Les saisons de la danse no.171:
"Paris, 29 décembre 1984, 17 heures. Promue première danseuse cinq jours plus tôt, Sylvie Guillem danse le Lac des cygnes. A l'issue du spectacle, devant un public électrisé, Massimo Bogianckino et Rudolf Noureev la nomment danseuse étoile. C'est la première fois qu'une nomination a lieu sur scène, devant les spectateurs."

December 18, 2000

Le Monde:
"Le 22 décembre 1960 l'Opéra de Paris affichait pour la première fois à son répertoire le Lac de cygnes dans la version réalisée par Bourmeister. Le 20 décembre 1984 Noureev propose sa propre version."
Entre deux représentations le 24 décembre 1984 a lieu le concours de l'Opéra et Sylvie Guillem est promue première danseuse.

December 11, 2000

On the 15th the POB should dance "Diamonds" for the first time with Letestu as the leading ballerina.
Farrell created this role and in her autobiography "Holding on to the air" she wrote:
The "Diamonds" pdd is one of the most beautiful Balanchine ever made, supremely classical in style, epic in scope, ritualized in manner, and yet in the midst of its unmistakable grandeur there lurks immense sweetness and vulnerability. (...) "Diamonds" is about the majesty of service and the glory of humility.

December 4, 2000

On the 9th the Stuttgart Ballet presents the world premiere of Don Quixote, marking the debut of 
Maximiliano Guerra as choreographer.

November 27, 2000

Hommage à Jorge Donn le soir du 29 novembre 1993 au Palais Garnier.
Maurice Béjart, Rosella Hightower, Patrick Dupond et Marcia Haydée évoquent le grand artiste décédé le 30 novembre 1992 et présentent le film Le danseur réalise en 1968.

November 20, 2000

This evening the Bolshoi Theater will celebrate the 75th birthday of the great Russian dancer,
prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi, Maya Plisetskaya with a grand gala-performance.
Roberto Bolle is dancing at this gala.

November 6, 2000

The Nutcracker season opens on the 10th of November in Paris with Nureyev's choreography.
The following highlights are on the 17th of December in Milan with Hynd's choreography, on the 22nd of December in London with Wright's one, on the 23rd of December in Berlin with Bart's one.
A late finish will be provided by Spoerli's choreography on the 10th of April in Modena.

October 30, 2000

39 years ago on the 2nd of November Rudolf Nureyev made his debut in London at a gala for the RAD.
He danced Poème tragique, a solo with music by Scriabin choreographed by Ashton.

October 16, 2000

Le 18 Octobre création mondiale à Marseille de "Sakountala" avec la chorégraphie et mise en scène
de Marie-Claude Pietragalla.
Le 14 Juillet 1858 à Paris Lucien Petipa donna un ballet, “Sacountala”, écrit par le romancier Théophile Gautier, inspirée par ce drame mystique du poète sanskrit Kâlidâs.

October 9, 2000

Pour le premier prix, le trophée Hitchcock d'or, le jury de la 11e édition du Festival du film britannique de Dinard, présidé par Anouk Aimé, s'est porté sur "Billy Elliot", du metteur en scène de théâtre Stephen Daldry.
Ce premier film parle de la découverte par un garçon de 11 ans, vivant dans une ville minière du nord de l'Angleterre, de sa passion pour la danse.

October 2, 2000

8 years ago on the 8th of October Rudolf Nureyev appeared on a stage for the last time.
Surrounded by POB dancers he witnessed the triumph of the opening performance of his last production, La bayadère.

September 25, 2000

Aurélie Dupont and Barbora Kohoutkova joined La Scala Ballet for the Japan tour.
La Scala Ballet will perform Giselle in the original choreography restaged by Patricia Ruanne, while in June they will add Guillem's production to their repertoire.

September 18, 2000

Two main events will take place in Italy.
Nureyev's Raymonda will be performed by POB in Milan starring Agnes Letestu with José Martinez and Aurelie Dupont with Jean-Guillaume Bart and a new production of Sleeping beauty will be presented in Naples, starring Viviana Durante and Robert Tewsley.

September 11, 2000

Sylvie Guillem will dance Bolero in Sydney on the 14th of September.
Her performance will be part of an opera and ballet gala that follows the arrival of the Olympic Torch at the steps of the Sydney Opera House on the eve of the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.

September 4, 2000

Aurelie Dupont and Nicolas Le Riche will dance in Athens on the 9th of September.
Their performance will be part of a gala named "Homage to dance" and they will be joined by dancers from all over the world.

August 28, 2000

30 years ago on the 2nd of September Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev opened the Scala ballet season dancing Marguerite and Armand.
Guillem and Le Riche, the dancers who revived this ballet, will dance it again at the ROH from the 28th of October.

