Estelle

Thanks for your comments, Alexandra. Do you remember which dancers of the Ballet de Marseille you saw? I had seen it around 1997, with Lienz Chang (Cuban dancer) and Dominique Khalfouni (one of her last performances with the company). About the stages: in the mid-80s, the POB used to perform at the Opera Comique sometimes (for example, I think that the Tudor program was danced there), and most critics wrote later that its small stage was more suited to some ballets than that of Garnier (let alone Bastille, which is really huge...) But they haven't performed at the Opera Comique for a while, except for a gala around 1994. I also had a similar feeling about "Jardin aux lilas": I saw it twice, once at the Maison de la Danse de Lyon (smaller stage, and with seats closer to the stage), by the Ballet du Rhin, and once at the Opera Garnier, by the POB. Though the POB cast was better, the atmosphere was much more efficient in Lyon...

Here's a copy of a review I just posted in alt.arts.ballet: ----- Roland Petit suddenly left the direction of the Ballet de Marseille two years ago, after more than two decades, but still is active, at 76, with other companies. Last fall, he created a new work for the Paris Opera Ballet, "Clavigo", and a few weeks ago, he re-staged some of the early works for the company: "Carmen", "Les Forains" and "Le Jeune homme et la mort". Though those works were created in the 1940s, they entered the POB's repertory only in the 1990s. But the POB dancers are now quite familiar with Petit's style (it is interesting to notice that no less than 15 dancers chose some of his works as their "free" variation for the POB competition on March 10). The evening began with "Les Forains", which had entered the repertory of the POB dance school before being performed by the company itself in 1993. "Les Forains" was premiered in 1945 by Petit's first company, the Ballets des Champs-Elysees. It is quite typical of Petit's style: its atmosphere and theatricality are as important as the choreography itself... Petit had the luck to work with very talented people from the beginning: the score was composed for him by Henri Sauguet, Boris Kochno wrote the libretto, and Christian Berard mae the sets and costumes. The plot is simple: a troupe of wandering comedians arrives in a village, gives a performance in the street, and depart (being given no money by the audience). I had already seen this work performed by the Ballet de Marseille at the Maison de la Danse de Lyon, and found the POB performance slightly disappointing- it's hard to say why, since all the dancers were very good, but perhaps it was because it was more suited to a small stage such as that of the Maison de la Danse, rather to the big one of the Palais Garnier (with all its gold and red velvet), and so part of the magic was missing. Among the little shows performed by the comedians, one could especially notice Jeremie Belingard's lively clown, Celine Talon as a dancer with white veils "a la Loie Fuller", Fanny Grose (little girl from the POB school) as a tiny acrobat, and Yann Saiz and Stephanie Romberg as a magician and a mysterious "sleeping beauty" (both nice, but lacking the stage presence of Jan Broeckx and Paola Cantalupo with the Ballet de Marseille). The second work of the program, "Carmen", was premiered in London in 1949, with Zizi Jeanmaire in the main role, and has been very successful since then. It had entered the POB's repertory in 1990, with Isabelle Guerin and Laurent Hilaire in the main roles. Here, Carmen was danced by the charming Fanny Gaida, and Don Jose was Kader Belarbi (unfortunately, he seems not to get on well with Petit, so that he's cast less often than before in his ballets- it's a pity, because he's at his best in such roles). HerveCourtain, Laure Muret and Stephane Elizabe were especially humorous and bright as the main three Brigands (thieves), and Clave's sets and costumes were a real delight. The last ballet of the evening, "Le jeune homme et la mort", was Petit's first big success, in 1946 (premiered by Jean Babilee and Nathalie Philippart). Since then, Petit has staged it for many talented male dancers (in a documentary about him made a few years ago, it was interesting to see some excerpts of several versions of this ballet, with the original cast, Nureyev/ Jeanmaire, Baryschnikov/? and Dupond/ Makarova...) In 1993, it was one of the first big "etoile" roles of Nicolas Le Riche, and since then Le Riche has become one of Petit's favorite dancers. In the performance I saw, it was performed by Yann Bridard and Delphine Moussin; both are talented premiers danseurs who are especially at ease with Petit's style. I had already seen Bridard in this role (with Pietragalla) in 1995, and he was very bright and moving again. Moussin was perhaps a little bit too small for Bridard, but else she was a fascinating, seductive Death. The whole program was welcomed with enthusiasm by the Paris Opera audience, and the applauses were shared by Stephane Deneve, who was conducting the Orchestre Lyrique de Paris that evening.

