The Dance School has remained one of the best schools in the world – if not the best. And the very fine artistic direction of Élisabeth Platel, which has nothing to do with the abrupt methods of the former director Claude Bessy, has something to do with it. So you don't need to be a bully to pull students to the top. This very varied program gives a good overview of the level of this promotion.
We will applaud the ballet
Suite en blanc
by Serge Lifar, created in 1943, which remains technically one of the most difficult there is, especially for girls. Laymen cannot imagine the extreme difficulty of the exercises, nor the degree of balance and precision they require. Serge Lifar, a great lover of women, leaves them the beautiful part of this creation where the boys are relegated to the roles of simple partners, who are nevertheless responsible for demonstrating all their technique in double turns in the air, with their lifts of arms so characteristic. The dance school, despite all the difficulty, is doing wonderfully.
The evening opens with
Les Forains,
a choreography by Roland Petit to music by Henri Sauguet. Created in 1945 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, it is a model of post-war dance, both narrative, innovative for the time and very pleasant to watch. It's impossible to name all the artists who come on stage, as they excel both technically and in their roles. However, let us mention Lalle Joseph-Singamalum, extraordinary in that of the little girl, and Marcos Silva Sousa, incredibly energetic in that of the acrobat.
As an intermission of these two great works of the repertoire, Élisabeth Platel has programmed a small contemporary piece of twelve minutes, signed Jiří Kylián, and which accompanies the unforgettable
Pavane pour une infante deceased
by Ravel, which the Orchestra of the Opera. Created in 91, this ballet is a series of very beautiful pas de deux, concluded by an ensemble of exemplary aesthetics. A sumptuous evening.
Until April 16. Then on the 17th, a dance school gala also featuring students from Canada's National Ballet School (Toronto), the Dutch National Ballet Academy (Amsterdam), the Fondazione Accademia Teatro alla Scala (Milan), and the School of the Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier, of the San Francisco Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School.