Estelle

This is just a note to bump this thread, and to say again that if any poster of this site plans to go there, my boyfriend and I would be happy to meet him/her.

I don't know about the history of the defile (except that the first version had been done by Aveline), but it surely sounds credible about Lifar, he seemed to be such an egotistic person, tayloring roles mostly for himself! Pontois seems to have been the most popular POB principal in the 70s with Thesmar, but I've only seen her in a video of "Petrouchka" with Nureyev and Jude (and, being young and stupid then, I didn't record that! ) She officially retired in 1983, but still danced as a guest until 1993. Her daughter Miteki Kudo, now about 30, is a soloist with the company, by the way (I haven't seen her much, but she has a lovely silhouette and seems to have a very poetic, fluid style). I've only seen Atanassoff in a mime role (recently), but he danced both character roles (Quasimodo and Frollo in Petit's "Notre-Dame de Paris", for example) and "noble" roles (partnering Chauvire in "Giselle", Pontois in "Swan Lake" or "La Sylphide"...) Bessy still is at the school, and from what a dancer told me, she chose virtually all dancers since the beginning of her directorship (and seems to have a wonderful eye for that). But once in the company, it's the direction who chooses to push this or that dancer, gives the roles, etc. Also I guess the male candidates are far less numerous than the female ones... Anyway, I don't see any real potential "prince" now among the present soloists, but I don't see the company often enough to know the younger dancers well, so perhaps my fears are excessive.

Leigh, I agree with Victoria about the diary. Alexandra, thanks for the information. I think it was the program "Hommage au Ballet de l'Opera" which was danced in october, november and december 1980 (it's listed in the POB school souvenir book). I didn't know that it had been filmed (it's not easy at all to see videos of old POB performances, though some of them were shown on TV back then, at much earlier hours than one could hope to see now). What did you think of Pontois and Atanassoff? My parents liked them very much when they saw them in Paris, but it was almost ten years earlier (and my parents were unexperienced viewers). Both still are teaching at the Paris Opera, and seem to have a very good reputation among the dancers. I hope that someday you can manage to see the Defile at the Opera Garnier for real, with the mirrors, the Foyer de la Danse in the background, the shining lights... That would really give you chills! :-) (Jeannie, have you ever seen it? I'm sure you'd love it, that's very "tutu and tiara" indeed.) Did the men really came first? When I saw it, the women always came first, one of the most moving moments is the very beginning, when a tiny little girl from the school begins the defile, alone on stage. It ends with the oldest male principal (more precisely, the one who became a principal the most early- when I saw it, it was Charles Jude, it's strange to realize that it's Hilaire now.) Platel was 20 or 21 then, and a sujet or premiere danseuse (she had a very fast career, compared to other POB principals). One thing that makes me feel a bit worried about the future of the POB is that the present direction seems to focus on short, virtuoso male dancers now, for example the one that has been "pushed" the most is Jeremie Belingard, he's a bright dancer, but surely not a dancer for prince roles, and sometimes likely to do a bit "too much". Also I wonder if the growing number of Forsythe works in the repertory of the POB (and of many other companies) has something to do with that taste for virtuosity, most of them seem to require a lot of speed, energy, even aggressiveness, but not much grace or expressiveness. By the way, it always make me grin when some critics who despise Petipa as "circus" are in awe at the technical tricks of Forsythe's "In the Middle"...

Alexandra, this is a bit off-topic (and I know you're very busy), but do you remember the name of the POB students in "Konservatoriet", or the moment when it was filmed (1980 or 1988)? When I visited the current exhibition at the Paris Opera (which deals with the POB school), there was a lovely photograph from "Konservatoriet", in which I recognized Jean-Guillaume Bart (he was 16 then, and now is a principal) and Ghislaine Fallou (about 15 then, now premiere danseuse, but suffering from various problems). I really regret that the POB hasn't danced any Bournonville in years. I'm quite an ignoramus about technique, and don't like dancers that make the audience feel almost stressed for them because they insist too much on technical difficulties. One of my favorite dancers is Manuel Legris: he probably will never have crowds of screaming fans, but everything he does is perfectly clean and polished, with grace, style and elegance (and also he's an excellent partner), and it's a great pleasure to watch. I really prefer that to dancers who behave as if they were in a sports competition.

Well, everything is OK: I've just booked some tickets for the performances of Aug 17, 18, and 19 matinee (front balcony seats) (and we'll be staying at a youth hostel ). Thanks to all of you for your help. If some Ballet Talkers plan to attend these performances, I'd be glad to meet them!