August 21, 2000

In Morag Deyes' opinion, dance is the Cinderella of artform.
Outside France this is terribly true: for example this summer will be recorded in Italy as the first one without "Maratona d'estate" on TV after more than 20 years.

August 7, 2000

Many stars left Europe and are now performing at the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo.
Click here to read their names and see their pictures

July 31, 2000

La Scala presented at last its next ballet season: besides "Excelsior" in Turin, there will be four full evening titles and a couple of mixed bill. "The taming of the shrew" and "Carmen" being titles for Ferri, the only surprise comes from Guillem's "Giselle".
This production was created for Finnish Ballet and has been seen only in Helsinki. Next January it will be brought to Paris on tour and next June La Scala will be the second company ever dancing it, but with new designs by Paul Brown.

July 24, 2000

Sylvie Guillem and Laurent Hilaire will be back in London to dance Giselle, after their triumph in Paris.
Unforgettable are her tears in the last moments of Act I and his romantic despair as the rake gives place to the young lover ardently fighting not to be separated from the object of his true feelings.
Fifteen years after her first Giselle, Sylvie still portraits a happy young girl in Act I, while in Act II she changed from a pure spirit to a woman who doesn't stop fully loving Albrecht.

July 17, 2000

Nicolas Le Riche will be back in London to dance Armand.
He has been filmed in Petit's Clavigo and Notre-Dame de Paris, in 1997 by Jérôme Laperrousaz in the documentary "Nicolas Le Riche - Danseur Étoile" broadcasted by La Sept ARTE and when he was at POB School by Dirk Sanders in the documentary "Les enfants de la danse".

July 10, 2000

This evening the audience in Parma was already thinning due to some drops of rain and the platform required some drying to allow the dancers of La Scala Ballet to continue performing "Giselle".
The choice has been to drop the curtain just after Hilarion's death, so that the comparison with POB's "Giselle" is delayed until Thursday. Anyway the quality of dancing for corps de ballet and soloists had been rather good both in Act I and beginning of Act II, suggesting that there is a chance for La Scala Ballet to give good performances in Japan next September.

July 3, 2000

From Ravenna to Paris to enjoy Sylvie Guillem dancing Giselle with Laurent Hilaire.
John Percival wrote about her:
Sylvie Guillem has perfectionism and fearlessness, the wish to use an impressive technique to express something individual, whether by reinterpreting standard roles or creating new ones.

June 26, 2000

Maurice Béjart has been appointed artistic director of this summer's Nervi festival. One of the titles to be seen is L'enfant-roi.
Click here to read a review by René Sirvin

June 19, 2000

L'Aurore 19 juin 1961:
Avec l'aide de ses amis, un homme se cache dans Paris: c'est Rudolf Nureyev, la prestigieuse étoile des Ballets de Leningrad qui a choisi, vendredi dernier, la liberté. Personne ne sait où il est. (...) Mais dans la soirée une précision importante nous parvenait sur son avenir immédiat: Rudolf devient l'étoile des ballets du marquis de Cuevas. Vendredi il sera sur la scène des Champs-Elysées, où il dansera le prince de La belle au bois dormant.

June 12, 2000

L'histoire de Raymonda se déroule dans un Moyen-Age de convention, avec héros partant pour la croisade: dans la bataille, le Chevalier Jeanne de Brienne devra sauver sa fiancée des griffes des Sarrasins, conduits par le Maure Abderam. Ce ballet, créé en 1898 au Théatre Marinski de Saint-Pétersbourg, est la dernière grande oeuvre de Petipa et offre la synthèse de son art: une danse classique qui se fait accueillante aux pas empruntés à divers folklores. La musique de Glazunov est à la fois symphonique et très dansante, terriblement slave. Elle déploie une richesse orchestrale étonnante.
Raymonda est le premier grand ballet que Nureyev remonta en Europe et, dans sa version définitive, le premier en tant que directeur du POB. Il y apporte le thème de la dualité, que l'on retrouve dans un grand nombre de ses productions: l'ennemi sarrasin Abderam, à l'origine chargé de représenter le mal, devient un séducteur auquel Raymonda reve secrètement. Dans la chorégraphie Nureyev est resté fidèle à Petipa pour les variations, les pas de deux et l'acte III. Dans les actes I et II il a adapté les variations de Jean de Brienne, réglé les ensembles et créé les variations d'Abderam qui, à l'origine, n'était qu'un role mimé. La chorégraphie de Raymonda fait intervenir 70 danseur. Rendez-vous à l'Opéra Bastille dans 18 jours!

June 5, 2000

Last weekend the live transmission of Traviata in Paris was broadcasted in 125 countries.
It was a very impressive and stunningly beautiful production.
How long the ballet fans will have to wait to see a similar effort lavished on their art?
In the meantime it would be enough if RAI would schedule the transmission of Romeo and Juliet with Alessandra Ferri and Angel Corella recorded in Milan last January ...