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The Wayward Daughter
Palais Garnier - from 25 June to 13 July 2018
The Wayward Daughter
Frederick Ashton
Palais Garnier - from 25 June to 13 July 2018
2h10 with 1 interval
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Opening night : 25 June 2018
About
In few words:
Although one of the oldest action ballets in history, it does not appear in the least dated. In July 1789, only days before the storming of the Bastille, Jean Dauberval staged the first version of La Fille mal gardée, a ballet which depicted for the first time a love story between simple peasants. Since then, several choreographers have taken up the subject, notably Marius Petipa in 1885 and Frederick Ashton in 1960. The lasting popularity of Ashton’s version which includes dancing cockerels, old ladies and umbrellas is not due merely to the perfect fluidity of the choreography, but also to the irresistible charm of the characters that Ashton brings to life with humour and subtlety.
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La Fille mal gardée
Ballet in two acts
Choreography after Jean Dauberval
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Monday 25 June 2018 at 19:30
- Monday 25 June 2018 at 19:30
- Wednesday 27 June 2018 at 19:30
- Thursday 28 June 2018 at 19:30
- Saturday 30 June 2018 at 19:30
- Tuesday 03 July 2018 at 19:30
- Wednesday 04 July 2018 at 19:30
- Thursday 05 July 2018 at 19:30
- Saturday 07 July 2018 at 19:30
- Tuesday 10 July 2018 at 19:30
- Wednesday 11 July 2018 at 19:30
- Friday 13 July 2018 at 19:30
Latest update 28 May 2018, cast is likely to change.
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
La Fille mal gardée
Performances
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Book your tickets today with the Season Pass
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Gallery
Videos clips
Audio clips
La Fille mal gardée - Frederick Ashton
La Fille mal gardée - Frederick Ashton (extrait)
Backstage
© Francette Levieux / OnP
Article
No, young lady, you shan't go to the ball
An exchange of views on handing down a ballet
05’
Ballets are reborn from season to season, each time neither quite the same, nor altogether different. For the first time, Alice Renavand, Léonore Baulac, Germain Louvet and Paul Marque are performing, on alternate nights, the roles of Lise and Colas. An opportunity to see how a choreography is passed on from one generation to the next. Encounter with Clotilde Vayer, ballet master with the Department of Dance, Monique Loudières, former Étoile IN the Paris Opera Ballet and Emmanuel Thibault, repetiteur.
How would you define the role of ballet master?
How is the teaching process carried out? What ingredients do you give the dancers to help them appropriate the choreography?
How does one tackle a revival once the choreographer is no longer with us?
M.L. It is important to remain humble with regard to the great repertoire works. We must first of all understand the choreographer’s vision, have a knowledge of his work and read up on the subject. I try to remain faithful to the demands of the choreographer and to my memories of them, to their way of moving and to how they imagined things. It is essential to maintain the same rigour with regard to choreography and musicality whilst also adopting an educational approach adapted to our society. You can surpass yourself and be surprised by your own performance if you continue to respect certain constraints.
Emmanuel Thibault: There is no mystery: the best thing is always to be in contact with people who have worked with the original performer of the role. Before dancing this ballet, for example, I worked with Alexander Grant, who first performed the role of Alain. The steps in La Fille mal gardée are not particularly complicated from a technical point of view. It’s the combination of steps that is difficult to assimilate for the dancers in the Company, because it is not their “school”. As well as that, managing all the props adds a supplementary difficulty. This must be learnt like the steps themselves, since the ribbons, for example, form an integral part of the choreography. With bottles, or a fork in your hands, you cannot use your arms in the same way as if you didn’t have any props. The body has to compensate. I have been lucky enough to encounter this ballet both from the point of view of the performer and of the repetiteur, since I danced the role of Colas several times before being put in charge of rehearsals for a pair of young soloists in 2015. For a dancer, this ballet is very different from any other. There are very precise combinations of steps which is what makes its choreography unique. La Fille mal gardée is a very enjoyable ballet to dance and very “logical”. It is relatively easy to learn because everything is written in the music. It’s a piece of danced theatre, in which the choreography of each character is regulated as if written on manuscript paper. It only remains to add one’s own personality.What choreographic language distinguishes the role of Colas? How would you describe this character?
How would you describe the spirit of the ballet to someone who has never seen La Fille mal gardée?
02:51’
Video
Becoming Widow Simone
The wayward daughter’s backstages
One of the work's central characters, Widow Simone brings comic relief to Frederick Ashton's pantomime ballet La Fille mal gardée, on the bill at the Palais Garnier until July 14th 2018. In the makeup workshops, Octave witnesses the dancer's transformation and asks him a few questions. To play comedy, you have to stay focused!