Bard's Ballerina, your post reminded me of one of my first evenings at the Opera Garnier- with two very noisy children and their parents, just near my father and I, who spent all the evening asking loud questions, making noise and complaining ("Mum, I'm tired. Is it finished soon?") I don't blame much the children, but the parents really should have thought twice before bringing 7-year old children to ballets such as "Lilac Garden" or Taylor's "Speaking in tongues"! Well, not all children behave badly at the ballet; one of my little cousins attended "Giselle" with me when she was 8, and she was very calm (but she was taking dance classes, and so quite motivated to attend it, also I had told her about the plot before...) I also have a bad memory of a "Romeo and Juliet" in Marseille last season, because of the extremely noisy two gentlemen who were sitted behind a friend and I. They spent the whole first part doing silly comments about the dancers and the costumes, laughing rather stupidly, and having some of the most noisy kisses I've ever heard. Fortunately, they left at the intermission.

Thanks for the information, Alymer! However, I tried to have a look at the Ibis hotels web site, and it seems that it's already full on those nights. By the way, two things are missing on the Festival web site: a plan of the theaters (to know where the categories of seats are), and also a city map... Actually I've already been to Edinburgh once, for one week in August 1998, for a math conference- the weather was absolutely awful (even my thesis supervisor, who is from Glasgow, agreed), but the city really looked nice.

Michael, it's a pity we couldn't met on that evening. I hope to have another opportunity to meet you at the Paris Opera (or at another dance venue) someday. I agree that "Perpetuum" would be a good counterpart to something heavier. Well, I think that Ek's work was more "serious", but also there were some similarities between the two pieces, mostly some kind of absurd sense of humor. And yes indeed, the company had much fun dancing it. After the performance I chatted with a danced I know, and she said that the dancers had enjoyed very much working with Ms Kajiwara (and that it was a bit hard to go back to the strict, disciplined rehearsals of "Raymonda" after that...) By the way, I wonder how the attitude of choreographers towards the dancers influences their success. For example, I remember that Alexandra wrote once that one of the reasons so many dancers were very positive about Neumeier is that he seemed to be very nice and kind with them during the rehearsals. From what I've been told, it seems that the POB dancers would be much happier to work again with Naharin or Ek than with, say, Forsythe or Petit...

