Duck

She is guesting http://www.ballet.org.uk/the-company/dancers/elisa-badenes/

Simon Hewett also conducts for POB from time to time e.g., Romeo & Juliet earlier this year, Balanchine's A Midsummer Night’s Dream next spring.

Many thanks, Janet and aileen, for your comments. Much appreciated.

Maybe some consolation ... the weather here is rather dreadful today

Just when I wasn’t going to post about all the performances I am seeing abroad … the list of dance links on Friday included a review of the mixed programme in Nice that finished yesterday (thank you, Ian Macmillan). The review on DanceTabs is very detailed, and I am thus keeping it to some comments about the performance that I saw last night. Le grand pas classique from Raymonda. Compared to the version in the ROH repertoire, Vu-An’s version is a little shorter, adjusted in the number of variations to the much smaller company, and equally adapted to the smaller stage in Nice. This is a wedding of pride, prestige and honour - love didn’t seem to feature, not for the bride and groom (Gaëla Pujol and Théodore Nelson, as on the opening night) nor for any of the wedding guests. Dance wise not really my style as too classical and inviting applause after every solo. I preferred most a male quartet with double tours en l’air followed by entrechats followed by double tours en l’air and entrechats and … Gnawa. This was hypnotising in music and movement. Two group sections with a long sensual PDD in between. The music included drums and the sounds of birds, and invited moving to the rhythm of the music in one’s seat. Veronica Colombo and Mikhail Soloviev in the lead roles were superb. The review on DanceTabs mentions that Mikhail Soloviev is new to the company in Nice. This may be relatively new as he was already there when I first saw the company in April, and a search for his name on the web also shows him with the company in 2013. L’Arlésienne. This is new to the company in Nice. Wow. Fabulous. Magnificient. Splendid. I was watching in utter disbelief at how marvellous the performance by the lead couple - Zaloa Fabbrini and Alessio Passaquindici - was; both in acting and dancing. They made the story to truly believable. I sat there open mouthed and with baited breath, and I felt so incredibly sorry for the two of them. Eric Vu-An has published extracts from a general rehearsal on his public facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Eric-Vu-An-383731904998106/?fref=nf Last night confirmed that this is one of my favourite companies in France. I really like how Vu-An expands the repertoire and develops dancers from within the company, and how much he is able to achieve with a company of just 26 dancers. The new soloists were all promoted from within the company at the end of last season, and the new dancers all joined at corps de ballet level. I do hope that the success that he is able to generate will allow him to grow the company in size at some stage in the future and in doing so, add a few more performances across the year. I can’t wait to be back in April for the next mixed programme, which will include Jiri Kylian’s Sinfonietta and Liam Scarlett’s Vespertine.

From the various options that I've tried, the version that worked best for me is to enter, using the advanced search functionality, one term in "find words" and the other one in "find tags". This obviously changes the details of the search. In all likelihood, however, a tag will also appear in either the title or the content of a post as a word. It did seem to work for some tags that I used recently myself (which is how I was able to check the test results more easily) – however no 100% guarantee as the search for "word and tag" is different than for "tag and tag". Any entries that I made with two tags seemed to create a search in terms of “find items with tag A or tag B” rather than “tag A and tab B”.

Me too & would be happy to say hello

I am very happy with the 2016/17 ballet season in Stuttgart & I look forward to being back in London for Les Enfants Terribles

Some short extracts from The Seasons' Canon from the POB instagram account https://www.instagram.com/balletoperadeparis/ Teaser for Blake Works I https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-16-17/ballet/seghal-peck-pite-forsythe/gallery#head Strangely, it seems easier for me going forward to head to Paris on a day trip than flying to London and back the same day. I will certainly miss the Royal Ballet!

Tino Sehgal has created performances in museums in the past (Tate, etc.), and I understand he will be at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris later this year. Art has the wonderful ability to create a wide range of audience reactions.

