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The Paris Opera Ballet Tours the United States
| Article
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10140 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1986 |
788 Words |
| Author
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Serge Tribhout
Serge Tribhout is a free-lance journalist who frequently
comments on the arts. He is based in Paris. |
Paris - What a superb billing! Sylvie Guillem, Patrick Dupont, Francine Lancelot, Maurice Bejart, Lifar, Balanchine, Baryshnikov, Nureyev. For the centennial celebration of the Statue of Liberty, the Paris Opera Ballet has outdone itself. From July 8 to July 19 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and then at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., from July 22 to July 29, the American ballet-going public will be able to enjoy itself, all the more so because the Paris Opera Ballet hasn't made a U.S. tour in nearly forty years. It's quite an artistic and amiable gesture.
Direct heir of the Royal Academy of Dance, created during the reign of Louis XIV in 1661, the Paris Opera Ballet is an institution on a par with the Bolshoi or the Royal Ballet. In numbers, it is the largest company in France and the second-largest in the world. This is a rank and reputation which is always difficult to maintain, especially in a discipline where personality looms large. Perhaps more so than in other arts, sentiments can vacillate radically from season to season, posing serious problems at times.
With its 160 members, the company has had its share of controversies since Rudolf Nureyev was appointed director in 1983. What hopes had been raised by the arrival of this celebrity dancer, but then what criticisms had followed about his difficult character, about his lack of experience as a director, about the total ineffectiveness, in brief, of this "czarevitch" in ballet slippers! All kinds of remarks were made: that he was a miserable choreographer, that he persisted in giving himself top billing when he was already beyond his prime, that he was at loggerheads with everyone, from Robbins to Neumeier to Petit, and even
... (1964 of 4719 Characters)
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