When going out of the "Opera" metro station in Paris, one can only marvel at the renovated facade of the Opera Garnier, after several months of work: the dark layer of dirt brought by decades of pollution has been removed, and now it looks much lighter; also the statues have been added some new gold painting. Before finishing its season with two classics, "Raymonda" and "Giselle", the POB danced a contemporary bill, at the beginning of June, including Ohad Naharin's "Perpetuum" and the world premiere of Mats Ek's "Perpetuum", which was premiered in 1992 for the Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve, is the first work of Ohad Naharin in the repertory of the Paris Opera Ballet. Naharin has been the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company since 1990, but has also created works for several other companies, such as the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre or the Nederlands Dans Theater. Naharin himself came to Paris to stage his ballet, with his assistantMari Kajiwara. "Perpetuum" is a plotless dance piece for about 30 dancers, on some music by Johann Strauss (mostly waltzes and polkas). It is a light, fast, amusing work, with a somewhat absurd sense of humor. I found it entertaining and appreciated the choice of such a lively music, and also the dancers seemed to enjoy dancing it very much, but I'm afraid most of the details disappeared quite quickly from my memory... I also found that some of the costumes, especially those of the women (bizarre greyish gowns and very high crazy wigs) sometimes prevented one from really seeing the dance. The piece is divided into nine sequences. I especially liked the "entrance of the men", on the "Egyptian March" op. 335, with thirteen men (lead by Yann Bridard) wearing red clothes looking like uniforms (closer to the uniforms of hotel people than military ones) doing a strange rythmical defile on stage, a bit like in Naharin's "Axioma 7", and also a pas de deux, somewhat acrobatic but very smooth, on a sort of square white carpet at the center of the stage, danced by Yann Bridard and Aurelie Dupont, while Sebastien Thill played some parts of "Neue Pizzicato Polka" on the violin. There also was an amusing pas de deux at the beginning, danced by Natacha Gilles and Vincent Cordier (Cordier was stuck to a wall by his costumes) on "Fruhlingstimmen", a very energetic solo danced by Peggy Grelat, a somewhat hysterical but funny sequence on the galop "Eljen a Magyar" with all the dancers throwing old LPs across the stage, a strange "quatuor de dames" with Delphine Baey, Mirentchu Battut, Marie-Isabelle Peracchi and Alice Renavand... And the end of the piece, on "Wiener Bonbons" and "Trisch-trasch polka", was quite crazy and funny (including a dancer running and dancing all over the stage during the bows). The audience reacted with much enthusiasm, and the Orchestre Colonne, lead by David Coleman, got its share of applauses. The second work of the program, "Appartement", was the second work of Mats Ek in the POB's repertory. It is very different from his "Giselle", which had entered the repertory in 1993, or from his versions of "Swan Lake" and "The Sleeping Beauty": no real plot, a rather austere scenography (by Peder Freiij- but the end was quite original, with several copies of the stage curtain successively falling...), and the music was created for this piece and played on stage by the Swedish band FleshQuartet (one violin, one viola, two cellos and some drums and computer music). The piece included 11 sequences, more or less inspired by "everyday life", with titles such as "the bathroom", "the television" or "march of the vacuum cleaners". As with "Perpetuum", it is a bit hard for me now to clearly remember the details, and I think it needs to be seen more than once. I found the whole piece a bit cold, and sometimes lacking coherence and characterization, but on the other hand some parts really were excellent, and I find Ek's choreographic style very interesting. One of the most positive aspects of this piece was its cast, which included many of the best dancers of the POB (there was only one cast for all the performances, but the dancers danced several roles alternatively). I especially admired the tall, statuesque Marie-Agnes Gillot in her opening solo "the bathroom", the expressive Jose Martinez in "the television" (Ek's role seem very well suited to Martinez, his Hilarion in Ek's "Giselle" was wonderful), the "kitchen" pas de deux with Kader Belarbi and Claire-Marie Osta (one wonders why they aren't cast together more often), the final "grand pas de deux" with Nicolas Le Riche and Celine Talon... The other dancers had less important roles (Alessio Carbone, Wilfrid Romoli, Lionel Delanoe, Benjamin Pech, Herve Courtain, Stephane Phavorin, Geraldine Wiart, Melanie Hurel, Muriel Zusperreguy), but all were very talented and committed. It is still hard to know whether these two pieces will remain in the repertory for a long time, and I'd need to see them again to have a more precise opinion about it. But at least it was an enthusiastic evening at the Palais Garnier, and in my opinion they were far less disappointing than some recent other new works, such as Duboc's "Rhapsody in Blue" or Montalvo's "Le rire de la lyre". [This message has been edited by Estelle (edited June 23, 2000).]

Well, I really hope to be able all three programs (one on Aug 18 and two on Aug 19, if possible). I've already seen some of these pieces at the Paris Opera (Agon, The 4 Temperaments, Serenade, Concerto Barocco, Palais de Cristal), and loved them very much, but they don't dance it often ("Symphony in 3 movements" and "Dances at a gathering" are in their repertory too, but they haven't danced it in a while). All that sounds very exciting! Now I hope that it's still possible to find not too expensive hotels in Edinburgh for that period, the city must be quite crowded with such a big festival...

Jeannie, thanks for telling us about "The Naiad and the Fisherman". Fo which company did Lacotte stage it? Was it successful? Koegler's dictionary also says, in the notice about Marius Petipa, that as a dancer he had danced in works such as "Giselle" and "La Esmeralda" (by Perrot), and also "when 'Giselle' was revived in 1850, he made some changes in the Wilis scenes, which became the Grand Pas des Wilis of 1884. Perrot's assistant for a while, then created his first ballet for Saint-Petersburg, 'The Star of Granada' (1855). Appointed first ballet master there in 1862."

Thanks for replying, Eugene. What do you think of the various categories of seats? Also I've just found an old thread on ballet.co.uk dealilng with this topic, it's at: http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/news/373.html

Here are the programs (as listed on the web site): Program 1 (Aug 14, 17, 19 matinee): Agon, Dances at a Gathering, Symphony in C Program 2 (Aug 15, 18): Concerto Barocco, Duo Concertant, The 4 Temperaments, Symphony in 3 movements Program 3 (Aug 16, 19): Serenade, Fearful Symmetries, Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Western Symphony

I'm considering going to Edingurgh around August 18, in order to see the NYCB at the Edinburgh Festival. They will perform at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Is anyone familiar with this theater? Is it a big theater? There are many categories of seats (circle, stalls, front balcony, back balcony), and I have no idea which ones are decent ones. Also, is there any available information about the casts? (The site of the Edinburgh Festival is at http://www.eif.co.uk/ ).

