Estelle

Thanks for the information, cygneblanc. Do you know how many positions will be offered for each competition, and how many school pupils will be competing ? I hope you will keep us informed when the results are announced.

Thanks for the comments and links. The fact that I couldn't find an obituary in French newspapers is quite telling, alas, of the poor state of French dance criticism... :-( It seems that her death was announced by Dominique Delouche. I hope I can manage to see his documentary about her someday... rg, Le Bourget and Orly definitely are different airports (as far as I know, now le Bourget is active mostly for private commercial flights, and is much smaller than Orly) and I've always read that Nureyev's "escape" was in Le Bourget, so it probably is a mistake. Thanks for the lovely photograph.

The former POB principal Nina Vyroubova died on June 25, aged 86. Unfortunately I found almost no obituary about her (just a "dépêche AFP": http://www.maison-russie.fr/index.php?opti...8&Itemid=31 She was born in Russia in 1921, and had created the role of "la belle endormie" in Roland Petit's "Les forains" in 1945 with the Ballets des Champs Elysées. She became a POB principal in 1949 and had created many roles for Lifar.

If I remember correctly, the dancers Jan and Wim Broeckx are identical twins. Jan was a principal dancer of Roland Petit's company, and Wim was a principal dancer of the Dutch National Ballet and now is the director of dance at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

Alice and I came back from the hospital last Saturday (we both are fine) and I barely have had any time to touch a computer since then so I've just seen this thread now- thank you, thank you for all your kind words ! Now maybe we'll just have to wait a few more years to have another balletomane Paul, we don't have a dog, but we do spoil our cat (a small black and white cat called Venise), however she seems to be a bit puzzled now when seeing that other small creature at home... ;)

Treefrog, I do hope that you'll get a ticket for that performance- and I also hope that you will tell us about it ! I wish I could attend a performance of that production (especially as there haven't been opportunities to see any Ashton in France for years), but as I'm due to have a baby in about one week at most, it's not exactly the easiest moment to travel ;-)

Actually, one thing that saddened me a little bit about the POB situation (it might have changed a little in recent years, since the direction has changed) is that it seemed to me that the school itself focused almost only on getting a POB position (not encouraging much its students to audition for other companies), while the number of POB positions has been particularly low in recent years (sometimes as low as only 1 female position for example). It is such a heartache to think that some talented young dancers gave up dancing after not getting a POB position (and also, unfortunately, given the French school system, making successful studies after that sometimes can be quite difficult, as many choices have to be done early), of course it is their choice but sometimes 17 years old are not very mature and make choices that they regret - and also, as it is a state-funded school, it also is somehow a waste of taxpayers' money... Perhaps there also is some sort of arrogance from the school (considering that "POB is the best" and the rest is not interesting), I don't know, but I think it should be part of the school's role to also inform their students about other companies and to encourage them to audition for other companies (and to consider that not getting into the POB doesn't mean "wasted career").

Actually I had similar thoughts about the POB school and the POB: most POB students focus only on getting a position at POB (and from what I've been told, it happened that some of them completely gave up ballet after not getting into the company), but some remain "quadrilles" (the 5th and lowest rank in the company) for years, or even for their whole careers, and have fewer opportunities to dance than some of their peers who got into other companies. And the students who had the biggest roles in the school's program are not always those who had the best careers later- for example, some years ago, the two main roles in "Coppélia" were performed by Mathieu Ganio and Charline Gienzendanner, and while Ganio had a very fast career and got promoted to étoile (principal) very young, Gienzendanner remained a quadrille for many years and now only is coryphée (the 4th rank in the company)... However, a difference between the SAB and POB school is that there are quite a lot of ballet companies in the US, while in France the number of ballet companies unfortunately has shrunk a lot in the last decades, so job opportunities in France outside the POB are scarce, and moving to work to another country probably isn't an easy decision (and also the POB dancers, including all the corps de ballet dancers, have quite a privileged status in terms of job security, health care, etc. so it probably makes its jobs more attractive).

