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Manuel Legris et ses étoiles - Japan tour 2004


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Manuel Legris will bring a group of POB dancers to Japan this summer. Here're the details:

<Programme A>

* The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude/Forsyth

Eleonora Abbagnato, Muriel Zusperreguy, Dorothée Gilbert, Hervé Moreau, Hervé Courtain

* Sleeping Beauty PdD/Nureyev

Myriam Ould Braham & Mathieu Ganio

* Abelle est...../Mallory Gaudion

Yann Saïz & Stéphane Bullion

* Esmeralda PdD/Petipa

Aurélie Dupont & Hervé Moreau

* Variations on Carmen/Petit

Manuel Legris with a help from J-M. Didiére

* Diana & Actaeon PdD/Vaganova

Eleonora Abbagnato & Stéphane Bullion

* Illusions - Like Swan Lake/Neumeier

Manuel Legris, Aurélie Dupont, Yann Saïz

* Tchaikovsky PdD/Balanchine

Mélanie Hurel & Mallory Gaudion

* Who Cares?/Balanchine

Eleonora Abbagnato & Mathieu Ganio/Muriel Zusperreguy/Aurélie Dupont & Yann Saïz/Mélanie Hurel/Myriam Ould Braham & Hervé Courtain/Dorothée Gilbert/Manuel Legris

<Programme B>

* Paquita PdD/Petipa

Manuel Legris & Aurélie Dupont

* Moments Shared/Dantzig

Eleonora Abbagnato & Stéphane Bullion

* Stars & Stripes/Balanchine

Muriel Zusperreguy & Hervé Courtain

* Chant du compagnon errant/Béjart

Manuel Legris & Laurent Hilaire

* The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude/Forsyth

Eleonora Abbagnato, Mélanie Hurel, Myriam Ould Braham, Yann Saïz, Malory Gaudillon

* La Dame aux camlias/Neumeier

Monique Loudières & Manuel Legris

* Tchaikovsky PdD/Balanchine

Hervé Moreau & Dorothée Gilbert

* Le Parc PdD/Preljocaj

Laurent Hilaire & Aurélie Dupont

* Alles Waltzer/Zanella

Manuel Legris, Malory Gaudillon, Hervé Courtain, Mathieu Ganio

<Performance schedule>

* Programme A: 19, 20 & 21 July, 2004

* Programme B: 23, 24 & 25 July, 2004

* Venue for both: U-Port Kan-i Hoken Hall, Gotanda, Tokyo

They also tour around the country - going to Saitama, Osaka & Fukuoka. Ticket prices for Tokyo vary from JPY4,000 to JPY16,000 (perhaps reflecting the prestigeousness of the participating dancers Programme B costs more!); public booking opens on 20th March. More details are available on the impresario's website, as follows, although I'm afraid it's only in Japanese: www.nbs.or.jp/stages/mle/pro.html

As I understand it, usually in this type of venture a leading étoile (in this case Legris) tend to bring younger generations of dancers. But this year there's every reason for me to go back and see them - Legris will bring along Loudières & Hilaire together with rising new talents as Ganio & Gilbert!

My only concerns are ticket availability - a special advance booking where top seats sold in combination for both programmes has opened yesterday, and I spotted on Japanese POB fan sites that better seats had all gone within a mere one hour......

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Naoko: those programs do sound exciting- the Japanese audience is lucky to get to see Monique Loudières again, she and Legris are such a wonderful couple on stage! :(

Please, if you attend those performances, don't forget to tell us about it! :)

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Estelle, yes the biggest magnet for me in this gala is seeing Loudières - I'll promise to tell you about it if I were lucky enough to get hold of tickets!

Oh I have one question about the work titled "Abel est.....", choreographed by the company's young sujet Mallory Gaudion. Has this work ever been presented before, or is this going to be a world-premiere? Has anyone ever seen this?

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"Abel est..." was presented last year during the "Jeunes chorégraphes" night ("Young Choreographers", at Amphithéâtre Bastille). I haven't seen it, but I've heard people who liked it very much and others who didn't find it interesting at all. Perhaps someone else have seen it?

Edited by Juliette
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I think Françoise meant "the choreography" by she. In French, choreography is a feminine word and we use the feminine pronoun ("elle" in french; "she" in English) to talk about it, although choreography is not a person. It's sometimes a little hard for us French to forget our idiomatics when we are writing (I always make this kind of mistake, although I know the rules). But perhaps that's not the reason for this "she".

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I wanted to say "IT" for the choreography and I use the female "She" like in French :)

The choreography lacks of originality when you know Bejart, it's what I wanted to say : :dry:

You're completely right Juliette :wallbash: ! I know also the rule but we want to translate how we speak in French and we forget the Grammary rules :shrug: !

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A wonderful news came in!

It's been announced that Elisabeth Platel will join Legris' Japan tour this summer! She's due to dance Neumeier's "Magnificato" with Yann Saïz, in Programme <A>.

Due to an injury Hervé Moreau has pulled entirely from the tour; in his stead Audric Bésard (who?) will dance part of the roles Herve was originally casted. The Opera's newest etoile, Mathieu Ganio, will now dance an extra role - Esmeralda pdd with Aurélie Dupont.

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Wow! It's great to see that Elisabeth Platel still is active- but what a pity there are no opportunities to see her in France now...