© Julien Benhamou / OnP
Article
Colas' variation: a balance between humour and virtuosity
Episode #7
02’
Realism, simplicity and gaiety are at the heart of Frederick Ashton's poetry and his ballet La Fille mal gardée. His characters' dramatic force, their comic potential and spontaneity go hand in hand with a major dose of technique. Series of batteries, arabesques, pirouettes and attitudes offer spectators truly virtuoso variations and adages. Alongside performance and technical mastery, accessories play an important role. When he enters in Act I, young Colas is holding his walking stick firmly in his hand, contributing to a joyful countryside atmosphere. On it he hangs the ribbon that Lise has left for him and then launches into a bravura piece portraying his love for the young girl. In rehearsal, Emmanuel Thibault, former Paris Opera Ballet Premier Danseur - to whom the Ballet was handed down by Alexander Grant, Ashton's rights-holder - gives some final advice to François Alu. Spontaneity and freshness are ever-present.
Watch the step in video
© Pascale Miller / VOZ’Image
Podcast
Podcast The Wayward Daughter
"Dance! Sing! 7 minutes at the Paris Opera"
08’
© Christophe Pelé / OnP
Article
« The Manly Bearing » of the dancer
Interview with Martine Kahane and Roberta Oakey
06’
How does one tackle the history of ballet costumes for men?
Martine Kahane: We have, alas, very little detailed information
on either the history or the evolution of costumes for male dancers. There is a
great lack of source material: we know even less about men’s costumes than
women’s. One thing is certain: the male costume varied according to the role.
With the rise of Romantic ballet, masculine dance virtually disappeared until
Serge Lifar gave increased importance to the masculine roles during the 1930s.
We haven’t been able to establish a parallel between the history of feminine
ballet costumes, in which the tutu is a characteristic feature, and that of the
costumes for men. As early as the Baroque period, costume served as a means of
indicating the role: a knight wore his tonnelet over his armour; the wizard
over a long robe, whilst an oriental would have worn trousers. Roles like those
of a knight, prince, peasant etc., were to take shape essentially from the
French Revolution and the Romantic period onwards.
Which items of dress have influenced male dance costumes?
M.K.: Military dress has had most influence on ballet
costumes because the military silhouette, particularly that of the cavalry, was
considered to give soldiers a “manly bearing”. Aristocratic cavalry men wore
boots, close-fitting trousers and an extremely tight tunic which in fact served
as a corset to support the back. Sometimes,
moreover, the man wore a corset under his dolman. Often used as a costume for
dancers, the military dolman clearly resembled a corset – or the top part of a
tutu with long sleeves. There has always been a correlation between the
soldier’s art (ars militaris) and
that of the dancer (ars dansandi).
The first dancing masters were military men. And in the 19th
century, the great majority of directors of the costume workshops at the Paris
Opera were military tailors, as were their assistants. Then, sports clothing
began to influence dance costumes. For the men, their working apparel, that worn
in dance classes, corresponds exactly to the clothes worn for fencing, with a culotte (a term for trousers) that came
down to the knee.
Everyday clothing has often served as a model for ballet costumiers. What is the difference between a dancer's suit and a conventional man’s suit?
Roberta Oakey: The cut of the suit is radically different for a
dancer. The manufacture is very particular because the suit has to be strong,
comfortable and attractive, and in addition to all that it must be adaptable to
all kinds of fabric! Each of the six costumes in Onegin, for example, was made from a different material (wool,
leather, ottoman silk, velvet, corduroy and crinkled chiffon) and it is up to
us to transform these materials to make a dance costume. Even if the characters
in La Fille mal gardée are peasants,
most of the costumes are made with rich fabrics because they are easier to dye
and to cut. We cut the costume in accordance with the performer’s build, so
that he can still move freely. Lightness is an essential quality for dance
costumes. The revolution in fabric technology has allowed us to reduce the
weight of costumes: the use of Lycra completed changed the making of men’s
costumes. Before the 1970s, the same fabrics were used for both everyday suits
and theatrical costumes. And we still used the same techniques as for 19th
century everyday apparel! Amongst other things, Lycra allows the creation of
shirts that are lighter and easier to care for. In the case of Onegin, we made a plastron to go under
the shirt. The front looks like a real shirt in poplin with a bowtie or a
necktie, but the back is in Lycra to reduce the amount of fabric.
What are the principal stages in the production of a dance costume?
R.O.: We begin with a model. Next, using the dancer’s
measurements, we make a paper pattern which forms the basis for the creation of
a "toile" (canvas prototype). The workshop then
prepares the costumes for fittings. This is a key moment in the making of a
dancer’s costume, given that their build is very specific. During the fittings,
we can see if we need to add more room or if the trousers are too tight. Double
stitching in the crotch of the trousers is typical of dance costumes. Next, we
make our alterations and send them off for the finishing touches and the
decorative elements. This process is very specific to dance costumes; it
doesn’t happen at all like that in the world of fashion. The two milieus are
very different from one another because of the way costumes are used. At the
Paris Opera, our primary concern is to think in terms of an athlete’s build and
freedom of movement.
Partners
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Sponsor of La Fille mal gardée