Aubri posted this in the Special Groups forums, but I thought it might interest some dancegoers as well as teachers and students, so I'm posting it here and giving you a link to the thread.

The Paris Opera Ballet School will dance in New York in May. Read More

I read the original thread, but still don't know where this will be. Does anybody know?

For those of you in NY, this is a MUST see. The level of the POB students are amazing, Mme Bessy has been a super director. There is a REAL future etoile potential in the 6th division (class) this year, although I won't give her name as I know that that is not allowed here. [img]smile.gif[/img] I will also post my comments about the school's performance in April!!

For Jeannie:You once posted on ballet.co about your impressions about the POB school "demonstrations" and you especially liked a girl with black hair who reminded you Margot Fonteyn.Well she has the same initials as her and her name is Mathilde Froustey.She will dance principal roles in New York , in Péchés de jeunesse and Dessins pour six.

i seem to have heard that the POB-group perfs. mentioned here will take place in may and will be held in the auditorium of John Jay College (for Criminal Justice) on 10th avenue between 58th & 59th streets.

Here's the theater website; nothing there yet, though, for the POB school:

http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/theater/

Now I remember- what I had read (I can't remember where, unfortunately) was about it performing at the John Jay College, too.

Here's the info from a recent press release (thank you, Source)

'Paris Opera Ballet School'
Special New York Appearance
Wed. May 22 lecture, film & demonstration by Claude bessy with her students: FRENCH INSTITUTE ALLIANCE FRANCAISE, 55 East 59th Street; for
tickets call 212 355 6160 $15 adults; $10 students/members Thur. May 23 & Fri. May 24 performances, John Jay College Theater, 899
Tenth Avenue 212 556 6770 $25 adults; $15 students. program features more than 25 of the school's best performers in 'DESSIN POUR 6' (John Taras); excerpt from M POUR B (Maurice Bejart); excerpt from SEPT DANXES GRECQUES (Maurice Bejart); COPPELIA Act II (Arthur Saint-Leon) and PECHES DE JEUNESSE (Jean Guillaume Bart).

Thank you, Gallica, for the info on that particular dancer.

- Jeannie
St. Petersburg, Russia

I hope that some members of this board will attend it and post their comments...

I find the choices of repertory a bit odd. It's different from this year's annual program, which will take place in April (Balanchine's "Western Symphony" and a version of "La fille mal gardée") and from last year's program (Lacotte's "Coppélia"and Neumeier's "Yondering").
"Péchés de jeunesse" is a work created especially for the school two seasons ago by the principal dancer Jean-Guillaume Bart, "Sept danses grecques" is a Béjart work which was danced in the same program (the third work being Fokine's "Firebird"), and the other two works "M pour B" ("B" stands for the late king Baudoin of Belgium, that work was dedicated to him) and "Dessins pour six" haven't been danced by the school for quite a while. It's a bit strange to choose two Béjart works, considering how unpopular Béjart is in the US...

[ March 06, 2002, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: Estelle ]

Alexandra, thank you so much for the info. you posted.

Estelle, I basically know "zip" about Bejart. Can you please tell me why he is so unpopular in the U.S.?

[ March 06, 2002, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: BW ]

Estelle - it sounds like repertory choices were made mostly to keep the number of students travelling to a manageable size. You wouldn't be able to comfortably fit Western Symphony in the John Jay Hall auditorium, I don't think.

BW - We had a discussion on Bejart's reputation in America towards the end of the World's Greatest Living Choreographer? thread. Short answer, in my opinion, was that critics by that point were more attuned to Balanchine's style, especially Arlene Croce.

Leigh, I hadn't thought about that- that sounds like a good reason. Perhaps also there is a question of sets: some of the works of their repertory have rather big sets, and it must be expensive to transport it (I wonder if they will take the sets of "Coppélia", by the way). Also "Péchés de jeunesse" was created especially for the school, and "M pour B" was a special version for the school, so perhaps Ms Bessy wants to show some works made especially for them.

I've checked my programs of the POB school recitals: "Dessins pour six" was danced in 1997, "M pour B" was danced in 1991 and 1994 (I haven't seen those two works).

BW, there's a page about Béjart on my own web site at:

http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~esouche/dance/Bejart.html

but it hasn't been updated for ages, and some links don't word (and it's just a short biography of him). Béjart's popularity or unpopularity in various countries is a complicated topic. As Leigh wrote, perhaps one of the reasons why Béjart isn't popular in the US is that the audience was mostly familiar with Balanchine, and Béjart's style is more based on theatrical effects and less musical (and some might find there's quite a lot of "bad taste" in some of his works). That would deserve a topic in itself, but it seems to me that, in France, Béjart was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, partly because it was a period when there were not many company besides the Paris Opera, which was quite rigid, and his company performed in more "accessible" places (big halls, outdoors festivals...), also he had a lot of bright dancers in his company, like Jorge Donn, Paolo Bortoluzzi,
Suzanne Farrell for a while... And he had a sort of "avant-garde" reputation. Now Béjart still is one of the better known choreographers in France (he's based in Switzerland), but most French critics were quite negative with all his recent works.

I've seen "Sept danses grecques" when the POB school danced it two seasons ago, and found it rather pleasant, it's mostly an opportunity to show some bravura male dancing, on a score by Mikis Theodorakis inspired by traditional Greek music.

There are some photos of "Péchés de Jeunesse" and "Sept danses grecques" (taken at the school recital two seasons ago) on the following page:

http://imagidanse.com/francais/presse/30-A...EcoleDanse.html

Thank you for all that information, Estelle.

BW, on Bejart, I think he's perhaps a bit overblown for Americans. I'm don't think that Croce was very influential, except among a small number of people, in Bejart's heyday. I also don't think the daily press reviewers particularly liked him. Too theatrical, too much funky makeup -- and, perhaps for those times, too overtly gay. The polarization was often set up, "For Balanchine, ballet is woman, for Bejart, it is man." And his men didn't match American concepts of masculinity, shall we say.

Also another aspect of Béjart's works is that he loves to mix a lot of elements from various arts (he made ballets about Pasolini, Malraux, Molière, Wagner, Chaplin...) and also from various cultural backgrounds (in the 1960s or 1970s he converted to islam- "Bhakti" is inspired by India, "Golestan" by Iranese traditions, "Dionysos" and "Seven Greek dances" by Greece...) and his last works have included more and more texts, biographical elements, etc. Personnally I find it a bit irritating (especially the pretentious program notes and the rather empty "philosophy") but some people seem to like it, also some works probably reflected the atmosphere of the period when they were created.