About the thread on ballet.co.uk: it includes some interesting information, but I'm afraid it might be quite difficult to follow, since some posters write almost exclusively in French (and often use colloquial terms). Also, one has to be careful, because it's not easy to distinguish facts and opinions (and gossip...) And some comments about dancers were quite rude in my opinion (surely they wouldn't be accepted on *this* forum!)

It reminds me of a rehearsal of the students Conservatoire de Paris that Leigh and I attended in jaunary. At the end, they also rehearsed the bow (and the ballet masters were quite severe!), that was quite interesting to see! A nice example of "the art of bows" is the "defile" (acute accents on both "e"s) of the Paris Opera Ballet. It is done for the first performance of each season, and for some special occasions. All the dancers of the company and all the students of the POB school are involved, always in the same order (first the girls of the POB school, then the premieres danseuses surrounded with the female quadrilles and sujets, then the female principal dancers surrounded with the female sujets, with the oldest principal dancer coming last, and then it's the same for men: the boys of the school, etc., ending with the oldest male etoile), on some music from Berlioz's "Les Troyens". It's the only moment when the iron curtain which is at the back of the stage is open, so one can see the Foyer de la Danse (behind the stage) and its mirrors, it makes a great perspective. All the dancers come from there, walking slowly, and make bows when they arrive close to the audience. I remember seeing some reharsals of it on TV, the ballet master was rehearsing with some new principals (they had to walk and make bows on the rhythm of the music). After the bows, the dancers of the corps de ballet make lines on the side of the stage and the principals exit on the side, but at the end the light goes down for a few seconds, and they all come back very quickly on stage (with a strict order there too: the oldest principals are at the center of the stage, the youngest on the side...). Of course, the audience applauses with much enthusiasm during the "defile"!

Mary, I guess it took a little time after 1789 before mythological ballets became unpopular, because, from what I've read, among Pierre Gardel's most popular ballets there were "Telemaque", "Psyche" (both created in 1790), and "Le jugement de Pâris" (created in 1793), and I think they still are among the most often performed pieces of the POB's repertory (of course they haven't been performed for more than a century, but they were performed very often in the years after their premieres).

Thanks to all of you for that great, insightful, intelligent thread! What a nice "gift" to read when coming back from vacations! ;-) Alexandra, your categorization of male roles was most enlightening. I guess that all the new production of the classics which changed quite a lot the male roles (for example Nureyev's production, which generally add some new variations for the male) increased the confusion between the "emplois", so that all prince roles are considered a bit the same... But from your examples, I realized that at the POB, Manuel Legris was at his best in "classique" roles (James, Albrecht, Spectre...) rather than "noble" ones. You wrote that the "old noble style was decapitated around 1789", coule you elaborate? And also could you give some example of dancers who really were "danseurs nobles" (a bit more recent than Duport if possible) in your opinion, to have a clearer idea of what it means?