Andrei- in both casts, it was the same dancer who danced both Bathilde and Myrtha, so it seems to be on purpose. However, there was no real dramatic reason for that, so that was another detail that looked somewhat unlogical to me. Or perhaps they were lacking good female dancers for that role? But that seems unlikely (that's quite a large company, and there were two casts for most roles). By the way, in that version Bathilde came back at the very end of act II and seemed to comfort Albrecht (but if I remember correctly, it happens also in some traditional productions). Alexandra- well, I'm not sure the audience really knows what they're seeing, unfortunately... Paradoxically, since Pietragalla arrived in Marseille, much of the advertising has been done on "Pietragalla, la grande danseuse classique de l'Opera" (and much of the audience seems to come to the performances mostly to see her) while she has danced mostly contemporary roles... Also I think that perhaps one of the reasons for such "modernized" versions is that non-specialized newspapers are unlikely to write more than a few lines about a "traditional" staging of "Giselle" or "Swan Lake", while they often spend pages raving about Mr X's fancy new sets and the new costumes by fashion designer Mr Z (generally paying little attention to dance itself...) The previous "Giselle" I had seen was Monique Loudieres (with Andrei Fedotov) with the Ballet de Nancy, and well, it was in a different category.

The Ballet de Marseille, created by Roland Petit, has been lead for two seasons by the former Paris Opera Ballet principal Marie-Claude Pietragalla. In the last two seasons, their repertory has been mostly contemporary, with works by Claude Brumachon, Maryse Delente, Richard Wherlock... The only real "classical" ballets they had danced until now in two seasons were Balanchine's "Who cares" and Rudi Van Dantzig's "Romeo and Juliet" last season, so I was wondering what they would look like in a romantic work such as "Giselle". Pietragalla chose to commission a new production to the POB premier danseur Eric Quillere. As far as I know, Quillere, in his mid-30s, is an experienced dancer, but has little experience of ballet staging. And this "Giselle" was not very convincing, in my opinion. Some new sets and costumes were commissionned to the painter Rodolfo Natale. Around 1992, Patrick Dupond had commissionned new sets and costumes for "Giselle" at the POB; the minimalist sets and the costumes inspired by traditional Brittany had caused much trouble among the critics and part of the audience, and were to be replaced a few years later by more traditional ones, after Benois' production for the Ballets Russes. Well, I wonder what the people who were shocked by that Paris version would have said about the Marseille one... Quillere decided to substitute a somewhat "modern" context to the usual one, and so the sets of the first act showed a vilage in an unidentified country, with a kind of workshop on the left (Giselle's father -yes, she has a father- is supposed to work there) and a bar (with a pool table) on the right, the background looked more or less like a painting by Edward Hopper (which was quoted in the program notes as one of the inspirations of Natale). Giselle wore a yellow dress, Albrecht had a fancy red suit, and the people of the village wore everyday clothes with shiny colors. Well, all that was quite surprising, but could have been acceptable, but I found that many details of that production were lacking coherence: for example, the mixed colors and shapes of the dancers' clothes in the first act broke the symmetry of the dances, and for me it was quite strange to see people with such "modern" outfit dancing the usual Romantic-style variations... Also, while Bathilde and her friends were supposed to belong to a higher social class, it was not really obvious from their outfit; it took a while to notice that the men had ties and some women had small pearl necklaces. The second act was a bit more traditional, but Albrecht still had his red suit (a strange colorfor a mourning man on a grave, indeed!), and the Willis' white dresses were not exactly tutus, and were less ethereal and elegant in my opinion. Some details of the action were modified too: Giselle has no mother, but a father (and, instead of the usual mime scene, it just looks like "ah, that girl will drive me crazy, she shouldn't go out with that boy", while some videos of Willis are shown on the background); there is no peasant pas de deux (it's replaced with ensemble scenes), there are some pas de deux between Bathilde and Albrecht (and Bathilde seems a bit Odile-like, doing her best to seduce a somewhat stupid Albrecht), the relationships between Hilarion and Albrecht are quite violent, and so are those between Bathilde and Giselle (it reminded me a little bit of Ek's version, but looked quite out of place in this version)... Also the mad scene takes place only between a few characters (Giselle, Albrecht -about as expressive as a turnip, waking up only after she's dead-, Giselle's father, and Hilarion), which made it less dramatic in my opinion. Hozever, fortunately Quillere didn't change the main choreographic parts, and the ensemble dance he added seemed stylistically correct to me. The main role was danced by Marie-Claude Pietragalla herself (as usual, most of the advertisement was very Pietragalla-centered -one almost feels likely to think that someday she'll rename the company "Ballet PIETRAGALLA National de PIETRAGALLA Marseille PIETRAGALLA"...). I was a bit worried about it, because her main successess with the POB were roles such as Kitri or Carmen, or contemporary pieces, and I had trouble imagining her in a romantic role. Eventually she was average: rather convincing in the first act, except that she was perhaps a bit too childish, and her mad scene was so expressionnistic that it became somewhat embarrassing to watch; her second act was sometimes lacking poetry. Technically she was good, except a diagonal in the first act that I've always seen with pointes and that she did with demi-pointes (but I don't know the names of the steps). Her Albrecht was Julien Lestel, a former dancer of the POB corpsde ballet and of the Zurich Ballet. He had beautiful elegant arms and good jumps, but seemed a bit too unexperienced sometimes. Hilarion was danced by Julien Derouault, with a somewhat "soundless movie evil traitor" exaggerated style, but with good jumps in the second act. Valentina Pace, a handsome blond-haired, long-legged dancer, was perfect as Bathilde, with a beautiful smooth style and a great port de tete; her Myrtha was a bit less impressive, but still quite good. Gilles Porte and Angelo Vergari, as Giselle's friends, jumped impressively, and Thierry Hauswald was an expressive Giselle's father. In general, I was happily surprised by the corps de ballet: while they had not danced much ballet in the previous seasons, their training seemed quite good, with a good timing in the ensemble parts, nice bodies and feet for all of them, and also some good acting in the first act. It seems to indicate some good work by Quillere and by the new ballet master, Bruno Cauhape (former POB dancer). In spite of the unusual (and, to me, often unlogical) aspects of this production, the audience was enthusiastic at the end (definitely more than with the last mixed bill I had attented), and the dancers received several bows. The orchestra, conducted by David Garforth, was part of the success too. Let's hope that it will encourage the company to stage more classical ballets in the next seasons!