“This is so contemporary”, shouted four performers who were approaching and surrounding me with their dancing when I walked into Palais Garnier yesterday afternoon. A fitting description for the mixed programme which had its final performance yesterday, and which started with performances in various public places of the Opera House, choreographed by Tino Sehgal. One of these was a couple enlacing each other in various kissing poses, taken from art works e.g., Rodin and Brancusi, and moving from one art work to the next in slow motion. A fascinating concept. Undoubtedly, however, there will have been art works that I didn’t recognise, and I wish there would have been a list of those depicted. Justin Peck’s In Creases, taken into the POB repertoire in March 2016, was shown again, and both Vincent Chaillet and Marc Moreau shone in it. William Forsythe’s Blake Works I was premiered in July 2016 as part of an all-Forsythe programme and also performed again. Danced to songs by James Blake that showed different aspects of love in relationships, I preferred the choreography to the tracks that were more melodious. A clear favourite was “I hope my life” (see the POB teaser on its web site), led by Ludmila Pagliero, Leonore Baulac, Hugo Marchand (splendid!) and Germain Louvet. I also enjoyed particularly “Two Men Down” (imagine a group of friends dancing in a club, a male member of the group goes into the centre to perform a virtuoso solo, then another male member follows suit … two men down!) and a closing PDD “Forever”, possibly the most academic choreography of the whole piece, danced beautifully by Ludmila Pagliero and Germain Louvet. Crystal Pite’s The Seasons’ Canon to Max Richter’s version of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Season followed after the interval. To answer the question that was raised in another thread – this is very different to Akram Khan’s choreography for Giselle. Pite uses the music to show natural phenomena through dance and thereby creates visually stunning and stunningly visual scenes. The solo violin plays at the start of the Spring section, and single heads rise above the tight mass of bodies (think plants emerging from the soil in spring --- this and the following my own interpretation of what I saw) before the dancers move in rippling waves. This was so incredibly poetic that tears were rolling down my face, something I hadn’t experienced previously right at the start of a ballet. Summer sees dancers carried aloft (maybe birds flying high up in the air). Autumn again stunning. The dancers stand behind each other and move their arms to the music – arms in 5th position, then individuals move their arms sideways, down, etc., some dancers step to the side and back in line again. The dancers open their arms from 5th to 1st in a wave from front to back (think grains ripening and opening, or trees losing their leaves). Winter with rolling waves of dancers, resembling snowdrifts across the landscape. I haven’t seen any other of her choreographies, however based on The Seasons’ Canon, Pite’s piece for the Royal Ballet in 2017 will be a treat. The programme closed off with a new piece “Untitled” by Tino Sehgal. Reviews of this piece on social media were rather mixed, and someone even suggested leaving the auditorium in the short pause following The Seasons’ Canon. I am very glad I stayed. It was funny, intriguing, and it turned sideways and upside down the concept of the audience watching dancers perform on stage. The music starts to play (think pop music), and the lights go on and off in tune with the music, followed by the curtain opening and the black panels and side panels moving down and up in various rhythmic combinations – the scenery indeed was dancing. A large group of dancers bourree across the stage on demi-pointe. Three of them climb down to the orchestra pit, and one of them climbs up to stand at the front of the orchestra stalls – and starts to dance. And she is not alone - other dancers appear in all parts of the auditorium and dance along to the music. The fun then really started when some audience members joined in, predominantly in the amphitheatre, but also in the centre of the balcony and in some of the boxes. By the time I had mustered the courage to also stand up and dance (with everyone wide around me still sitting and watching those who did), the performance was unfortunately already nearing its end. The dancers exited the auditorium together with the spectators and gave some final performances on the main staircases, both inside and outside the building. I left the building with a huge smile on my face. edited to increase font size

I saw the matinee yesterday. It was good to meet Living the Dream during the interval J Akram Khan and his team have created very powerful images of a menacing atmosphere in a desolate environment – the grey wall and the dark lighting, the simple shirts and dresses for the workers which are in extreme contrast to the stupendous costumes for the landlords, the cold stares and restricted movements by the landlords counter to the much freer movements by the workers, Bathilde taking off her glove and, rather than giving it to Giselle, dropping it on the floor, the group dances with the canes, the scene in act 2 that shows how Giselle dies in act 1, Myrtha towering over everyone else. Set against this, the emotional PDD in act 2 with its reunion and final goodbye, leaving Albrecht in utter isolation. A matching dark score that, for the PDD, includes elements of the original score so beautifully. Among the massive commitment of all dancers on stage, Oscar Chacon stood out for me in his depiction of Hilarion and through his movements that reminded me of an elastic spring. Ruth Little’s description in the programme book of the global shifts of the textile industry over the centuries and their impact on those involved extended the timelessness of the topics of love and forgiveness into other areas and made a performance in Manchester ever more poignant. Standing ovation in most of the stalls. A few more curtain calls – including, specifically for the corps - would have allowed the audience to show their appreciation even more.