Here's a copy of a review I recently posted in alt.arts.ballet: ---- On Jan 20, I attended a performance of Nureyev's production of "The Sleeping Beauty" at the Paris Opera. People wishing to read a real review of this performance will have to wait until a review written by Leigh Witchel (with whom and thanks to whom I attended it ;-) ) is published in "Ballet Review". I must say that I'm not especially knowledgeable about "The Sleeping Beauty", since I had only seen one full-length production of it before (by a Czech company around 1993, and I had seen very few ballets back then), and some excerpts. However, while I admired the dancers, the sets (by Ezio Frigerio), the costumes (by Francia Squarciapino) and of course the lovelyscore by Tchaikovsky (beautifully played by the Paris Opera Orchestra, lead by David Coleman), I didn't like much Nureyev's production: choreographically, I often find his style unmusical and contrived, and also a lot of details of the plot were unlogical. For example, the role of the Lilac Fairy was more or less split between two dancers: a dancing one, who danced the sixth variation in the Prologue (Delphine Moussin, with charm and polish) and disappeared later, and a miming one (Emilie Cozette, nice but a bit too unexperienced). Moreover, the Lilac Fairy was totally absent during the last act... The main roles were danced by Benjamin Pech and Elisabeth Maurin. Pech, who is the more recent "premier danseur" (first soloist), replaced Manuel Legris, who was supposed to dance that night, but was injured. He's a fine dancer with a strong technique, but I found him not very suited to such a role of prince. He's lacking the elegance and nobleness of Legris, and his energetic style isn't well paired with Maurin's softness. Maurin is among the senior ballerinas of the company now (she's 37), but still looks at ease in such a role, she's a good actress and has an elegant port de bras. The corps de ballet of the prologue looked very young (at first, for a few seconds I wondered if they were dancers of the company or students from the POB school), and indeed the list included mostly dancers who entered the company in the last few years, apprentices and "surnumeraires" (extra dancers hired for a few performances). Moreover, Nureyev's choreography for the prologue often looks like a kind of "knot dance" instead of a garland dance, so that some scenes looked a bit clumsy. In Act I, the corps de ballet included more experienced dancers, especially "sujets" (soloists) like Nathalie Aubin or Miteki Kudo, and it was clearly visible. In the last act, Nureyev kept only three "divertissements": the "Precious Stones" pas de cinq (danced with talent by Gil Isoart and Beatrice Martel as the main couple, and Natacha Quernet, Muriel Halle and Virginie Rousseliere), the Blue Bird pas de deux (danced by Stephane Elizabe, not very impressive, and Laure Muret, especially charming and polished), and the "Puss-in-Boots" pas de deux (danced by Sandrine Henault and Fabien Roques with much charm and humor- it was one of the nicest moments of the performance). In less important roles, one could notice Laurent Queval as the King, Florence Branca as the Queen and Michel Berges as Catalabutte, all are senior members of the company with good acting talents. Celine Talon was a strong Carabosse. This ballet had been shown live on the French TV on Dec 29, with another cast (Aurelie Dupont and Manuel Legris in the main roles, both wonderful, Jean-Guillaume Bart and Marie-Agnes Gillot in the Precious Stones pas de cinq, Benjamin Pech and Delphine Moussin in the Bluebird pas de deux, and Delphine Baey as the sixth Fairy of the prologue). Also there's a review of another performance of this production (on Jan 7, with Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire) by Kevin Ng at: http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_00/fe...ev_pob_0100.htm Estelle

