assoluta

It used to be 24 hours but I wouldn't count on it. This used to be on YouTube, not on their website. Now, they may stream the broadcast on their Facebook page instead.

She was, in a wrong way. Talking about the qualities of the dancers -- Dupont's casting decisions for the recent bloc of 19 Swan Lakes clearly indicate that she disregards emploi and suitability of a dancer for a particular role. None of her original choices had a quality of a Swan, Albisson and Ould Braham, moreover, with very average data. Even more surprisingly, Albisson and (added later) Baulac, are non classical ballerinas, the latter was made étoile on the day she danced her first big classical part (!), even though her several appearances in the Pas de trois were showing her as an unnuanced classical dancer. Pagliero at least turned in highly mature, remarkably nuanced performances, in the field of her competitors she proved to be a class to herself. The ballet troupe of the Opéra is blessed with a lot of talent among the men. In contrast, there are few young danseuses of promise and real interest. It is a pity that the most interesting one is relegated by Dupont to dancing in the mass of corps de ballet while a pale colleague of hers is promoted to the status of étoile.

I am certainly unhappy. I would say this is a dancer lacking in distinction, her first serious part, Juliet in the Spring, was singularly lacking in nuance, depth or understanding of the choreographic text she was dancing. I saw Baulac many times, this is not a superficial view based on one-two performances.

My worst, by far, in 2016 is making Léonore Baulac étoile by Aurélie Dupont. If Dupont wanted to make an emphatic statement re. how is she going to rule Opéra national de Paris, she certainly did.

@ FLOSS Your information about Giselle and Coppélia is surprisingly misleading in several ways, I am afraid. Adam's score was certainly not the first one that was composed specifically for the ballet it was used in, Burgmuller should be mentioned as well, as the composer of Pas-de-deux des paysans, and Coralli is responsible for much of Giselle's choreography. Coppélia's original choreography for the first two acts survived almost intact and can be marvelled at in the April 2001 performance by lovely Charline Giezendanner (available on DVD) while Petipa's choreography is quite uncertain (just compare Burlaka's reconstruction with the Danilova-Balanchine version); Delibes' score for Coppélia is certainly not the only great ballet score of the period -- what about Delibes' other balletic scores? What about Adam's (earlier) and Saint-Saëns' (later) balletic scores ?

Prior to this bloc of "Swan Lakes" she danced it twice in December 2010 and twice in March 2015.

Paquita would be "Classics" if it survived. Unfortunately, it didn't, only some dances survived saved by Vaganova. Lacotte's Paquita is a pastiche, not even a "reconstruction".

A-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y ! Add La Sylphide, Raymonda and Les Sylphides.

Every single time I saw Baulac and O'Neill in the Pas de Trois, they were overshadowed by the male soloist. I expected much more from O'Neill. Her single appearance with Fabien Revillon was a disappointment too. The most interesting female soloist in Pas de Trois was predicatbly Héloïse Bourdon. Unfortunately, she was permanently relegated by Dupont to Big Swans with occasional appearances in the four couples in the Valse, characteristic dances of the Third Act, and on two occasions only, in Pas de Trois. The real star of this bloc of «Swan Lakes» has been fantastic corps de ballet in two white acts. Ganio and Heymann were remarkable each in his way as Siegfrieds, despite regularly occurring lapses and signs of weakness, but there is so much class in either of them... Ludmilla Pagliero in her first performance on Sunday produced the first Odette and Odile that was worthy of the Grand Opéra. In fact it was more than worthy, hers was artistically an outstanding performance, very rarely seen nowadays. She repeated it today with the debutante Germain Louvet, a dedicated partner, who was much cleaner than on Sunday; today he indeed looked like a future star of the company.

Atrocious camera image mixing ruining the whole experience. I am terribly disappointed. A candidate for the Most Inept Ballet Broadcast of the Year.

I don't agree with either proposition: Zakharova is a supreme classical dancer, and actually she doesn't seem well suited for Modern (I saw her many times in both).

I saw it. It's worth seeing once.

I feel that Shklyarov's appeal as an artist is rather overvalued compared to some who have been forcefully kept in his shadow by the Acting Director but are greater artists. I concur with your other sentiments. Novikova would come to London only if Mr Fateev is finally removed which is in fact a distinct possibility and would be an enormous relief for the majority of Mariinsky dancers.

My answer would be: none. I am sick an tired of what you call "re-interpretations of Classics". There have been all too many. Mark Morris at least I can understand: his Hard nut is a parody. Nearly every great ballet of the 19th century generated a parody in its time, except that the parodies were never considered to be "re-interpretations" and all have been quickly forgotten.

Seeing this old thread revived I can't help but say that (nearly) all my "favourite male dancers" are French: Ganio, Heymann, Bullion, Thibault, (the list can go on), the order depending on a particular day, mood, performance. In male dancers I value la finesse et l'élégance more than manhood.

Well, I 've been to Swan Lake performances where Rothbart outshone both Odette/Odile and the Prince. This does not make the point made by Alison any less valid, when deciding which Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake to see, the main factor in my decision is who the female principal is.

In many companies, including some of the best ones, this is a number one, and in some cases, the only criterion of whether somebody is deemed to be principal worthy or not.