Their web site http://ballet-de-lorraine.eu/en/ gives an insight into their repertoire (Forsythe, Tharp, Cunningham, others) and the current season. http://ballet-de-lorraine.eu/en/saison provides more information about the piece at SW. A new production. 5 different choreographers who remain anonymous, from different generations. It sounds very intriguing. The company performed at the Linbury last March. http://www.roh.org.uk/news/kevin-ohare-welcomes-ballet-de-lorraine-to-the-linbury-studio-theatre edited one of the links to point to the English version of the company's web site

I've sent you a PM regarding the matinee tomorrow

Well, I'll be seeing Khan's Giselle this Saturday and the new piece by Crystal Pite on 9 Oct, so I'll be able to comment after that. I like those rippling effects/ waves that are shown in the teaser and in various videos on the web. Can't wait

POB has published a teaser of the new piece by Crystal Pite, The Seasons’ Canon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5WZo4YjbtY

Experience from wearing the badge in London is that I don't see anyone else with a badge, and I am not approached either, hence my earlier post.

The pictures in that article show ballets that were shown at the Gala of the John Cranko School in July

An interview with Tamara Rojo and Akram Khan about Khan's forthcoming Giselle on BBC4's Front Row tonight http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vjxdp. I'll be at the matinee on 1 Oct and would be happy to meet others.

Undeniably, the figures read extraordinary, and Millepied was the only director with a car/ chauffeur during his time in office. Having said that, the audit report on https://www.ccomptes.fr/ (search for Opera de Paris; the document was published in mid Sep) refers to 2005 - 2014 i.e., most of it relates to prior to Millepied's arrival, and it covers all of Paris Opera (not just POB) - so e.g,. the taxi bill/ the representation costs will have been incurred by a number of senior staff. If you've seen figures specific to starting in Sep 2014, I'll be happy to read these edited hyperlink as linking directly to the newspage or the pdf report didn't work for me

Would love to know what you think of it when you've seen it

After I copied/ pasted the text last night, one sentence was shown in a much larger font size than everything else so I adjusted it to the same font size ... of the smaller size though.

Thank you, capybara, I used Calibri 11 offline and then copied/ pasted the text; I'll try Arial next time

Just picked up the comment this morning, so after the 30 minutes for editing. I have copied the text here with a larger font size. This was going to be a few days’ hiking following the ballet performance that I watched in Biarritz on Sunday evening. I had also been hoping that I would be able to see the documentary Relève in or around Biarritz during this time as this would allow me to make up my own mind about it. I then realised that the nearest cinema to see the film would be in Bordeaux (it will be shown locally in October, when Millepied’s L.A. Dance Company will perform there), thus taking a full day off the outdoors, and I thus wondered which activity I would sacrifice. The weather forecast made that decision for me. The documentary traces the development of Millepied’s ballet “Clear, Loud, Bright, Forward” from receipt of the music in June 2015 to its premiere at the Gala in September 2015. This makes it an interesting insight into the creation of a ballet, from the conceptual development of some of the choreography on paper and early rehearsals with just a few dancers to increasingly larger groups of dancers rehearsing parts of the ballet, the fitting of costumes and their alteration late on, the orchestra playing the music with the composer and Millepied present, a rehearsal with the lighting designer, through to backstage just minutes before the premiere, and finally extracts of the premiere and the reaction backstage afterwards. Shown in beautiful pictures, dancers seen close up, the performance intertwined with rehearsal footage. Paired with the hectic of “premiere minus x days” and getting everything finished in time for the opening night. Léonore Baulac is shown in a PDD with Hugo Marchand, and even though this is an abstract ballet, the emotions that her face displays while she dances on stage do remind me of her marvellous performance of Juliet in April. So far so good. Maybe tellingly, however, the documentary is shown under the title “Benjamin Millepied Relève”, and this is where the problem starts for me. The documentary is a co-production with the Opéra de Paris; to what extent the OdP was involved in editing the film before it was shown on Canal+, or whether it was simply about giving access to the film crew, I am not clear. As the documentary stands, however, it is inevitable that it did cause so much controversy. The rehearsal footage is interspersed with aspects that have nothing to do with the creation of the new ballet and are instead a mix of “POB under Millepied” and “Millepied at POB”. One of these aspects relates to “before Millepied and now” e.g., some of the dancers involved in the creation of the new ballet talking about seeing more opportunities, an example of such showing footage of Letizia Galloni’s debut as Lise in Ashton’s La fille mal gardée; medical professionals talking to dancers about the importance of rehydration; Millepied asking questions about the dance floor on the main stage of Palais Garnier, etc. Plus a variety of footage and comments by Millepied outside rehearsals e.g., watching videos of rehearsals on his phone while his assistant talks to him (and he responds without looking at her), his preference of the creative process over administrative aspects, and the various comments that have been much discussed here and in the press such as his dislike of the annual concours/ of the hierarchy within the company and his questioning of the company’s excellence. Moreover, his remarks about the composition of the company being in contrast to that of the population was shown against footage of the Défilé, there is one comment in which he also criticises the POB School (something about phrasing that I didn’t quite catch, not knowing what this means when it comes to ballet), and there are a number of side glances by Millepied at the camera. I left the cinema wondering what the documentary was meant to show – the creation of a new ballet? Millepied at work? Paris Opera as organisational entity? It does show elements of all three, and in doing so illustrates that the latter two were not a good match, as much as a number of dancers did benefit from his time there. Finally - I had gone to the cinema with an open mind, open eyes and open ears. Having now seen the content of the documentary - how could the film not have triggered the debate that it did when it was shown on Canal+ initially?

