Stéphane Bullion Farewell

[silvermash]

Tonight, Stéphane Bullion will give his farewell performance in Mats Ek, Another Place but will come back as a guest artist next season for Mayerling

https://youtu.be/gZe4IJaC7zg

 

 

[volcanohunter]

I was so pleased to read that Bullion will return to do Mayerling. When the next season was announced, it seemed absurd to me that the ballet was programmed after the retirement of its most obvious interpreter. It's a brutal undertaking, so I wish him the strength to endure it!

I think he's kidding himself if he thinks the wings won't be packed with colleagues for his final performance. 

Although next week he has another performance as Petit's Quasimodo with the Asami Maki Ballet in Tokyo.

https://www.ambt.jp/pf-notredame2022/

Edited June 4, 2022 by volcanohunter

[Helene]

to M Bullion.

[ECat]

I wish Stephane the most wonderful performance this evening. Although I have never had the fortune of seeing him perform in person, I am a fan of his. His performance in the recorded version of La Dame aux Camelias moved me to tears. He has so much depth to his artistry. Perhaps I'll get tickets to see him in Mayerling.

[silvermash]

I think when he was referring that no one would be in the wings, Stéphane meant during the performance. Because the following act Boléro starts straight from Another Place ballet and the wings are used as part of the ballet, indeed the wings are cleared except from the Boléro dancers. Another Place and Boléro are set as a one act piece although they don’t have much in common, and curtain calls are at the end of the Boléro for Another place dancers.
But of cause, as soon as the Boléro finished, a handful of POB dancers, new and past, ballet masters, etc. invaded the place and quite a few were drag on stage to hug Stéphane warmly. A lot of past Etoiles travelled from afar to be there such as Eleonora Abbagnato of course, now Rome Opera ballet AD,  Manuel Legris, Milan Scala AD, Claire Marie Osta from Stockholm Royal Opera dance school, Jose Martinez from Spain, etc. Madame Dupont offered a bouquet,  a long hug was dedicated to Agnès Letestu, one of his other beloved partner as well as Alice Renavand, his dance school mate who is retiring next month, a very moving moment.
The audience was hugely warm and welcomed Stéphane at the beginning of the performance with loud applauses that were quite unexpected and at the end, the farewell with confetti shower and flowers were in front of a standing ovation of more than 20 minutes. Stéphane Bullion is a discreet dancer, absent from social media, but it showed last night that it’s not necessary to constantly communicate to be loved by a huge crowd.

 

[Drew]

On 6/5/2022 at 12:24 PM, silvermash said:

But of cause, as soon as the Boléro finished, a handful of POB dancers, new and past, ballet masters, etc. invaded the place and quite a few were drag on stage to hug Stéphane warmly. A lot of past Etoiles travelled from afar to be there such as Eleonora Abbagnato of course, now Rome Opera ballet AD,  Manuel Legris, Milan Scala AD, Claire Marie Osta from Stockholm Royal Opera dance school, Jose Martinez from Spain, etc. Madame Dupont offered a bouquet,  a long hug was dedicated to Agnès Letestu, one of his other beloved partner as well as Alice Renavand, his dance school mate who is retiring next month, a very moving moment.
The audience was hugely warm and welcomed Stéphane at the beginning of the performance with loud applauses that were quite unexpected and at the end, the farewell with confetti shower and flowers were in front of a standing ovation of more than 20 minutes. Stéphane Bullion is a discreet dancer, absent from social media, but it showed last night that it’s not necessary to constantly communicate to be loved by a huge crowd.

 

Sadly, I am familiar with few of the POB dancers--and those few only via video--but this was very touching to read about.

[volcanohunter]

Bullion's career is all the more remarkable because in his mid 20s he had cancer. No sooner had he danced his first principal role, Ivan the Terrible, than he began treatment. And yet he clawed his way back to become premier danseur and then étoile, which says a lot about how much he loves his job. (And how sad that he said working under Millepied was almost worse than cancer, because it shattered his confidence, made him sad and angry.)

I saw very few of his roles live, more on video. A moment that stuck with me was a video the POB released during the Covid lockdown, which featured dancers at home, and Bullion's very brief appearance consisted of him jumping up and down with his two small children, who then helped him make the most of his pushups by adding resistance training. Very sweet and real.

[atm711]

Stephane Bullion was ---is--the absolute TOPS!!