[img]../../../images/lob-cendrillon1.jpg[/img]<BR><fontsize=1>Lyon Opera Ballet in Maguy Marin's <I>Cendrillon</I><BR>Photo Gerard Amsellem</fontsize><P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>THE LYON OPERA BALLET FRANCE’S CLASSICALLY TRAINED COMPANY OF CONTEMPORARY DANCERS RETURNS TO CAL PERFORMANCES WITH TWO PROGRAMS MAY 2­5 IN ZELLERBACH HALL<P>ARTISTIC DIRECTOR YORGOS LOUKOS LEADS THE RENOWNED COMPANY PERFORMING MAGUY MARIN’S RADICAL STAGING OF CENDRILLON, MAY 2 & 3; AND PREMIERING THREE NEW WORKS BY SAARINEN, TANKARD, AND KYLIÁN IN AN ALL- RAVEL REPERTORY EVENT, MAY 4 & 5<P>BERKELEY, March 26, 2002 ­ Cal Performances presents Lyon Opera Ballet, returning to Zellerbach Hall for the first time since its triumphant success in 1997, with two spectacular programs in four nights, Thursday­Saturday, May 2­4 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 5 at 3:00 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=../../../ubb/Forum13/HTML/000620.html target=_blank>More</a>

<B>Cinderella, All Dolled Up</B> <BR>By Lisa Traiger Special to The Washington Post<P><BR>YORGOS Loukos has no qualms about breaking with tradition. As artistic director of France's Lyon Opera Ballet, Loukos is adamant about not falling back on the classical repertory that has been the mainstay of European ballet companies for the past two centuries. Lyon Opera Ballet's "Cendrillon," which opens tonight at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater, demonstrates his philosophy, reimagining the classic for modern audiences.<P>This spin on "Cinderella," set to Prokofiev's score, premiered in the United States in 1987; choreographed for the company by Maguy Marin, it includes a life-size dollhouse set by Montserrat Casanova and doll-like masks by Monique Luyton.<P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31048-2002Mar28.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

Anna Kisselgoff writes in the NY Times:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>ONE of my favorite French dance companies is the Lyon Opera Ballet. Its repertory is unpredictable, intriguing and even strange, and the company remains true to form on its current North American tour and 12th visit to the United States. After 15 years of watching it perform in Lyon, Paris and New York, I find its very resistance to pat definitions to be its prime appeal. One of the most experimental modern-dance troupes in Europe is actually a ballet company. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/arts/dance/31KISS.html" TARGET=_blank><B>..MORE</B></A><BR>

<B>For These Toys, A Long Windup</B><BR>'Cendrillon' Charms but Lacks Dramatic Movement <BR>By Sarah Kaufman for The Washington Post <P><BR>In "Cendrillon," French choreographer Maguy Marin's ballet based on the Cinderella story, the fairy tale is reimagined as a baby-doll drama set in a giant doll house. The dancers wear masks and stiffly coiffed wigs, so they have the frozen, glassy-eyed and somewhat banged-up faces of antique playthings. For the most part they move the way you would imagine dolls to move: awkwardly, rigidly, feet firmly flexed. Thus the ballet, while charming in concept, has two handicaps: There is little dancing, and what dancing there is takes the form of blocky, tight-limbed mannequin movement. It lasts only 90 minutes, but that seems an eternity when you're watching dolls dance.<P><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44651-2002Mar31.html" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

Anna Kisselgoff sums it up well in this statement in the NY Times article linked above:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>One of the most experimental modern-dance troupes in Europe is actually a ballet company.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited April 03, 2002).]

Anna Kisselgoff writes:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>PURCHASE, N.Y., April 5 — Enchanting is still the word for the Lyon Opera Ballet's "Cendrillon," the dollhouse version of "Cinderella" with which the French choreographer Maguy Marin scored such a triumph at the company's New York debut in 1987. The troupe's national tour has brought this astonishingly original retelling of a familiar tale back to the New York area for the first time in 15 years. No one interested in theater, dance or the human condition should miss "Cendrillon" at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/08/arts/dance/08MARI.html" TARGET=_blank><B>Click for More</B></A>