This was going to be a few days’ hiking following the ballet performance that I watched in Biarritz on Sunday evening. I had also been hoping that I would be able to see the documentary Relève in or around Biarritz during this time as this would allow me to make up my own mind about it. I then realised that the nearest cinema to see the film would be in Bordeaux (it will be shown locally in October, when Millepied’s L.A. Dance Company will perform there), thus taking a full day off the outdoors, and I thus wondered which activity I would sacrifice. The weather forecast made that decision for me. The documentary traces the development of Millepied’s ballet “Clear, Loud, Bright, Forward” from receipt of the music in June 2015 to its premiere at the Gala in September 2015. This makes it an interesting insight into the creation of a ballet, from the conceptual development of some of the choreography on paper and early rehearsals with just a few dancers to increasingly larger groups of dancers rehearsing parts of the ballet, the fitting of costumes and their alteration late on, the orchestra playing the music with the composer and Millepied present, a rehearsal with the lighting designer, through to backstage just minutes before the premiere, and finally extracts of the premiere and the reaction backstage afterwards. Shown in beautiful pictures, dancers seen close up, the performance intertwined with rehearsal footage. Paired with the hectic of “premiere minus x days” and getting everything finished in time for the opening night. Léonore Baulac is shown in a PDD with Hugo Marchand, and even though this is an abstract ballet, the emotions that her face displays while she dances on stage do remind me of her marvellous performance of Juliet in April. So far so good. Maybe tellingly, however, the documentary is shown under the title “Benjamin Millepied Relève”, and this is where the problem starts for me. The documentary is a co-production with the Opéra de Paris; to what extent the OdP was involved in editing the film before it was shown on Canal+, or whether it was simply about giving access to the film crew, I am not clear. As the documentary stands, however, it is inevitable that it did cause so much controversy. The rehearsal footage is interspersed with aspects that have nothing to do with the creation of the new ballet and are instead a mix of “POB under Millepied” and “Millepied at POB”. One of these aspects relates to “before Millepied and now” e.g., some of the dancers involved in the creation of the new ballet talking about seeing more opportunities, an example of such showing footage of Letizia Galloni’s debut as Lise in Ashton’s La fille mal gardée; medical professionals talking to dancers about the importance of rehydration; Millepied asking questions about the dance floor on the main stage of Palais Garnier, etc. Plus a variety of footage and comments by Millepied outside rehearsals e.g., watching videos of rehearsals on his phone while his assistant talks to him (and he responds without looking at her), his preference of the creative process over administrative aspects, and the various comments that have been much discussed here and in the press such as his dislike of the annual concours/ of the hierarchy within the company and his questioning of the company’s excellence. Moreover, his remarks about the composition of the company being in contrast to that of the population was shown against footage of the Défilé, there is one comment in which he also criticises the POB School (something about phrasing that I didn’t quite catch, not knowing what this means when it comes to ballet), and there are a number of side glances by Millepied at the camera. I left the cinema wondering what the documentary was meant to show – the creation of a new ballet? Millepied at work? Paris Opera as organisational entity? It does show elements of all three, and in doing so illustrates that the latter two were not a good match, as much as a number of dancers did benefit from his time there. Finally - I had gone to the cinema with an open mind, open eyes and open ears. Having now seen the content of the documentary - how could the film not have triggered the debate that it did when it was shown on Canal+ initially?