I've come across the following interview of Jean-Guillaume Bart (the page also includes a few nice photos)... unfortunately, it's in Italian:

http://www.balletto.net/giornale.php?articolo=1476

My level in Italian is very basic but basically here are the topics of the interview:
-his opinions about the responsibilities of a POB "étoile" (I guess he won't please much some people, as he criticizes "some of the recent promotions", saying that "one could say that the title of étoile is used somewhat improperly, as now one can obtain it without having the profile and the maturity which are necessary in my opinion", he insists that spending eight years in the corps de ballet was very useful for him, especially in terms of knowing many roles from the repertory)

-the very important influence his teacher Florence Clerc had on him (by the way, is there an Italian speaker here who could explain to me what a dancer "bravo allievo" means ?)

-his strong interest for dance teaching (he says that at the end of his dancing career, he would really be interested in being one of the teacher of the POB corps de ballet, especially as it could leave him some time to choreograph, while being a répétiteur would take more time) and his ideas ballet classes

-some thoughts about ballet technique: about pointe technique, hyperextension (he criticizes a lot the taste for excessive extensions), the Cecchetti technique, the importance of épaulement

-his work as a choreographer (the importance of music for him, his admiration for Balanchine, the fact that he'd like to stage some story ballets but so far hasn't had the opportunity to stage any)

-soon he will stage "Le corsaire" in Russia for the Ekaterinenburg ballet

-his worries about the future of ballet in France (present only at the POB and in Toulouse and Bordeaux, and for example he mentions the fact that he wonders about the future of the ballet school of the Ballet de Marseille, considering that it aims at training ballet dancers while now the company mostly is a modern dance company...) He mentions also how difficult it is to work as a ballet choreographer in France.*

That's an interesting interview (Bart also had given an interview to "Dance Now" some months ago, some of the topics were similar, and he also had expressed his sadness about the ballet situation in France, and also some criticisms about the POB's policy). What a pity that he doesn't get more support as a choreographer...

By the way, he isn't mentioned often on this board, so if some people would like to talk about him either as a dancer or as a choreographer, this topic is open !

Unfortunately I haven't had many opportunities to see him on stage in recent years (and he dances fewer long roles now) but a few months ago I had the luck to see him in the Mazurka of Lifar's "Mirages", and it was a wonderful lesson in style and class.

In fact I had been wondering why he doesn't seem to dance the major classical roles anymore. He's younger than Manuel Legris, and yet Legris is still doing full-length Giselles and Bart is not. Do you know why?

I think "bravo allievo" means "bright student" -- perhaps in the sense of "perpetual student." The passage is about how Florence Clerc helped him get past that stage to become a fully-formed artist.

(Reply to volcanohunter): Not really. Either he is less interested in such roles (but that doesn't seem likely to me), or perhaps it is a problem of injuries (actually Legris would perhaps be more the exception than the norm, being still very active in major classical roles at 42, more than most of his colleagues of the same generation...), but as the Paris Opera generally gives no official information about injuries, one can only make guesses.

Edited to add: Farrell Fan, thanks for your translation of "bravo allievo". I think that it French it'd have been something like "bon élève".

I guess it isn't because a lack of interest from him but rather because of some injuries.

He's still young as a choregrapher. I really like some of his works as Peches de Jeunesse or Quaternaire, but Bergamasque looks too much like Tchaikovsky's Pas de Deux. He has still to find his own style but I think he will be an excellent choregrapher in the next few years.

I've enjoyed the works of his that I've seen (IIRC: Tzigane, pas de deux; Péchés de jeunesse; Diable à quatre; Javotte; A la manière de, pas de deux) and I really wish he were given more opportunities to choreograph, especially as there are so few French choreographers really interested in the classical vocabulary... He's choreographed for the POB school and for some "Jeunes danseurs" program, but I wish he would be given an opportunity to create a real work for the company (after all, Nicolas Le Riche got to create "Caligula", and as far as I know he wasn't more experienced as a choreographer than Bart...) In his interviews, he mentions some plans about doing a new version "a 19th century ballet" for the company, but nothing seems to be concrete.

volcanohunter, when I interviewed Jean-Guillaume Bart for 'Dance Now' earlier this year he mentioned he was slowing down his career as a dancer because of health problems, hoping to focus more on teaching and choreographing - provided he is given the chance. Dancing these long runs of the Nureyev ballets proves extremely demanding, even when you are in good shape. At the same time he also didn't make a secret of it that he is quite fed up with some of the roles he has been dancing for years, especially the prince characters which were never his choice in the first place.

