Balanchine performances

The Balanchine program at the Paris Opera Ballet started two weeks ago, and we will be doing this until the middle of March. I am now doing Serenade at every show, since the first cast dancer got injured and will not be performing until the 28th February. The role of the four men in Serenade is impressively short, merely 1 minute long. We join the girls at the end of the ballet and each man partners two women, switching quickly between the two, and then go off stage again. Yet, it is not an entirely stressless role, as it is quick and we have to make sure that we catch the two girls in time after their piqué arabesque so that they don’t fall.

This is the shortest show that I have ever done, in which I spend literally more time getting prepared than being on stage, even no warm up of any kind is needed, at all, apart from the mental concentration. After the one-minute partnering, the four men don’t even go back onto the stage for the bow, so we’re out of the theatre 45 minutes after the performance has started. Meanwhile, the next production, a creation by Alan Lucien Oyen, is going very well. I have always feared choreographing, but this experience pushes me to do it so far and helped me to overcome this fear that I have always had. Alan is kind, very bright and creative. I am hopeful that this production will be a successful one.