Well, after some further thinking, perhaps it's better to have it danced only by the kids of the POB school (I haven't seen them dancing it, but they do look very cute on photographs...), they are less likely to take themselves seriously than the dancers of the company! What about "Le Tombeau de Couperin"? It used to be in the repertory of the company, they danced it once or twice in the mid-70s, but forgot it later. I've never seen it, but the photographs looked very nice, and I love so much that music that I'd really like to see it.

The Paris Opera Ballet school, which has existed continously since the period of Louis XIV, has presented some public performances since 1977, featuring mostly the oldest students of the school, usually likely to enter the company on the following season. The "repertory" of the POB school includes old works of the POB repertory which aren't danced any longer by the company (for example Lichine's "Graduation Ball", Skibine's "Daphnis et Chloe" and "Le prisonnier du Caucase", Lifar's "Suite en blanc", "Le chevalier et la demoiselle" and "Entre deux rondes", Aveline's "Les deux pigeons"...), some works created especially for the students (by Claude Bessy, Violette Verdy, Gigi Caciuleanu, Serge Golovine...) and some works staged especially for them, some of which would really deserved to be danced by the main company (Bournonville's "Sylphide" and "Konservatoriet", Balanchine's "Western Symphony", "Le tombeau de Couperin" and "La somnambule"...) This year's program included three works: a new work by Jean-Guillaume Bart, "Peches de jeunesse"; Fokine's "Firebird" staged by Pierre Lacotte, and Bejart's "Seven Greek Dances". Jean-Guillaume Bart, 28, is a former dancer of the POB school who entered the company in 1988, and became an "etoile" (principal dancer) in January 2000 (and is, in my opinion, one of the most gifted and elegant male dancers of the company). His career as a choreographer is quite recent: he created mostly a few works for the "Dancers- choreographers" programs of the POB in 1997 and 1999, and some pas de deux for the Jeune Ballet de France and for some POB dancers in galas. His style definitely is classical, and in the program notes, he quoted Balanchine, Robbins, Cranko and MacMillan as his models (I was a bit surprised to see Cranko in this list, since his works are danced very rarely in France; as far as I know only his "Romeo in Juliet" was in the POB's repertory, and they haven't danced it since the early 80s...) Claude Bessy, the director of the POB school, chose to commission him a work for the POB students (the main company itself doesn't seem to support much the choreographic activities of its dancers...) It was on a larger scale than Bart's previous works: an abstract ballet for 22 dancers (two couples of soloists, three couples of demi-soloists and a corps de ballet of six couples), lasting about half an hour, set on some excerpts of Rossini's sonatas for string (n.1, 3, 4, 5). There were no explanation for the title ("Sins of youth"- often meaning "Easily forgiven youth mistakes") in the program notes, and it seemed to have little to do with the ballet itself. This ballet, clearly influenced by Balanchine's style, was quite charming and well-structured, with the elegance and cleanliness which also are characteristic of Bart's dancing. There were some weaker parts, sometimes because the young dancers still had a few technical problems with the ensemble parts, sometimes because the choreography became a bit repetitive, but on the whole I found it very promising (and young choreographers firmly using classical vocabulary aren't very numerous in France nowadays- it is worth noticing that in his program notes, he said that he insisted on using some steps of petite batterie characteristic of the French school which are now disappearing from the repertory). The most interesting parts, in my opinion, were some of the solo variations for the four main dancers, Claire Bevalet (musical, with strong feet, and definitely an "allegro dancer" in Leigh's terminology), Ninon Raux, Adrien Bodet and Cyril Mitilian. The next work of the program was Fokine's "The Firebird" (1910), which had already been staged by Pierre Lacotte for the POB school in 1991. Since I had never seen this work before, I have no idea how authentic the reconstruction is, but I found it very nice and pleasant. However, there was one major disappointment: the sets and costumes were not after Golovine and Bakst, but after those made by Georges Wakhevitch in 1954 for Lifar's production at the Paris Opera. And they were surprisingly poor and uninteresting: almost no sets, excessively simplified costumes with flashy colors... There was such a big contrast between Stravinsky's evocative music, and the almost bare stage that it almost broke the atmosphere of the ballet- and one couldn't help remember the nice photographs of Karsavina and Fokine in that role, or the painting of Jacques-Emile Blanche... The dancers were technically bright, but most of them looked a bit cold and were lacking expressiveness, especially Dorothee Gilbert (as the Firebird) and Gregory Dominiak (as the Prince- however, he had a wonderful line); on the other hand, Aurore Cordellier, as the Princess, was very soft, graceful and elegant, and Cedric Lambrette was a frightening Sorcerer Katschei. The last work of the evening was Bejart's "Sept danses grecques" (Seven Greek dances), created in 1984 by Bejart's Ballet of the XXth Century, on some Greek music by Mikis Theodorakis. I'm not a big fan of Bejart in general, but that work was not among his worst ones, by far: no pseudo-philosophic texts, no endless program notes, no bizarre symbolism... It was a plotless work, with a mixture of classical vocabulary and Greek folk dancing, and on the whole it was rather pleasant to watch. The main roles were for male dancers: Audric Bezard and Sebastien Bertaud, both bright, and in smaller roles Cyril Mitilian and Gregory Dominiak (in a male duo), Ninon Raux being the only female dancer in an interesting role (in a pas de deux with Josua Hoffalt). The audience was wildly enthusiastic at the end of this piece, even more than at the end of the other pieces, and David Coleman (who was conducting the Orchestre Colonne) and Claude Bessy herself briefly joined the young dancers on stage at the end. The POB school will perform that program in Italy in July, at the Nervi Festival.

Sorry to reply so late, but I've been quite busy since I came back, and also there have been some computer problems... It was a tough choice, with many additional parameters (price, weight in my suitcase, also I didn't have enough time to go back to one of the bookstores I had previously visited...) So I "only" bought Kirstein's 2 books, Taper's biography, and DeMille's book about Graham. I wish I could have bought more! In case anybody in the region of Berkeley is interested, the bookstores were "Moe's" (Telegraph Avenue) and "Black Oak".

Intuviel, I don't know if Julien Guerin is from the same family as Isabelle Guerin (Guerin is a rather common name in France). But I think he's a promising dancer (with very nice hands) anyway! I've just learnt that their "classical" program will take place at the Theatre de la Ville on May 6, and that they will dance "Le Petit Atelier" again there. I won't be able to attend it, but am trying to convince some friends to go there and tell me what it looked like (and also am wondering about calling the Conservatoire and asking if they have public rehearsals...)