By the way, how old is he?
I love his elegant style, and I find him very handsome on stage.

Thanks for reminding us about your interview, Marc (lucky you to have interviewed him, by the way ! )

Grissi, Bart was born in 1972, so he must be 34 now.

I must admit I was taken aback by this sentence. Surely, dancing the princely roles is one of the most important responsibilities a male étoile has. I suppose it hadn't occurred to me that a dancer could love the classical vocabulary and care deeply about the style, but not be especially interested in dancing the big classics himself. It reminds me of a comment Allegra Kent made in the film "Dancing for Mr. B.," something along the lines of "I knew I loved ballet, but I wasn't sure I liked ballets." Perhaps Bart would have been happier at a different company.

It is a pity that his health is not as strong as it could be. Age 34 seems too young to begin winding down a dance career. Nicolas Le Riche is the same age and joined the Opéra in the same year and he certainly isn't showing signs of slowing down.

No need to. If there is a male dancer in the Paris Opera who genuinely loves the classics and classical dance then it must be Jean-Guillaume Bart. He made that clear enough in his interviews and in his choreographies. What he means here is that he grew tired of the roles in which he has been cast without exception. The princely characters are often shallow and moreover in Nureyev's versions terrifying academic exercises without much consequence. Like J.G. added he dreamed of dancing other, dramatically more rewarding roles, more demi-caractère like Rothbart, Frollo, Abderakhman etc., just as much as abstract neoclassical work. But they didn't let him. It's not a refusal of the classics, only of his natural emploi.

Nothing to do with Allegra Kent, I'm afraid.

As Marc explained, there is quite a difference between not being very interested any longer in some prince roles and not being interested in ballet... And from his comments, what he regrets about POB programming actually is the *lack* of classical works, not the opposite !



Well, health issues are not a choice... And if I remember correctly, Nicolas Le Riche had some injuries problems too at some periods- and unfortunately, injuries are quite common (for example Lionel Delanoë retired quite early for health reasons, he had a very severe back injury when he was in his early 30s which forced him to stop dancing for a whole season, he came back but never regained completely his previous shape and retired early to become a ballet master, also dancers like Hervé Moreau, Alessio Carbone, Benjamin Pech, Jérémie Bélingard got injured several times too, unfortunately).

Would it be fair to say that Bart isn't especially favoured by the POB's management? Has he been stereotyped as a dancer? Is it likely that he will be given an opportunity to choreograph for the company as Belarbi and Le Riche have? Please excuse me if I'm asking obtuse questions, but I'm interested in the observations of people who've had more opportunities to see him than I have.


Some injuries really are accidental, but many are a consequence of a structural flaw in a dancer's anatomy, a technical weakness or overexertion. I wonder what sort of injury prevention and treatment programs the theatre has.

Jean-Guillaume Bart is certainly not a man to despise the classics. I think it has much to do with health problems (see the interview in Italian - if I remember correctly, he explains how he would often get injured, and how it led him to think a great deal about technique and what should be done to prevent injuries). It probably has something to do also with training and then dancing all those extremely difficult Noureyev ballets. Beware : he's still one of the best classicists around. I've just seen him as Coppélius in Coppélia, and he was just terrific : soft landings, a beautiful line, the French school at his best - but I think he just can't deal anymore with long runs of demanding ballets with lots of partnering involved. See what Darcey Bussell stated recently - maybe he doesn't want to get surgery and go through huge pain as could be the case if he went on... We're still lucky to have him in everything he dances, and I can't wait to see his Apollo in February.

Hi, if you need help for the Italian text, here I am.
Bravo allievo in the interview means "clever student", in the sense of a student who execute everything his/her teacher tells him/her and it is something different from the complete artists a dancer must be.
Merry Christmas!
antoP

Many thanks, antoP, for the explanation.