To paraphrase your own quote from Balanchine: "all choreographers have their failures (whether competent or incompetent)."

I saw her first Swan Lake. Miscast as Odette or Odile and totally overshadowed by her partner. Giving Ould Braham 8 Swan Lakes, none to Bourdon and only a single one to O'Neill in Paris is already considered by people in the ballet circles to be a scandal. Even a bigger scandal is giving a Swan Lake to Baulac. Millepied at least knew who talented people in the company were even though he passed them over in promotions. Dupont seems to be totally ignoring such thing as talent, her casting decisions seem to reflect the hierarchy in the company. Odette/Odile selection for this bloc of Swan Lakes at the Opéra is the most disappointing since I can remember. Only O'Neill, unfortunately in a single appearance, seems to be well cast, Pagliero, while not a Swan, at least promises to be interesting.

I wouldn't call any of Wayne McGregor's offerings ballets. I refer to them as 'pieces'.

Those who made it yesterday to the St.Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music were treated to incredibly revealing thoughts by Sergei Vikharev about “reconstruction” - its past and present, about Ratmansky's approach, about the (lamentable) state of classical dance at the Paris Opéra after 20 years of Brigitte Lefèvre's rule, about his plan to commemorate the 200-th Anniversary of Marius Petipa by staging complete Paquita in Ekaterinburg, and a number of other equally interesting things.

You might regret later, he is a chain smoker.

A post scriptum worthy of FLOSS' long posting: I just returned from the French premiere of Jean-Guillaume Barts's staging of La belle au bois dormant at Opéra Massy and I am thrilled. I would sign under every word of Bart's credo that I am copying from the printed program: Le risque aujourd’hui (et je le constate de plus en plus régulièrement), c’est de se tourner vers une danse purement virtuose, athlétique, spectaculaire qui flirte avec l’acrobatie. Et je refuse catégoriquement de suivre cette mode, qui fait de l’art du Ballet une discipline hybride. Ce phénomène actuel est pourtant aux antipodes des doctrines instaurées par le roi Soleil et par Jean-Georges Noverre, grand réformateur du 18 e siècle et père du « ballet d’action ». Car pour moi, un ballet est avant tout une histoire dansée, et non un prétexte à danser et/ou à faire briller les danseurs. Le geste classique, tels des vers ou des notes de musique, possède sa propre dynamique, sa propre expressivité et a vocation à véhiculer un message. I hope I don't need to translate it. It speaks for itself. This production I liked more than any attempt at reconstructing "authentic" Petipa. More than Noureev's stilted Le lac des cygnes at Opéra Bastille that I saw on two previous nights. Bart attempted instead to recreate the essence of what ballet once was, and the spectacle was worthy of being shown in front of Louis XVI at one of his chateaux. This is what I call a "relevant" work. This is not the place to report on actual performances so I stop here, but I wish we can see Yakobson Ballet of St.-Petersburg in London with this new, so fresh, so charmante, rendering of the old classic.

You make a number of really important points. Allow me to comment on just one. I still believe that it matters "whether the work in question is a narrative or an abstract ballet", it matters certainly to the audience, it matters also to the artists. I find your comparison between Morris and, say, Ratmansky, very well chosen, the strength of the former is musicality of his choreography and respect for his musical sources whereas Ratmansky, who does not seem to possess similar degree of understanding of musical sources, does not seem interested in getting with his choreography into the fibre of music either. In your long thoughtful exposé you do not mention one thing I would mention as the root cause of weakness of much of modern choreography: inability of acclaimed modern choreographers to compose choreographic text. Majority of works I see today, many receiving far more acclaim than they deserve, seems to be based on very few, sometimes just one or two, choreographic ideas, the rest is just what I would term desperate attempts to fill void. Imagine a serious composer who is supposed to produce an evening of music, while everything he is capable of is a few tunes, a few interesting chords, with no idea how to compose a long work out of them that would sustain interest for more than a few moments, that would possess structure and clarity. So, he is either resorting to near mechanical repetitiveness or long periods where various choreographic elements, clichés of modern vocabulary, seem to be almost randomly piled up to fill time and space. Haven't you noticed that one of the key differences between the balletic works of the past and present, is that the modern pieces one can begin and stop watching at any time with little or no detriment? I certainly attended a number of such works staged by major companies that, it was clear to me, they grew up from one or two ideas and the rest was just attempts to fill void.

Jonathan Gray in the December issue of Dancing Times: She [i.e., Osipova] should have been ideal, and yet I was disappointed by her, and also the overall lacklustre quality of the first cast. To me, Osipova did not make enough of her character in the first two acts, underplaying the wilful, tomboyish aspects of Anastasia's personality and lacking the supple, melting, rounded qualities of movement associated with Seymour and imprinted into the choreography. She seemed prim, stiff and anonymous. As if to make up for this, in the third act Osipova danced full out, all guns blazing, her performance physically punishing, like a long shriek of pain. It was, however, danced all on one level so that you didn't sense Anna Andersons's vulnerability, or the growing anger in her attempts to prove her own identity. Gray considers Lauren Cuthberson's performance much more satisfying and has some kind words for Laura Morera.