I have just started a thread in Ballet History: http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=24809

After reading the following thread in the POB forum (about the grave of some famous dancers), it seemed to me that it could be interesting to try to compile some information about the graves of famous dancers, choreographers, ballet masters, etc. So let's try to start a list here (please, if you want to post some information, be careful about duplicates, and also it would help to use always the same format: name, (dates), country, city, cemetery), and perhaps later, if there is enough information, it might be useful to create a web page about it. Vaslav Nijinski (1889-1950): France, Paris, cimetière de Montmartre. Claire Motte (1937-1986): France, Paris, cimetière des Batignolles. Serge de Diaghilev (1872-1929): Italy, Venice, cimitero San Michele. Igor Stravinsky (1882- 1971): Italy, Venice, cimitero San Michele. Gaetano Vestris (1729-1808) and Auguste Vestris (1760-1842): France, Paris, cimetière de Montmartre. Serge Lifar (1905-1986): France, Sainte-Geneviève des Bois, Russian cemetery. Edited to add: there seems to be a lot of information about cemeteries and graves of famous people (especially in Paris) on the following site: http://p.landru.free.fr/chapdelaine/

Thanks for the legal information. Perhaps we could at least start a thread about it (in Ballet history for example, or Anything goes- it might be a bit morbid to put it in the dancers subforum...) and then try to compile a more precise list later (listed by country, city, etc. for example) when we have enough information.

Thanks for the explanation ! 7 billion sounded really strange to me... but I agree that 7 million already is a lot, and it must be very complicated to manage all that. I wonder if it would be of any interest to try to compile (for example on a web site) a sort of "guide of ballet-related graves", for example with photographs of the graves of famous dancers or choreographers ? I vaguely remember that several years ago, the magazine "Danser" had done an article about some graves, but of course only a few people were listed... Compiling a list probably would be quite time-consuming, especially with all the legal restrictions you mentioned, but perhaps it could lead to interesting discoveries. One can find surprising things in cemeteries, for example in the small (and otherwise uninteresting) cemetery of my parents' village, there is the grave of Liane de Pougy (1869-1950), who briefly was a dancer (but I think, a cabaret dancer, not a ballet dancer) and a famous "demi-mondaine" of the "Belle Epoque"... but she's not buried with the name "Liane de Pougy" (a pseudonym), not as "Anne-Marie Chassaigne" (her birth name) or "Princesse Ghika" (her married name) but under a religious name (something like "Anne-Marie-Madeleine de la Pénitence") because in the last years of her life she was in some religious order...

Err, could you explain why there are so many bodies ? 7 *billion* sounds so enormous, compared to the world population...

That's very kind from you , but in fact there is very little ballet to be seen in Lyon (as in most France outside Paris, and to a lesser extent Bordeaux and Toulouse, in fact): the home company, the Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon, schedules only modern or crossover works (e.g. the next season will include works by Jérôme Bel, William Forsythe, Maguy Marin, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown and Jiri Kylian, and it was about the same in all the previous seasons) and the Maison de la Danse shows mostly modern companies too (but at least it has the merit that, as far as I know, it is the only theater in French which is dedicated almost entirely to dance). I'm always a bit puzzled when I see such rankings... Regularly there are some French magazines publishing some rankings of French cities, and of course the ranking never is the same, as the criteria differ. "Liveability" is such a subjective notion...

Here's an article in French about the cimetière Saint-Pierre in Marseilles, which mentions that Marie Taglioni used to be buried there but, as Mel wrote, is indeed now at the Père Lachaise: http://p.landru.free.fr/chapdelaine/articl...?id_article=498

Frankly I don't think that the results of presidential elections will have *any* direct influence on the promotion policy (and also, I don't think I've ever seen a politician saying that s/he is for mediocrity...) It might have a very indirect influence if there is a new minister of culture and if s/he has a influence on changing the director of dance of the POB, but it seems to me that most politicians really don't care about it (and culture has been a topic totally absent from all the presidential campaign). It seems to me that the position of director of the Paris Opera (presently Gérard Mortier and soon Nicolas Joël) is more dependent from political decisions, but they always are opera people and not ballet people, and the position of director of dance is less "visible" and probably depends more on inner policy decisions. After all, Ms Lefèvre has been there for a very long time, with various PO directors and various ministers of culture...