Oops: the title should be "Programs" with an "s"... The second program took place at the Conservatoire National Superieur, a big building on the Jean Jaures avenue. This week-end, the CNSMD had organized two "open-doors" days, with public classes every day (I only could attend the end of a boys ballet class by Jocelyn Bosser, former POB dancer). On April 2, I attended an "event" (sic): a program of short works choreographed and danced by the students of the Conservatoire. It included 20 works, lasting between 2 and 10 minutes each, with no intermission. The works were choreographed during the classes of improvisation and composition of the students, and they also chose the musics, sets, costumes, etc. I especially admired the beautiful lightings by Bruno Bescheron, which really helped all the program look professionnal. The room was full, and the audience (presumably including quite a lot of friends and parents of the students) was wildly enthusiastic. The students seemed to be between 15 and 18 in general. Reviewing all the pieces would be a bit long ( ;-) ), but I especially liked the fluid, poetic, collective work "Ephemeres" of the 2nd year ballet students, the nice "Tango" choreographed and performed by Isabelle Brusson (on pointe) and Julien Guerin, the humorous collective work "Pigments" by the 2nd year contemporary dance students, Marina Robert's original solo "Louise", and Mehdi Walerski wonderful speed and precision in Vidal Bini's "Le coeur de nous". On the other hand, the end of the program was plagues by 7 successive contemporary solos (6 girls and 1 boy) which all looked the same and left me plenty of time to examine what I didn't like at all in that style of contemporary dance (a monotonous syncopated rhythm having nothing to do with the music, a tendancy to fall on the floor every 30 seconds, unexpressive faces...) But in general, the whole program was danced with much talent and dedication, and I think it was a good idea to enable the students to show their works to a larger audience.

There are several music and dance schools called "Conservatoire" in Paris, and it is quite complicated to know how they're organized. In January, I had attended a program by the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMD), which is a very selective school with students from all France; its dance section generally is considered as the second best dance school in France after the POB dance school. There are only two such "Conservatoires Nationaux Superieurs" in France, the other one being in Lyon. More recently, I discovered that in Paris there was another rather big Conservatoire, called "Conservatoire Superieur de Paris" (CSP). Unlike the previous one, it is a "conservatoire national de region", which means that its students primarily come from the region of Paris; its level seems to be a bit lower and less professional-aimed. Both schools are public (the CNSDM seems to be financed mostly by the ministery of culture, while the CSP seems to be financed by the city of Paris) and the studies there are free (but one has to take competitive exams to enter it). Both offer ballet and contemporary dance classes, and also classes of character dancing and dance history. The teaching staff at the CNSMP is a bit more prestigious, with several former POB principals, but several teachers teach in both schools, and one of the ballet teachers of the CSP is Christiane Vlassi (former POB principal, teaching the most advanced girls class at the POB school). This week-end, I attended two galas of these Conservatoires in Paris. The first one, on April 1, by the CSP, took place at the Theatre des Abbesses (a rather big theater in Paris, associated to the Theatre de la Ville, and scheduling mostly music and contemporary dance). It was one of the yearly performances of the students (there will be a more classical one in May). The evening included 7 short pieces (between 9 and 16 minutes each), only one of which was classical. No information was given about the level or age of the students (who all were girls, except one boy in the last piece). The first piece was an excerpt of Dominique Bagouet's