Beyond the Clouds
When the lights for “Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503” come up on four dancers silhouetted by refracted light of a billowing cloud of fog, the scene rivals halftime at the Superbowl.
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On a bright spring afternoon, as Paris basked in long-awaited sunlight and the city frantically moved in the heat, the Opéra Garnier opened a portal to another world—a realm of eternal forms, ethereal beauty, and blue distances: those trembling horizons where the sea dissolves into sky, and the eye reaches toward the infinite. The Paris Opera Ballet School unveiled a triptych of choreographic visions, each an inquiry into the ideal—a glimpse into a distant, immaterial dimension: essential, incorporeal, and immune to time. In this spirit, the afternoon’s programme unfolded: beginning with Antony Tudor’s “Continuo” (1971), an Anglo-American neoclassical gem; flowing into the effervescent brilliance of August Bournonville, with excerpts from “Flower Festival in Genzano” (1858) and “Napoli” (1842); and culminating in the archetypal Greece of Maurice Béjart’s “Seven Greek Dances” (1983). Challenged by formidable technical and interpretative demands, the young dancers responded with lucid precision, musical elegance, and a refined expressivity. These are the hallmarks of the School—a three-hundred-year legacy nurtured with continued care and vision by the former étoile Élisabeth Platel. Only days earlier, at the première of the Spectacle de l’École de Danse on 24th April, she had been awarded the insignia of Commandeur de l’Ordre National du Mérite by Brigitte Lefèvre—a richly deserved honour on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of her directorship.
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When the lights for “Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503” come up on four dancers silhouetted by refracted light of a billowing cloud of fog, the scene rivals halftime at the Superbowl.
Continue ReadingOn a bright spring afternoon, as Paris basked in long-awaited sunlight and the city frantically moved in the heat, the Opéra Garnier opened a portal to another world—a realm of eternal forms, ethereal beauty, and blue distances: those trembling horizons where the sea dissolves into sky, and the eye reaches toward the infinite.
Continue ReadingWhat does it mean to devote your life to dance? Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s new streaming series, “Étoile,” which debuted April 24 on Prime Video, attempts to answer this question in a way that resonates with both dancers and general audiences. Not an easy task.
Continue ReadingJennifer Archibald’s choreography credits extend from ballet companies to commercial work, reflecting her signature ability to blend classical dance with hip hop.
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