Audric Bézard is a young male quadrille. I haven't seen him much so far, but if I remember correctly, he performed "Tchaikovsky pas de deux" in the last "Young dancers" program with Dorothée Gilbert (instead of Mathieu Ganio who was scheduled originally but got injured) and, though he wasn't as impressive as Gilbert, did quite well.

By the way, I still wonder why Brigitte Lefèvre doesn't want to add "Who Cares?" to the POB's repertory (while some parts of it are performed regularly in galas by some POB dancers): I'm sure the audience would love it (it was very successful each time I saw it in France, whether by the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the Ballet de Toulouse or the Ballet de Marseille), the dancers seem eager to perform it, and while it's perhaps not among Balanchine's major works, it's surely far more interesting that many recent additions to the repertory, and also it would be great to end some Balanchine programs...

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Estelle,

Thanks for the info. on Audric Bézard. I'll keep an eye on him - he should be pretty good having been chosen as a participating member by Legris!

>>......and while it's perhaps not among Balanchine's major works, it's surely far more interesting that many recent additions to the repertory, and also it would be great to end some Balanchine programs...

I've got to ask you more about this! Which recent additions have you found less interesing than Who Cares? Also what Balanchine programs do you think "would be great to end"?

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I've got to ask you more about this!  Which recent additions have you found less interesing than Who Cares?  Also what Balanchine programs do you think "would be great to end"?

Well, that's a matter of personal opinion of course, but for example I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about Trisha Brown's "Glacial Decoy" (especially in the same program as "Liebeslieder Walzer", what a clusmy contrast) or Davide Bombana's "La septième lune"... And one can notice that many of the modern works that had entered the company's repertory in recent years were not performed again after their first season (e.g. "Orison", "Rhapsody in blue", "Le rire de la lyre"...)

And about the end of some Balanchine programs (oops, I realize that my sentence was quite ambiguous), I remembered for example the recent Balanchine-Robbins mixed bill which ended with "Serenade": I do love Serenade, but thought that a more joyful work like "Who Cares" would perhaps be better at the end of a program, so that the audience would leave the theater in a happy mood! :wink:

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Estelle, sorry I totally misunderstood what you had said in the original post..... I thought you found some of the POB's "Balanchine works" less interesting than "Who Cares". It makes far more sense to me that you did actually made a comparison with other choreographers' works.... :wink:

Incidentally did you like their "Liebeslieder Walzer"? I just LOVED them - it was absolutely breath-takingly beautiful, and I thought the ballet well suited to the style and individuality of POB. Personally I wouldn't mind watching this piece *every* season as long as they still keep hold of Hilaire and Legris......

I also took it wrong for the other one (my, it really wasn't my day!), reckoning that you wanted to see some of Balanchine works axed ("to end") from the repertoire - but apparently that's not what you meant...... sorry!

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Naoko: actually, when re-reading what I wrote, I realized that my sentences were badly expressed and ambiguous! Sorry! Now things are clearer (and actually, Balanchine fan that I am, I think I'd be happy about *any* new Balanchine work added to the repertory...)

I loved Liebeslieder Walzer, and regretted being able to see it only twice, as I think it takes some time for the dancers to get used to it. I especially enjoyed the pas de deux between Legris and Moussin. But it's a pity that it was in such an ill-suited program (after three modern works), and it might explain why it was received a bit tepidly: the contrast wasn't good, and some part of the audience probably came mostly to see the modern works (and on the other hand, I know some people who would have been interested in seeing it, but didn't attend because they didn't want to spend the price of a ticket to see only one classical ballet in the program). It would have made more sense to put it in a whole Balanchine program, for example. But I guess the programming was done also because of some material reasons (e.g. none of the works of that program needed a full orchestra, and also part of the company was busy with other programs). Anyway, I hope that they'll dance it again in upcoming seasons (but one is never sure with the POB... For example, I never understood why some works like Ashton's "Rhapsody", Robbins' "The Four Seasons" or De Mille's "Fall river legend" were never performed again after the first season they entered the repertory, and even a work like "Allegro Brillante" wasn't performed much after its first season. What a pity :wink: )

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>>(and actually, Balanchine fan that I am, I think I'd be happy about *any* new Balanchine work added to the repertory...)

I totally, whole-heartedly agree with you on this. Interesting on another point you made - that often they do not restage some of the acquired works - hmmm I can only say that POB's programming has indeed looked peculiar at times.....

In any case one of the worst dissappointments for the next season, for me, is lack of Balanchine (only one is scheduled, I seem to remember? It's not enough!). This season POB's dancers showed off beautifully what they could do with Balanchine's works - personally I feel it wouldn't hurt any one if they continued the efforts...... what a shame!

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In any case one of the worst dissappointments for the next season, for me, is lack of Balanchine (only one is scheduled, I seem to remember? It's not enough!).  This season POB's dancers showed off beautifully what they could do with Balanchine's works - personally I feel it wouldn't hurt any one if they continued the efforts...... what a shame!

Yes, the only Balanchine work of the season will be performed by the POB school ("Le tombeau de Couperin"). I find this disappointing, and more generally the lack of classical works in the next season, all the new works in the repertory will be modern ones. I do enjoy some modern works in the POB's repertory, but it's sad to see that so much of the company's repertory is being neglected.

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