Didy Veldman's 'Carmen', a hit for the UK's Northern Ballet Theatre, will be staged by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in October this year. Veldman, who will soon be travelling to Montreal to audition the Company, has danced the eponymous role when guesting for NBT. Her usual company is Rambert where her dancing is a great plus in a wide range of work.

These performances will reunite Veldman with Gradimir Pankov. The two met at the Grand Théâtre de Genève where Pankov was Artistic Director and Veldman, a young dancer in those days, had already begun to demonstrate her talent as a choreographer.
Here's hoping that it is a big success for Les Grands.

Here is a link to our thread about the NBT 'Carmen':

http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000095.html

and the NBT description of the piece:
http://www.nbt.co.uk/nbt/pages/iface/frameset.html

And a piccie from the NBT site. Don't really understand why people think the work is sensual:

<img src="http://www.nbt.co.uk/nbt/images/thumbs/carmen02.jpg" alt="" />

[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited July 06, 2000).]

<small>[ 09-25-2002, 12:26: Message edited by: Admin ]</small>

I have combined the two topics on 'Carmen'<P><BR>grace (with some later additions from Stuart) <P>Article about the staging of the Veldman 'Carmen' with an interview with the new Director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens: <A HREF="http://www.infoculture.cbc.ca/archives/dance/dance_10192000_grandsballets.phtml" TARGET=_blank>http://www.infoculture.cbc.ca/archives/dance/dance_10192000_grandsballets.phtml</A> <P>pidge posted October 26, 2000 10:25 <P>So, has any one seen it? I'm going this weekend, and it didn't get fabulous reviews in the English or French papers. Most said the choreography was very week, but the shows are basically all sold out from what I've heard. More theatrics than actual dancing as well... The company apparently received theatre coaching for the production, which helped since there is a fair amount of acting in it... I'll post more when I see it.<P><BR>Stuart Sweeney posted October 26, 2000 12:04 <P>Pidge, the cast makes a difference, but my friend who has done a fair bit of choreography thought it the best work she had seen from Northern Ballet Theatre. There are some good pdd sections including some fun with a typewriter and a table as well as a lovely duet for the two doomed lovers. <P>NBT, as their name suggests is a ballet theatre company, so I'm not surprised that Les Grands had some acting coaching.<P>If you're looking for a genre, put it in the same category as AMP's 'Swan Lake'. Ismene Brown thought that Veldman's choreography was better than Bourne's.<P>Veldman, who was with Rambert at that time dance the title role a couple of times with Northern and was a knock-out. I wonder if she has any plans to do the same with Les Grands? If so be prepared to carry out grievous bodily harm to get a ticket. <P>I did a quick bit of rummaging on the Internet and both of the UK reviews I read really liked it. Those fans and critics who abhor ballet companies not being on pointe won't like it.<P>Please do give us your impressions of the work. We'd really like that.<BR>

<P>Genevieve Guerard as Carmen and Victor Quijada as Escamillo.<P><BR><A HREF="http://www.montrealonline.com/performArts/pages/001014/4686593.html" TARGET=_blank><B>Linde Howe-Beck previews </B></A>'Carmen' by Les Grands and then <A HREF="http://www.montrealonline.com/performArts/pages/001021/4727318.html" TARGET=_blank><B>reviews the performance. </B></A> <P>She enjoys the verve and precision of the production and the love duets, but finds the ensemble work repetitive. Surprisingly she talks about the problem of touring the complicated set, but NBT who premiered the work tour it all the time.<P>Pidge, did you manage to see it?<p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited October 30, 2000).]

Yes, I did see it. <P>I ended up seeing the Friday night show as Saturday was jsut about impossible to get tickets to (even with my connections ).<P>Brief rundown. Cast was as follows:<BR>Carmen: Amanda Muchelle Cyr<BR>Jose: Mario Radocovsky<BR>Escamillo: Dennis Lepsi<BR>Michaela: Stephana Arnold<P>Well, at the very least it is very interesting. An intriguing readaption (number 2,546 I htink at this point) of the story. We are put into current day Rio De Janeiro, and as the english review says, it's got a bit of everything. Some things stand out I must say. The classic Toreodor song has been redone to beocme a rock song, complete with electric guitar, synthisizer and a nice, loud bass. The mafia was an interesting concept, and they were complete with leather coats, sunglasses and cell phones.<P>Cyr was quite wonderful as Carmen. I found her to have a more subdued sexuality, but she did have it! Radockovsky's final solo before he kills Carmen was absolutely supurb. You got a real sense of torment and conflict within him as he can't understand why Carmen doessn't seem to love him anymore. I enjoyed the two of them for their subtlety in their acting. Nothing was overacted or melodramtic.<P>I didn't really have a problem with the choreography. The strong points were the duets as mentioned afore. The typewrite duet was fun, and creative, especially isnce Carmen has handcuffs on for most of it. The bed duet was quite beautiful, with the famous strains of Bizets adagio (played absolutely wonderfully I might add) from the score. However, I enjoyed the ensemble pieces choreographically as well, although I found an awful lot of 'canons' where a group of dancers do the same steps a few counts behind the other group.<P>This is a very theatrical piece though. Splices of video are played on a oversize television set in the bar scene to fill in holes in the story, which worked and created a very modern day feel to the production.<P>Lepsi was good as Escamillo, the rock star, with blonde hair and leather pants. A fluid dancer with touches of hip hop like breakdancing thrown in for good measure, portryed him as the rich, well connected famous person a girl like Carmen could go for. Arnold was touching as Michaela, and again, her duets with Jose were quite beautiful, especially her last one when Don Jose leaves her to go after Carmen.<P>But enough rambling... in general, I feel if you go expecting a good time, and a theatrical dance piece, you'll find it well worth the price of a ticket. If you go expecting fabulous ballet with subtle nuances, you will be sorely dissapointed. <P>What will be interesting is what will happen with the company now. It's an interesting first choice for the new director, and it will be even more interesting to see what happen now with the company.<P>pidge

pidge, thanks very much for the review and I'm glad that it was a good experience for oyu. Thanks also for reminding me that the duets between Micheala and Jose are also successful. <P>Is there any sign that Veldman may guest as Carman? She did seem to enjoy herself in the role at Sadler's Wells.

The run of Carmen in Montreal by Les Grands is over, and Veldman did not perform Camren in any of them. I don't know much else other than that.<P>pidge