POB 2023-2024 season

[silvermash]

21/09/2023    Gala : Défilé/ Horizon( Xie Xin) / Brutale (Marion Motin) / The Seasons’ Canon (Crystal Pite)
23 /09-12/10/2023    Horizon( Xie Xin) / Brutale (Marion Motin) / The Seasons’ Canon (Crystal Pite)
24/10-10/11/2023    Jerome Robbins (En Sol/In the night/The Concert)
3/16/12/2023    Ecole de danse - démonstrations
8//31/12/2023    Jiří Kylián (Stepping Stones/Gods and Dogs/Petite mort/Sechs Tanze)
8/12/2023-1/01/2024    Casse-Noisette (Rudolf Noureev)
7/02-02/03/2024    Sadeh21 (Ohad Naharin)
15/03-01/04/2024    La fille mal gardée (Frederick Ashton)
21/03-24/04/2024    Don Quichotte (Rudolf Noureev)
13-16/04/2024    Ecole de danse–Les forains (Roland Petit)/Un Ballo (Jiří Kylián)/Suite en blanc (Serge Lifar)
17/04/2024     Gala des écoles de danse The Canada’s National Ballet School / L’École nationale de ballet du Canada (Toronto), The Dutch National Ballet Academy (Amsterdam), La Fondazione Accademia Teatro alla Scala (Milan), The School of the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier (Hamburg), The San Francisco Ballet School, The Royal Ballet School (London), The Royal Danish Ballet School (Copenhagen).   
02/05-1/06/2024    Giselle (Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot version Patrice Bart)
21/06-14/07/2024    Le Lac des cygnes (Rudolf Noureev)
22/06-14/07/2024    Barbe Bleu (Pina Bausch)

[Josette]

silvermash, thank you so much for the list with dates.  

[volcanohunter]

This strikes me as somewhat unusual, but Émilie Cozette bid farewell to the POB not in a ballet, but by walking in the opening-night défilé.

I saw her perform more than most POB étoiles, but that was 10-15 years ago. I always had a tough time warming to her dancing. I do remember, though, that when the company performed Pina Bausch's Orpheus and Eurydice in New York in 2012, Cozette performed not Eurydice or even Amour, but in the corps, standing close to the end of the row during the bows. Obviously, she really wanted to take part in the ballet in any capacity, and I really respected that.

[Josette]

I saw her perform La Cigarette  in Suite en Blanc twice in Chicago during the POB U.S. tour in 2012.  She likely danced Myrtha after Marie-Agnes Gillot's Myrtha (with Ciaravola and Ganio on opening night) in a subsequent Giselle during that fabulous week.  I ran into her in Chicago and spoke to her for a few minutes about their tour;  she was with Amandine Albisson and introduced us.   Mlle Cozette was utterly charming. 

[miliosr]

17 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

This strikes me as somewhat unusual, but Émilie Cozette bid farewell to the POB not in a ballet, but by walking in the opening-night défilé.

I saw her perform more than most POB étoiles, but that was 10-15 years ago. I always had a tough time warming to her dancing. I do remember, though, that when the company performed Pina Bausch's Orpheus and Eurydice in New York in 2012, Cozette performed not Eurydice or even Amour, but in the corps, standing close to the end of the row during the bows. Obviously, she really wanted to take part in the ballet in any capacity, and I really respected that.

Cozette hasn't performed much in recent years. Under Benjamin Millepied and then Aurelie Dupont, she only appeared intermittently. So, the company absorbed the loss long before the actual departure.

The bigger losses are still to come with the looming departures of Myriam Ould-Braham and Dorothee Gilbert.

[Josette]

Myriam Ould-Braham - I saw her when she was in the corps de ballet in Diamonds and couldn't take my eyes of her! She was and is exquisite.  I am hoping to get a ticket to her last Giselle on May 18, 2024, as I will be on vacation.   I also saw Ganio in the Diamonds corps, obviously thrown in and being talked through it and having a good time!  About two years later, he was promoted to Etoile.  Back to Cozette, yes, she seemed to disappear from classical ballet during a Swan Lake run of performances, probably 2015-ish, when Millepied took over.    I have a friend who attended the General Rehearsal, which Cozette danced. 

[volcanohunter]

6 hours ago, miliosr said:

So, the company absorbed the loss long before the actual departure.

Indeed. I am always sorry when a career is thwarted like that and doesn't realize its potential. I was not a great admirer of Cozette's dancing, but it was distressing to see her become something of a ghost within the company over so many years.

[volcanohunter]

4 hours ago, Josette said:

Back to Cozette, yes, she seemed to disappear from classical ballet during a Swan Lake run of performances, probably 2015-ish, when Millepied took over.    I have a friend who attended the General Rehearsal, which Cozette danced. 

There is footage of that rehearsal, but ultimately Cozette didn't perform in that run, or in any subsequent run of Swan Lake.

 

[FireDancer]

26 minutes ago, volcanohunter said:

There is footage of that rehearsal, but ultimately Cozette didn't perform in that run, or in any subsequent run of Swan Lake.

 

Oof...

[volcanohunter]

I guess this goes to context, but I was gobsmacked when in an interview Stéphane Bullion juxtaposed his cancer treatment early in his career with Millepied's tenure. 

"I had other bad moments in my life, I had a terrible year when I had cancer in my 20s, but even then I kept dancing. Millepied’s direction, on the other hand, did hurt me as I felt lost, I even felt I missed a kind of connection with my body. Confidence is very fragile, it is built step by step, but it can be destroyed very quickly and going on stage without confidence can become very difficult. I did not like what my relationship with Millepied made me become – I was sad, I was a constantly angry, revolted man, and that was not me."

https://www.danceforyou-magazine.com/stephane-bullion-be-proud-of-me-2/

It goes without saying that Bullion's cancer treatment was an ordeal: https://www.oncovia.com/blog/en/stephane-bullion-professional-ballet-dancer-at-the-paris-opera-living-normaly-for-me-meant-dancing/

[miliosr]

9 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

I am always sorry when a career is thwarted like that and doesn't realize its potential. I was not a great admirer of Cozette's dancing, but it was distressing to see her become something of a ghost within the company over so many years.

Interesting that you used the word "ghost" because that was exactly the word I was thinking of when I wrote my response upthread. Cozette became like a ghost haunting the hallways of the Garnier.

[Josette]

Yes, I know that Mlle Cozette did not dance Sean Lake again (and other matters that are too speculative for discussion).  
 

I wish Mlle Cozette great happiness and fulfillment in all she does. 

[volcanohunter]

A farewell interview with Myriam Ould-Braham, with English subtitles.

Some moments from her bows after her final Giselle.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7MJcOcNye-/?igsh=a2EwbHNmY2x1eXpt

[Josette]

I attended her farewell performance and the two previous performances.  It was a beautiful evening.