Grand Pas/ L’Oiseau de Feu, Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse

[Duck]

As an extension to seeing Giselle at POB last week, I travelled to Toulouse for a performance of Maurice Béjart’s Firebird the following day. Run by Kader Belarbi, this is a company of 35 dancers and with a repertoire that ranges from the classical to Forsythe and Marin, and with both story ballets and abstract pieces.

The first part of the evening was the Grand Pas by Marius Petipa in the version by Oleg Vinogradov, a ballet that the company had danced previously. I was wowed by the two male dancers, Davit Galstyan as Lucien and Ramiro Samón in the pas de trois.

L’Oiseau de feu is the first ballet by Béjart that enters the company’s repertoire. Takafumi Watanabe was an exquisite firebird with effortless and clean jumps and enormous energy, intensity and stamina. The fluidity of movement in his upper body and in particular his arms clearly evoked the movements of a bird, and the exhaustion and death of the bird was danced very convincingly. With good reason, Takafumi Watanabe received the loudest applause of the evening. I would be happy to see the company in that ballet and with Takafumi Watanabe in the lead role again just about any time, and not only as I am longing for more of Béjart’s ballets being performed in the UK. In the interim … there is a video of a POB performance of the Firebird with Benjamin Pech as lead on the web.

 

[aileen]

Ooh, that sounds lovely, Duck. Did you see ENB perform Bejart's Songs of a Wayfarer at the Coliseum a couple of years ago. It was mesmerising. I'm planning to see Royal Ballet of Flanders in Ghent next week and Bejart's Bolero is one of the pieces being performed.

[Duck]

Ooh, that sounds lovely, Duck. Did you see ENB perform Bejart's Songs of a Wayfarer at the Coliseum a couple of years ago. It was mesmerising. I'm planning to see Royal Ballet of Flanders in Ghent next week and Bejart's Bolero is one of the pieces being performed.

 

Thank you Aileen, I was able to it, enjoyed it immensely & and am hoping to see it soon again. Thank you so for much the information about Bolero in Ghent! I am reading the programme information as I am typing this, and the programme reads fascinating! I am checking my diary now  

 

Edited following ticket checks as the programme is sold out.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Duck

[aileen]

I was quite surprised at how well this programme had sold even several months ago when I booked our tickets. Last year we saw a different mixed programme, this time in Antwerp, and it was far from sold out. The tickets are amazingly cheap compared with the ROH. I don't know whether the theatres operate a system of returns. In my experience, in the UK theatres don't with the exception of the ROH and the Wells.

[LinMM]

I do wish we could see more of Bejart in the UK too Duck