contemporary work "Les petites pieces de Berlin", created in 1988. It was staged by two former dancers of Bagouet's company, Priscilla Danton (now teaching at the CSP) and Annabelle Pulcini. Bagouet, who died in 1992 in his early 40s, was a very influential character of French contemporary dance, and many choregraphers (such as Angelin Preljocaj or Michel Kelemenis) used to dance with his company. This piece was for 8 female dancers, wearing blue costumes which looked like old-fashioned swim suits. I'm afraid I always have the same feeling when looking at Bagouet's pieces: I like the vocabulary (the delicate and precise steps, the little hand movements) but I'm totally lost with the grammar, and generally hate the music. This time was no exception... The three next works, "Volatiles", "Bzh" and "Parade", were contemporary works created especially for the students by some of theit teachers, Sabine Ricou (the first two works) and Priscilla Danton. "Volatiles", for 12 female dancers (about 15-16 years old) was a short and rather pleasant work with a lot of ensemble movements on some rather repetitive piano music by Thierry Faure, with rather ugly costumes too likely to show the students' underwear at every movement. "Bzh" was about the French region of Brittany ("Bzh" is an abbreviation for it), on some traditional Breton music; it featured 8 girls (about 13-14 years old) in rather humoristic movements (with many allusions to the sea, diving, etc.) "Parade" was for 15 younger girls (about 9-12 probably), and was closer to a traditional dance school recital, without much originality, but the enthusiasm of the students was a pleasure to see. The next piece, "Le petit atelier" (The small workshop), was the only classical work of the program. It was choreographed for the students by Wilfride Piollet (former POB principal, now about 56 but still performing contemporary works, and teaching at the CNSMD). It was a really nice abstract exercice de style for 6 female students (about 15-18), with pointes. Actually I paid more attention to the students' dancing than to the choreography itself, so I'd need to see it again to have a better view of it, but I was striked by the elegance of the young dancers, and by the quality of their ports de bras, hand movements, and ports de tete. The costumes (long brown dresses by Catherine Garnier) were absolutely lovely, and made all the dancers look great. Maybe it's just my imagination, but some steps reminded me of Balanchine's "Rubies" and "Agon" (especially of the second pas de trois- perhaps not a coincidence, since Piollet premiered that role at the Paris Opera...) The following work, "Entre zig et zag" a creation by Didier Silhol for 8 dancers (the same cast as in "Petites pieces de Berlin"), was all the opposite: dull costumes (greyish shapeless things needing some serious ironing), unpleasant music (played on stage by a violin, a clarinet and an oboe), and a totally boring choreography (dancers running around the stage, bumping in each other and collapsing on the floor). It clearly was the less interesting part of the program. The last work, "Etudes ethnographiques des supinus matinus" was a creation of Blandine Courel (one of the CSP's teachers) for 10 female dancers and 1 male dancer. It was at least as much theatrical than choreographic, but in my opinion very funny and entertaining. It depicted a strange new animal, the "supinus matinus" (in fact, it was supposed to be inspired by the "sup' un du matin", i.e. the "superior one" class, which studies in the morning at the dance studios of the Theatre des Abbesses). It included some recorded texts explaining the behavior of the "supinus matinus" (sleep, hunting, different subspecies) and also a strange "counting machine" (with many wheels) on stage. Its style was very close to "Les Shadoks", a comical cartoon which was shown on the French TV in the late 60s, causing some scandals at first because of its absurd humor, but quite popular now. The dancers were very convincing, and the whole audience was very enthusiastic. The CSP is supposed to do a more classical program in Paris in May. (To be continued later)