Last week, between Jan 19 and Jan 22, the Ballet section of the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris organized some students performances (free, but with phone booking). I had often heard of that institution, especially because of some of its famous alumni such as Elisabeth Platel, Isabelle Guerin, Jean-Yves Lormeau or Clairemarie Osta, but it was the first time I could actually see its students. It also was an opportunity to learn more about that school, and, thanks to Leigh, I also had the privilege to attend a rehearsal (on Jan 21). The Conservatoire is one of the most prestigious French dance schools (probably the most reputed one, just after the POB dance school). There also are some Conservatoires municipaux (city level) or Conservatoires nationaux regionaux (regional level), and this one (Conservatoire National *Superieur*) is at the top of the hierarchy; the students enter it between the ages of 13 and 17 approximately, and so generally have been trained earlier in other schools. To enter it, the students have to take a very difficult competitive exam, and only a very small proportion of them succeed (probably no more than 20 students every year). But, for those who succeed, all the classes are free (it's a public institution), and they also can get scholarships. The normal complete classes last 5 or 6 years: four years of classes, and then they take exams about four subjects (dance, dance history, music and anatomy- kinesiology), one year performing with the Junior Ballet (at the end they get an interpretation certificate), and also one 6th year for some training sessions with other companies. The students also attend normal school classes in a high school just near the Conservatoire building, and usually finish high school with a literature "baccalaureat" (national French diploma at the end of high school, which enables one to go to any French university). One year after leaving the Conservatoire, about 80% of the students have a job in a professional company. So the students I saw on rehearsal on Jan 21 and performing on Jan 22 were those of the "Junior Ballet", the special company of the Conservatoire for its students. Those of the "contemporary" section (who also have some ballet classes as a minor) had already done some performances in december, dancing some works by Lucinda Childs, Alwin Nikolais, and a new work by Luc Petton. The program I saw, danced by the "ballet" section, included Balanchine's "Who Cares", Forsythe's "Steptext", and a new work by Nicolo Fonte, "Accidental signals". Nine dancers were performing then (4 girls and 5 boys), aged around 17-19. The performance began with "Who cares", staged by Adam Luders. It was the concert version, with no corps de ballet, and several men in the main roles (in rehearsal they were four, but in the performance one of them danced a pas de deux and the male solo). Such a work must be very difficult for young, unexperienced dancers, because one needs to master both the technique (and those female solos are so difficult), and the style. I found their performance very good, nearly at the same level as the big companies I had already seen in this work (the Ballets de Monte-Carlo and the Ballet de Marseille). One could especially notice the graceful style and nice feet of Celine Nunige (first duo and second solo), the beautiful port de bras of Mehdi Walerski (first duo), the charming smile and great turnout of Dorothee Delabie (second duo and third solo), the commited partnership of Francois-Regis Rousseau (third duo), the charm and liveliness of Sarah Zhiri (third duo and first solo), and above all the boyish charm and perfect style of Yoannis Stadler-Mandafounis (second duo and male solo). The second work, Fostythe's "Steptext", was staged by Douglas Becker. All the dancers were wonderful (Dorothee Delabie, Vidal Bini, Mehdi Walerski, Franck Laizet), with an impressive speed and coordination. But I'm feeeling more and more fed up with this work (which the Lyon Opera Ballet danced last season), and with its violent, dark, agressive mood, and also all the silly "tricks" which might be surprising at first view, but add really nothing to the piece (sudden silence, lights switched off in the middle of a variation, etc.) Some parts of this work really are interesting (for example, the male duos, which include many games with symmetries), but its whole atmosphere becomes quite unpleasant to me- right after Balanchine's elegant style, it's not especially nice to see a woman manipulated as a bag of potatoes... The last work of the program was created by Nicolo Fonte, who is a dancer of Nacho Duato's company in Spain. It featured the 8 dancers of the previous works and also another girl (Florence Viennot). Its score was very pleasant (Britten's "Simple Symphony" and "Serenade"), and Nicolas Fischtel's lights were very impressive. Its choreographic style reminded me, not surprisingly, of Duato, and also of Kylian. It was well-structured and fluid, but I'm afraid not much of it remains in my memory a few days later. I hope that all these young performers will be hired by professional companies soon, they really deserve it!

Mel, thanks for such a nice story! I guess that this site is the only one where one can read such great, witty things about ballet!

Tacos, that's an interesting question (but unfortunately, in my opinion, there aren't as many good videos as there should be...) I don't know if it's available in the USA, but the tape "Paris dances Diaghilev" is among my favorite videos. It includes four ballets: Fokine's "Petrouchka" and "Le Spectre de la Rose", Nijinska's "Les Noces" and Nijinski's "Afternoon of a faun", filmed at the Paris Opera around 1990, with many of the best dancers of the company then (Manuel Legris, Charles Jude, Elisabeth Platel...) There are several other available tapes of the Paris Opera Ballet ("Romeo and Juliet", "Cinderella", "The Nutcracker", "Swan Lake"...) but I don't like much the choreographies of much of them (I'm not a fan of Nureyev's works in general). The best one is, in my opinion, "La Bayadere", because it's an opportunity to see three of the brightest dancers of the company (Elisabeth Platel, Isabelle Guerin and Laurent Hilaire) and also a very good corps de ballet.

