sort of transitional period between the male dancers retiring at 45 and those retiring at 42, as the rules changed a few years ago)... Good to know that Legris managed to get a few more months.

I regret that Belarbi danced less and less at the POB, I wish I had had more opportunities to see him in the ballets of Roland Petit, for example (and also in Lifar, but anyway there has been so little Lifar to see...) It was interesting to listen to Romoli's interviews in Nils Tavernier's POB documentary, he sounded like a very articulate and interesting person.

According to some recent official communiqués from the POB, the étoiles Kader Belarbi and Wilfried Romoli will retire soon (both are 45). Wilfried Romoli, will retire on May 6, after performing the "Phlegmatic" variation of Balanchine's "The Four temperaments", and exceptionally in Angelin Preljocaj's "Un trait d'union" with Laurent Hilaire (already retired, but who will come back for that special occasion). Born in 1963, he joined the POB school in 1973 and the POB in 1979. He became a coryphee in 1982, sujet in 1983, premier danseur in 1989 and finally an étoile in 2005 (probably the oldest promoted étoile in the POB's history... Many thought that it should have happened much earlier). Kader Belarbi, born in 1962, will retire on July 13, after a performance of Carolyn Carlson's "Signes", he will also dance soon in Mats Ek's "La Maison de Bernarda" (April 26- May 11). He joined the POB school in 1975 and the POB in 1980, became a coryphee in 1984, a sujet in 1985, a premier danseur in 1988 and finally was promoted to étoile by Rudolf Nureyev in 1989. Both have had quite large repertories, as can been seen on their biographies on the POB web site: http://www.operadeparis.fr/Biographie.asp?id=216 http://www.operadeparis.fr/Biographie.asp?id=267 They are said to be good friends (sometimes giving interviews together) and often were cast in the same roles. In recent years, Belarbi performed less often, focusing mostly on modern dance roles, and also on his own choreographies (most notably "Wuthering heights" for the POB- in which Romoli premiered the role of Hindley). I have especially fond memories of them in Robbins' "In the Night" (Belarbi in the second pas de deux, Romoli in the third), of Belarbi in Ek's "Giselle", Taylor's "Speaking in Tongues", Balanchine's "Jewels", Lifar's "Les Mirages", Massine's "Le Tricorne" and of Belarbi in Robbins' "The Concert" and "The Cage" and Balanchine's "Four temperaments", they also were wonderful in a video of Jacques Garnier's "Aunis"... Thanks Wilfried and Kader for all those wonderful memories I guess that now Belarbi will work mostly as a choreographer. I don't know what are Romoli's plans...

I know about nothing about music, but about Mozartiana: I had bought more than a decade ago a CD of it in the Melodiya collection, performed by the USSR symphony orchestra conducted by Evgueni Svetlanov at a very cheap price and enjoyed it a lot... and now I regret not buying more CDs of that collection, as they are very hard to find in France (and generally far more expensive than they used to be).

I saw it on stage performed by the Cullberg Ballet in Lyon some years ago, and don't remember much of it, except that I had found much weaker than his "Giselle" and his "Swan Lake"... Both are available in video too, with the wonderful Ana Laguna and Yvan Auzely. By the way, you can find some comments about Ek's works using the search engine of this site (I remember posting some comments about his work "L'appartement" for the POB some years ago- when I used to attend ballet performances <sigh>)...