Oh dear. I haven't heard about that promotion, and really I can't say I am thrilled. My feelings about Cozette's dancing are well expressed by Sophia's sentence "each time I saw her on stage, I couln't help feeling boredom and she didn't convince me", I generally find her somewhat cold, a bit stiff and not expressive.I already was somewhat disappointed by Bélingard's promotion, but for me this promotion is the most disappointing in years Well, I can't say I expect much good from Ms Lefèvre in general, but each time she manages to disappoing me even more, either in terms of promotions or of repertory...

Wonderful, flygirl ! I hope that you enjoyed "Cinderella" (and more generally your stay in Paris).

As far as I know, the 11 AM opening is for buying all sorts of tickets (not only tickets for the same day), while the 6:45 PM window opening is for tickets for the same day only, but I hope someone better informed than me will be able to reply (I don't live in Paris any longer and haven't bought tickets at the box office for a while...) Anyway, as far as I know, they do accept credit cards (I bought tickets several times at the 6:45 PM opening with a credit card and there never was any problem), and probably checks too (but that might not be useful for you, if you don't have a bank account in France).

I had a quick look about the few books I have which could be useful, but found nothing either. But the caption says "(Opéra)" below "Esnell", so perhaps it means the photograph comes from an opera and not a ballet ? (Such a caption is a bit ambiguous, because "Opéra" could mean either opera as opposed to ballet, but also the Paris Opera as a place and/or an institution...) I doubt that "Esnell" would have a link with "Esmeralda" (it was Hugo who used the name Esmeralda, so it wouldn't be logical to change that name...)

After so many seasons with "Bournonville in Hell" (as in the title of Alexandra's essay), perhaps some hope for a "Bournonville in Heaven" ? ;)

I share your opinion about those two dancers, and would definitely be disappointed to see one of them promoted... Indeed that's not what I'd expect from a POB étoile

It seems to me that some theaters forbid their performances to children under a certain age, or at least indicate in their programs that the programs are not suited to them... For example, the Lyon auditorium, home of the Lyon National Orchestra, writes in its season program that "l'accès de la salle est déconseillé aux moins de 5 ans" (more or less: people are advised not to bring children under 5), except for specific activities targeted at children. They offer a service of "musical baby-sitting" for children between 3 and 8 for some of the symphonic concerts on Saturday evenings (the tickets cost 6 euros, which probably is less than one hour of normal baby-sitting), and have several concerts which are free for children under 12 (including some especially targeted at families), so I think that they really couldn't be called "child hating".

I also read some Nancy Drew books, but in France they were translated as the adventures of "Alice" (her full name was Alice Roy), I guess that "Nancy Drew" was considered too difficult to pronounce for French kids- and of course I pronounced her "French" name as if it were the French name "roy" (pronounced like "roi") and not rhyming with "boy"... I believe that many of the names of other characters were changed, too. One of my favorites was an episode when she went to Cuzco in Peru, "Alice chez les Incas", also there was another episode with some kind of haunted castle which I liked but found very frightening. I still remember that it was in those books that I learnt the spelling (or the existence) of some words, for example "tronquer" in "le singe à la queue tronquée", the monkey with the uncomplete tail which was engraved on a piece of wood in the "Incas" episode...) What was striking for me when I had a look at those books a few years later is that I hadn't realized then that there were quite old (published in the 1940s for some of them), and the drawings often dated back from the 60s (I read it in the early and mid 1980s); as a kid I really paid no attention to that (well, also there probably was the fact that anyway the US were some kind of really unknown and exotic place in my mind so I didn't expect everything to look like "everyday life"...)

Oh dear, Natalia, what an awful experience it must have been. And I find her answer "I have a right to react" impressively stupid... I recently had an especially frustrating experience of bad neighbour behaviour during a ballet performance. It was during an ABT performance at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris in february (by the way, I realize a bit too late I forgot to post some comments), the seats aren't especially comfortable there, but also the man behind me kept knocking to the back of my seat with his knees very often and it was quite uncomfortable. After I while, I politely asked him to be careful about him, and then he became extremely agressive, said he never touched my seat, it was only my imagination, I was stupid, etc. I was so baffled by his attitude (and my husband too) that I barely managed to reply. Fortunately, he left during the last intermission so I was quiet at least during the end of the program, but it was such an unpleasant incident that it really diminished my enjoyment of the performance (plus the fact that the sight lines there really are quite bad...)