More from the Cannes Dance Festival and director Brigitte Lefèvre definitely kept the best for the last night with Johan Inger’s full-length production of Carmen performed by the National Ballet of Spain...
Tag - Brigitte Lefevre
For the festival Brigitte Lefèvre chose an eclectic mixture of popular and audacious programmes from twelve different companies – mainly regional French companies... some smaller independent groups and international companies from Korea, Argentina and Spain.
Only the official retirement age of 42 requires him to leave the company, alas, though he may be invited back as a guest.
...an unusual choice of bill. Unusual firstly as the work of two women choreographers, and secondly in that it gives audiences a rare chance to see ballets from the extremely interesting and creative period of the 1940’s and 1950’s, now sadly neglected.
Les Nuits is inspired by the Thousand and One Nights, stories which have come together from Indian, Persian, Arabian and North African sources. Preljocaj is quoted as being influenced by the erotic content of the stories...
During the season, and over five nights, I saw each of the five Giselles – Dorothee Gilbert, Myriam Ould-Braham, Ludmila Pagliero, Isabelle Ciaravola and Melanie Hurel, and four Albrechts...
The middle piece, O Zlozony/O Compsite, is a beautiful work by Trisha Brown, made for the company in 2004. Bizarely it always reminds me of Ashton's Monotones...
The company danced Serenade well but the very simplicity in its choreography, created as it was initially for students, ironically makes it hard to produce a perfect performance...
Bausch is a mystery. To some, she represents the summit of poetry and expression, worthy of a cult-like following. Clearly, these dancers derive great emotional sustenance from performing her work. And it suits them. But, with the exception of Gillot’s solo and a few moments here and there, it left me cold.
At the end the curtain came up once again, and Brigitte Lefèvre (artistic director of the ballet) and Nicolas Joel (director of the opera as a whole) emerged to announce the promotion of the evening’s Solor, Josua Hoffalt, to the ultimate rank: étoile. There were buckets of tears, from Hoffalt, Gilbert, and Dupont. In fact, it was the high point of the evening. An uncontrolled release of emotion...