Marc, I said that the presence of guest stars with a small company generally was a bad sign about the company's level, but I didn't say that a small company with no guest stars was always good! What is the Belgian company you are talking about? The only Belgian company that I know is the Royal Ballet of Flanders, but I know very little about it. I think that the situation in many small companies is quite complicated: there are problems of money, as AntoP said (most officials don't seem to realize that having a good ballet company is expensive), problems of bad training, problems of unsuited repertory...

Anton, thanks for your review. I'm looking forward to reading other reviews of ballet performances in Italy (and I'm sure I'm not the only one). One of the advantages of this board is that people post reviews of performances in many different places; most members are American, but there are also people from UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, Germany, France (like myself), etc. and it's great to read reviews from performances outside one's own country. Nearly all what I know about Italian dance now comes from reading "Ballet 2000", the French version of "Balletto Oggi", but it is not much. Do you remember the name of the choreographer? What do you think of the choreography itself? Do you think the problems came mainly from the low quality of the corps de ballet, or also from the choreography itself? What you said about the performance (good guest stars and bad corps de ballet) reminds me of some small French companies (like that of Metz, for example): they have a small budget, perform mostly as a corps de ballet in the dancing parts of operas, the level is low, and they do only a few performances of ballet per season, with guest stars from more prestigious companies. It used to work that way at the Capitole de Toulouse, but since the arrival of Nanette Glushak as a new director about 5 years ago, the level of the company improved quite a lot. I remember an interview of her in which she said that she deliberately doesn't invite guest stars any longer; she wants the soloists to come from the company itself, and it's hard to motivate the dancers of the company if they never get to dance interesting roles (and also hard to motivate good dancers to join the company!) Inviting guest stars might be a good way to attract a wider audience, but usually it's not a good sign about the company's own level...

Alexandra, it probably was Luigi Bonino. He was one of the principals of the Ballet de Marseille, and now restages Petit's works for other companies. He was mostly known as a character dancer (for example, dancing the main role in Petit's Chaplin ballet), so I really wonder what he looked like in that role... I'd have liked to see Gil. I only saw him in a solo program last season in Marseille, but even in his 40s, he still has such a great stage presence... Jjfan, that "Bolero" is one of Petit's last works for the Ballet de Marseille. I generally find that his best works are his earliest ones...