Death of Gilberte Cournand (1913-2005)

[Estelle]

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,...7789@7-54,0.htm

The French dance critic Gilberte Cournand passed away two days ago near Paris, aged 91.

She was born in 1913 and had created a dance bookstore called "La Danse" in Paris, which had been active for more than 40 years (unfortunately, it doesn't exist any longer). The article in "Le Monde" mentions that she was a dance critic for "Le Parisien libéré", but she also wrote for the dance magazine "Les Saisons de la Danse" for decades (until it ceased existing in the late 1990s- actually I believe she was among its founding members). She also was a publisher and collected dance-related items. Last year she had donated her collections to the new Centre National de la Danse and also the Library-Museum of the Paris Opera.

I remember seeing her at some ballet performances or ballet films in Paris a few years ago, an elderly lady with big dark glasses and a "bandeau" on her head.

Anecdotically, the first book which stirred my interest for ballet was one of her books, "Beauté de la danse", an anthology of dance-related texts. It had been given to me when I was 9 by an elderly friend of my mother who had come for dinner; at that moment I knew nothing about dance but had read part of it nonetheless (even though there were quite a lot of words that I didn't understand), but I found it far more interesting when I read it again when I was about 15 and that was the beginning of a great passion. So thank you again Mrs Cournand.

[dirac]

It's nice to learn about her. One of the unhappy by products (along with the many benefits, of course) of the advent of online bookselling and superstores is the decline of specialized bookstores (although it may be different in other countries) .

[Alexandra]

Thank you for that, Estelle. I had read her name, but didn't know her history.

[Estelle]

I think that her bookstore closed even before the beginning of online selling (I don't know the exact date, but think it might have been before 1995- perhaps some people from Paris know more about it ? cygneblanc ?) and don't know the reasons for its closure. (It might also have been that she already was quite elderly). Anyway, now there is no dance bookstore in Paris (and in the rest of France) and it is sad indeed.

[cygneblanc]

Yes, Estelle, the bookstore closed in the late 1990, in 1994 I think but I may be wrong. There is a bookstore in the Saint Germain Des pres area that have some rare dance books (it is in the street you take to go to the Institut de France) but it's very expensive and with the online selling, you can find everything they have at a very reasonable price.

[Estelle]

Thanks for your reply, cygneblanc !

I also remember finding a few things at the Librairie Théâtrale near the Opéra Comique, but their main focus definitely is theater and they only have a few shelved of dance-related things. And sometimes one can be lucky with the bouquinistes, but it depends...

Did you go to Ms Cournand's bookstore when it was open ? From what I've read, she also organized some conferences about ballet from time to time.

[cygneblanc]

My Mom took me there several times when I was quite small, but after when I was involved more and more in figure skating there wasn't a lot of time for shopping.

I have some memories from the store though. It was really something. I have an autographed book from Miss Cournand that was bought here and I was quite proud to have it ! But I have never been to the conferences

[Estelle]

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actuali...u/cournand.html

A homage from the minister of Culture to Ms Cournand (repeating basically what was said in the Le Monde article).