Dale, I agree with you. It's really annoying when you wish to see the dancers' bows on stage, and some people stand right in the middle, rushing to their cars... Ilya, I find you a little bit too severe. It's not just a matter of "hard work"... Disapproval might come from the dancers' performances, but also from the choreography or the production. It often happened to me to dislike a performance because of a bad choreography, but the dancers aren't responsible for it, so if they did their best in it, I think they deserve applauses. (By the way, it reminds me of a POB performance when the dancers were applauded and the poor pianist, who was mistaken for the choreographer by a part of the audience, got booed...)

Is it common in NYC to have streets with the name of some people who're still alive (like Arthur Mitchell)? In France, usually people have to be dead for some time before their name is given to some streets (I don't know if it's a law, or just a habit). But I've read that there were some schools with names of living people (for example there's a Barbara Hendricks (?) junior high school...)

Just near the Opera Garnier in Paris, there's a small square called "place Diaghilev". It made me wonder if there were other dance related names in Paris. I found a rue Balanchine in the 13th arrondissement (near the metro station Chevaleret)... and that's all. No other dancer or choreographer! However, there are many streets with names of composers: for example, there's a Place Igor Stravinsky and a rue Adolphe Adam in the 4th arrondissement, a rue Tchaikovski in the 18th arrondissement, a rue Prokofiev and a rue Delibes in the 16th arrondissement, a rue Ravel in the 17th arrondissement... Also there's a rue Jacques Rouche (former director of the Paris Opera in the 30s) in the 9th arrondissement. In Marseille, there's a rue Marius Petipa.

Thanks for your review, Ed! You didn't write anything about Van Manen's works. What did you think of them?

Brooke, in which French theater did you dance? I've read that some POB dancers had problems because the stage of the Opera Garnier (the "old" Opera, built around 1875) was raked, while the stage of the Opera Bastille (the "new" one, opened in 1989) isn't, and they have to dance on both stages...

Alexandra wrote: Oh, I hope I didn't sound hypocritical or exaggeratedly prudent... But the Nazi Occupation in France is a rather sensitive topic in general (cf the recent Papon trial, for those who've heard about it), and I think one has to be quite cautious with one's sources (it seems that France lived for decades with the myth that everybody was a resistant, and a lot of things were written with that state of mind, while it was quite far from the truth...) One or two years ago, some books about the behavior of writers during the Nazi occupation were published, and perhaps also about other artists (singers, actors...) but I haven't heard about any similar book about ballet. I know that Lifar talks about this period in his autobiography ("Les memoires d'Icare"), but haven't read it. But perhaps he isn't the most objective person about that... Some more information about that period: I don't know the exact list of the POB principals then, but there were Yvette Chauvire (who became a principal in 1941, and created many important works such as "Istar", "Suite en Blanc" or "Les mirages"), Serge Peretti, Suzanne Lorcia, Lycette Darsonval (principal in 1940), Solange Schwartz (principal in 1940), and also among promising dancers Christiane Vaussard (premiere danseuse in 1945), Max Bozzoni and Michel Renault (both etoiles in 1947). Many of these people passed away in the last few years, so I guess that writing a book about that period would be even more difficult now... By the way, in last november, when I was attending a Martha Graham program at the Cinematheque de la Danse (Palais de Chaillot), there was an elderly lady in front of me, who probably was Gilberte Cournand (famous dance critic, now 86 but still writing for "Les Saisons de la Danse", who was awarded the Legion d'Honneur recently), who was talking about Lifar with her neighbour, and they seemed to have an argument about Lifar's behaviour during WWII! So that's why I said it was a sensitive topic... Another important side of the dance life in Paris then was the beginning of Roland Petit's career. He used to study at the POB school, entered the company in 1940, and left it in 1944 (so did Renee Jeanmaire, who was to marry him ten years later). The Russian-born dance critic Irene Lidova (now 92 and still active, by the way) organized some "vendredis de la Danse" at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater (now Theatre de la Ville), and I think it was the first performances of Petit outside the Opera, and also of Jeannine Charrat. It became the Ballets des Champs-Elysees, with some support by Boris Kochno, Jean Cocteau and Christian Berard, and Petit made his first choreographies for that company: "Les Forains" (March 1945), "Le rendez-vous" (1945), also Charrat choreographed "Jeu de cartes" in 1945. Among the main dancers of that company, there was Jean Babilee, who also was a former POB student and dancer (and had to hide his identity, because he was Jewish). There must be some information about all that it Petit's autobiography, or in Lidova's books.

