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Laurent Hilaire to leave the POB


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In a French state financed institution like POB is, €6000 is not considered a low salary, especially since it is a minimum salary which can be topped by extras (although the case of Heymann is a bit miss chosen as he has danced very little since he’s Etoile due to injury so he probably doesn’t get much extras inside the company). What is more debatable is the salary of Brigitte Lefevre but I guess that is the old cruel story of the world of labor, the boss and the worker…

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I am very new to learning about the POB - what I know of the dancers I love and I certainly admire the loyal and involved POB audience. In the short time I have looked at the POB I have truly fallen in love with the on-stage character of Laurent Hilaire. He was a very giving dancer - always in the performances I saw he gave a performance of high technical quality but also he gave of himself to the audience, he gave of his personality .. his stage character. After watching closely the documentaries mentioned and the Great Ballets of Rudolf Nureyev that featured Hilaire he seemed funny, interested, interesting and in the La Bayadere caring (I noticed for instance that he has trouble talking about Nureyev without swallowing and this long after Nureyev's death). It makes me very sad that the Paris company seems to have thrown him away like an old shoe. However, the separation packet he received (if that is true) should help grease his path and I hope they have not said 'and never darken our door again!' (Isn't his daughter Juliette in the corp??) -- he is known far and wide and should he choose I do not think he will have trouble finding another situation that should please him. I thought I understood that he was close to his family and perhaps a new job outside France might be difficult - still he is a luminary in the ballet world. It is difficult to explain but even while watching the videos his warmth and character seem to permeate the screen. I do not believe that he will abandon his love (dance) nor that it will forget him. I certainly will not. In fact in anyone is interested I have some bits of Hilaire on my YT channel should you want to see them, the channel is Judith Booth --

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It's not especially recent news, but in May Hilaire was in Toronto coaching dancers of the National Ballet of Canada for Giselle. Twelve months earlier he'd been there coaching The Sleeping Beauty, which is logical since the company dances the Nureyev version--actually, has been for a whole lot longer than the POB.

 

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