In “La Danse” you watch closely as dancers and choreographers break complex movements down into their constituent gestures, a process that is at once tedious and entirely engrossing. Though all the rehearsing culminates in full-dress performance, “La Danse” really has no beginning, middle or end. It is, rather, about two kinds of time that exist outside traditional narrative frameworks: the long, slow, repetitive cycle in which institutions exist, and the fleeting moments of bodily motion and musical expression that make ballet such a singular and elusive art form.

The performance by the Russian State Ballet will feature star soloists from the Bolshoi Ballet and will be staged on March 18th, 2010.

The show is the first of over 30 productions already booked for the new venue, which was designed by Daniel Libeskind. Owned by Harry Crosbie and operated on his behalf by Live Nation, the theatre will be Ireland’s first full-scale receiving house. It can accommodate full West End and Broadway productions and will employ about 100 people.

What made you choose the Paris Opera Ballet as a subject?

I’ve always liked ballet, and I spend at least half of the year living in Paris. So I approached [artistic director] Brigitte Lefevre. Not only did she say okay, she essentially said that I could do whatever I want—shoot rehearsals, go to business meetings, have the run of the place—so long as none of the dancers objected. I spent 12 weeks wandering around. It’s a beautiful building, with all those old corridors and stairways.

Given that you’ve made films about the American Ballet Theatre (1995’s Ballet) and another French arts troupe (1996’s La Comédie-Française ou L’amour joué), I’m assuming there was a leap of faith that you’d find something new here?

You mean, was I worried that I’d be repeating myself? [Laughs] No, there are indeed differences between the ABT and the Paris Opera Ballet: The repertoire is different, the way the dancers train is different. You could say that La Comédie is similar in that what’s going on reflects a bigger social picture…though hopefully that’s true of most of my work.

In an era of high-definition television and Blu-ray DVDs, has it become more difficult to explain to audiences why they should care about film restoration?

Well, the technology – if you don’t have anything to show, what do you have the technology for? Films that are made today? Films that are made only for today that are – I guess, the word is, consumed? That don’t seem to hold up for a second or third viewing? But also, it’s about history. Whether it reflects the state of mind, or reflects the nature of the culture that created the films, good, bad or indifferent. What may be termed good now, who knows in the future? But no, it’s about history – and yes, the Blu-ray is amazing. But you need the elements. You need the film. Particularly classic films. And by the way, these classic films – young people don’t know they’re classic films. It’s a film. There’s a black-and-white element, but that you can get past in the first few minutes, if you work it right.

Christina Michanek's debut as Giselle gives an opportunity to revisit the one-year-old production. But for save the stunning debut of Michanek in yet another romantic lead, not all is well in this "Giselle." Some of this may have to do with the artistic choices. Other issues indicate that the art of casting is not top priority at RDB.

With some musical cuts and clever dramaturgical operations, the rather uninspired libretto by Lydia Paskova has been injected with a strong dose of dramatic thrust, shortening its original three acts into two, with just one intermission and a performing length of 140 minutes. Alas, it resulted not in a masterwork, lifting the 1898 St. Petersburg classic on the same exalted level as the three Tchaikovsky classics - for this the story of the coy Provencal Lady and her Crusader Knight, whose idyllic amour is threatened by the advent of a fierce and sensual Saracen warrior, is just too insipid.

Memorials are performances too. Although the style of these two differed, both celebrated the life force of the man being remembered. Mason and Barnes were important dance writers, yet neither made that calling his sole pursuit. Mason's memorial included dance and music (even premieres) and 5 talks. Barnes's was all talk - 13 speakers plus a recent PBS video interview of him. Just before these occasions, the memorial for dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham was, reportedly, even more like a performance. Apparently it resembled one of Cunningham's "Events". What is spoken, danced and sounded at a memorial can have more significance than a regular performance even when the latter has a "post-performance discussion".

In addition to filming rehearsals and performances, Wiseman visits the costume department, makeup room and even in one scene of the subterranean sewers, seems to offer an homage to one of the famous denizens of the Paris Opera House, the Phantom of the Opera.

Wiseman acknowledges the financial imperatives that underlie every artistic institution. In one meeting, Lefevre and her staff negotiate over just how much access to the company some rich donors will be offered. In another scene, an administrator explains to the dancers the demands of their retirement plan.

Tuesday's opening-night cast was a showcase for veteran ABT talent. Julie Kent starred as Giselle, an innocent village girl. Jose Manuel Carreño played her less-than-worthy lover, Count Albrecht, a prince whose decision to sow a few wild pre-nuptial oats disguised as a country boy proves fatal for poor Giselle.

I peeked (sorry, that's my job), and both these dancers are around 40. Dancing young roles at that age isn't unprecedented – Margot Fonteyn performed Giselle well into her 40s, and Nureyev refused to acknowledge Father Time in his portrayals. The only reason it's worth mentioning is that both dancers' interpretations were remarkably youthful at Tuesday's performance.

Monday's event at New York's City Center featured a huge variety of dancers of all types: ballet, modern, tap, jazz, salsa. Among the highlights: the "Stars and Stripes" pas de deux by Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette of New York City Ballet; the synchronized tap-dancing of the Lombard Twins; excerpts from Bob Fosse's "Dancin'"; and a salsa performance by unheralded youngsters Alexandra Gutkovitch, 10, and John Gaylan, 14, that brought down the house.

Wiseman, at least to my eyes, doesn’t seem very interested in ballet itself. He’s interested in showing how an artistic institution functions. He’s also interested in beautiful but distracting arty photography. For instance, half a dozen panoramic shots of Paris taken at different time of the day and night and taken from the top of the Garnier opera house don’t add to our understanding of dance and dancers; they just get in the way. Wiseman in his travelogue mode—we got even more of it fifteen years ago in his very similar film Ballet, about A.B.T (the moon over the Acropolis, roller-coasters in Copenhagen’s Tivoli gardens, the New York skyline)—is a direct throwback to the travelogue shorts that turned up on double-bills together with the newsreel and the cartoon back in the 30s and 40s. (Those were boring too.) And wasn’t there anyone to tell him that material like this can’t maintain our interest for more than two and a half hours? Has he forgotten that his first and, arguably, most famous film—Titicut Follies (1967)—lasted less than ninety minutes?

Nor can I see what people eager to learn about a dance company are going to get from countless walks down corridors or workmen freshening up the paint or the old bee-keeper on the roof working his apiary. (It’s in Ballet that we get to see a young dancer drinking from a water fountain.)

It's a pretty serious sex scene, and a lesbian one at that. Portman, however, insists “it’s not raunchy—it’s extreme.”

I met with three of PNB's four Mopeys to take a look at some video clips of this Marco Goecke work that caused such excitement when PNB did it in 2005. I wish we'd had access to the whole "Mopey" ballet, but even the minute-long clip we had for each dancer generated 20 minutes worth of commentary that I hope you'll enjoy.