Ballet in France during WWII seems to be a rather sensitive topic. I don't know if there's any book dealing specifically with it. Serge Lifar was leading the company then (between 1929 and 1944); the company went on performing, and created some works by Lifar such as "Entre deux rondes" (1940), "Le chevalier et la damoiselle" (1941), "Istar" (1941), "Bolero" (1941), "Joan de Zarissa" (1942), "Les animaux modeles" (1942), "Suite en blanc" (1943), "Guignol et Pandore" (1943), and "Les Mirages" (1944). The most popular of all those works were "Suite en Blanc" et "Les Mirages", which were last performed at the POB a few seasons ago. Lifar had to leave the directorship of the company after the liberation of Paris, and was accused of collaboration with the Nazis. He went to Monte-Carlo (I think he was temporarily replaced with Serge Peretti) and worked for the Nouveau Ballet de Monte-Carlo for a few years, and came back to Paris in 1947 (as director), until the late 50s.

I've read it (translated into French) a few months ago, and agree with all the compliments that have been written. It's a lovely book, and it really helps understanding Balanchine and Tchaikovsky (and loving their works).

Is Patrick Armand a relative of the teacher and former dancer Colette Armand?

Kevin, of course I agree with you! (But I'd put Legris as high as Le Riche, and even higher than Hilaire). I'd also list Charles Jude (recently retired), and among younger dancers, Jean-Guillaume Bart seems very promising (and perhaps also Yann Bridard and Herve Courtain).

I agree with Giannina, thanks a lot for posting this article! My guesses about the "two men", according to Alexandra's post in another thread, would be Ib Andersen and Nikolaj Hubbe- am I right?

I found a page about her on the Hamburg Ballet web site: http://www.hamburgballett.de/e/bios/polikarpova1.htm She is a principal dancer there since 1994.

This is just a short note to add that "Eugen Onegin" will be danced this week-end by the Ballet de Nice in Nice. I've read that the former POB principals Charles Jude and Monique Loudieres will dance it as guest stars (so there'll be quite a lot of ballerina/ˆo polish ). Pity there's a train strike in Marseille now...

Marc, I'm not so optimistic about the "L'Arlesienne" video. It was part of a Staats/ Petit/ Massine program (with "Soir de fete" and "La symphonie fantastique"), the three ballets were shown on TV, but I haven't heard about any plans to release a tape. Perhaps it will be the same as for Nijinska's "Le train bleu" and Massine's "Le Tricorne" (filmed at the Paris Opera, but never available on tape). And also, I find it's a pity there's no available videos of the POB in "La Sylphide", "Giselle" or "The Sleeping Beauty" (especially with dancers such as Platel, Guerin or Loudieres).

I only saw that dancer in a video of "The Stone Flower" by the Kirov Ballet (with also Tatiana Terekhova and Aleksandr Gulayev). She danced the main female role, and I found her really lovely, with a kind of softness which really made me feel like seeing her in roles such as "Giselle" or "La Sylphide". Later I've read that she left the Kirov Ballet and joined John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet. Has anybody here seen her on stage, or on other videos? What were your impressions?