Kisselgoff reveiws the company's Bolero program:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Ravel had many facets within a signature style, a variety that helped account for the originality of this program as conceived by Yorgos Loukos, the Lyon Opera Ballet's artistic director. None of the works were masterpieces, but it was a highly satisfying program. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/09/arts/dance/09GASP.html" TARGET=_blank><B>Click for More</B></A><BR>

<B>'Cendrillon' ballet that gave Lyon a break is back</B><BR>By Barbara Hoover / Detroit News Dance Writer<P><BR>ANN ARBOR -- One of the most innovative ballet companies in the world was catapulted to fame not by some strange new work but by, of all things, a unique staging of that old fairy tale Cinderella. France's Lyon Opera Ballet brings the production today through Sunday to Power Center in Ann Arbor.<P>This Cinderella, called by its French name, Cendrillon, sets the story in a three-story dollhouse and puts the dancers in doll-head masks and costumes padded to look like dolls' cloth bodies. It was created for the Lyon troupe in 1985 by avant-garde modern-dance choreographer Maguy Marin and was such a hit at its New York premiere in 1987, presenters all over the world began demanding it. <P><A HREF="http://detnews.com/2002/entertainment/0204/19/e01-468838.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

From <B>Classic troupe with a radical edge</B> by Octavio Roca, San Francisco Chronicle:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Lyon Opera Ballet creates its own dance traditions<P>"Dance is the art of the 21st century," Yorgos Loukos says. "It blurs national borders, conquers cultural prejudice, speaks directly to the domain of human emotions. Especially now, we need the very human presence of dance."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/28/PK212585.DTL" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

Hey, should this thread be moved to Modern?

It's a reasonable question. Looking at their website they have Ek's 'Carmen' and some Kylian coming up, which suggests to me that they are a contemporary ballet company.<P>Preljocaj made his 'Romeo and Juliet' for them and he says that there are differences between the 'balletic' way that Lyon perform it and the way his own modern dance company perform it. I suspect that Lyon do ballet class daily.<P>On balance I'd leave them here.<P>Here is the link to the ballet pages on the <A HREF="http://www.opera-lyon.org/grandesalle/index-ballet.html" TARGET=_blank><B>Lyon opera house website (in French)</B></A>. <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited April 30, 2002).]

For some reason this NY Times article showed up in the San Jose newspaper.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Lyon dance troupe continues to stretch<BR>BALLET TRAINING, MODERN MOVEMENTS CO-EXIST<BR>By Anna Kisselgoff<BR>New York Times<P>NEW YORK - One of the most experimental modern-dance troupes in Europe is actually a ballet company.<P>The Lyon Opera Ballet's very resistance to pat definitions is its prime appeal. Its repertory is unpredictable, intriguing and even strange.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/3181193.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

What a trippy ballet "Cendrillon" is. It's like watching cartoon art come to live, replete with blinking costumes, an outrageous set, and synthesized baby sounds. I would say it's more performance art than ballet or even dance. Maguy Marin has such an imagination.

From the Chronicle. I'm sorry I missed this one. Damn my busy schedule.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>A dreamy fairy tale from Lyon ballet <BR>Marin's 'Cendrillon' is subtle, affecting<P>Octavio Roca, Chronicle Dance Critic<P>It was the Lyon Opera Ballet's calling card for its American debut in 1987. Looking at least as fresh, Marin's version of the Cinderella story opened Thursday night as the first of two programs in the company's long-awaited engagement in Zellerbach Hall. The Lyon Opera Ballet is one of the world's most daring dance companies, and "Cendrillon" is still one of the jewels of its repertory.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/04/DD87095.DTL&type=performance" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

LOB's All-Ravel Program featured Jiri Kylian's "Un Ballo," Tero Saarinen's "Gaspard," and Meryl Tankard's "Bolero." I liked all three but also disliked elements of each.<P>I thought "Un Ballo" too sophomoric a work for Kylian until I realized he had originally choreographed it for NDT II. Nonetheless the work was romantically beautiful even if I was disturbed by intimacy danced in ensemble.<P>"Gaspard" was a little tedious. It was meant to be I think as it explores "a mind in turmoil."<P>I had to get used to the shadow play of "Bolero." The whole ballet is danced from behind curtain-screens, giving it a larger-than-life canvas art come alive. I wouldn't be surprised if the lighting designer and crew worked lots of overtime to design and execute the projection system. This is an innovative work typical of Tankard.