CriticalDance Forum

<B>World's greatest ballerina appears in Melbourne Festival</B> <BR>from The Age<P><BR>Last year the woman known as the "biggest ballet star in the world" lived up to her difficult reputation by shunning the Australian media, ducking in and out of buildings in disguise. <P>But today Sylvie Guillem was all ease and grace as she met journalists to promote her performance in The Australian Ballet's production of Manon for the Melbourne Festival. <P>Guillem will appear in four performances with her long-time partner, Laurent Hilaire, of the Paris Opera Ballet. <P><A HREF="http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/2001/10/25/FFX44GHG7TC.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

Two reviews of Australian Ballet's 'Manon' with Guillem and Hilaire:<P><B>Guillem: object of desire</B><BR>HILARY CRAMPTON in The Age has some fresh things to say about 'Manon', even bringing in links between ballet's hierarchical system and French society depicted in Macmillan's famous work.<P><BR>The Australian Ballet's contribution to this year's Melbourne Festival gives Melburnians a brief opportunity to see ballet superstar Sylvie Guillem together with long-time partner and Paris Opera Ballet Principal Laurent Hilaire.<P>On first consideration, Kenneth MacMillan's three-act narrative ballet Manon seems a strange choice for Guillem. Manon Lescaut is often presented as a frivolous young woman, too easily distracted by promises of wealth, glamor and the high life to be able to sustain her loyalty to her student lover, Des Grieux. Guillem has a reputation for strong opinions on matters of interpretation. Therefore, it came as no surprise that her portrayal of the central role was very different from those we have seen. <P><A HREF="http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/2001/11/01/FFXEMEZYFTC.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>********************<P><B>MANON - Melbourne Festival</B> <BR>Reviewed by Jill Sykes in The Sydney morning Herald<P><BR>We were there to see the star, Sylvie Guillem, in the title role of Manon. And she was definitely worth seeing. But differences in production style gave the guest artist structure an unintentional nudge that might have sunk lesser performers than Guillem and her partner, Laurent Hilaire.<P>The complication was that the Australian Ballet's classical approach to full-length 20th-century narrative ballets is powered by boisterous energy that breathes life into a work like Kenneth MacMillan's Manon, which is a creaky warhorse with some memorable highlights.<P><A HREF="http://www.smh.com.au/news/0111/01/entertainment/entertain11.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><P>'...creaky warhorse...'!!! Hand me my gun.<P><BR>