Degas' Little Dancer by Bart
Denis Levaillant – Clairemarie Osta (The Little Dancer), Dorothée Gilbert (The Etoile Dancer), Mathieu Ganio (The Ballet Master) – Corps de Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris
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Cast
Patrice Bart — Choreographer
Martine Kahane
Ezio Toffolutti — Set designer
Sylvie Skinazi — Costumes
Marion Hewlett — Lighting
Clairemarie Osta — The Little Dancer
Dorothée Gilbert — The Etoile Dancer
Mathieu Ganio — The Ballet Master
José Martinez — The Subscription Holder
Benjamin Pech — The Man in Black
Elisabeth Maurin — The Mother
Stéphanie Romberg — The Caf'con' Singer
Emmanuel Thibault — The Violinist
Corps de Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris
Paris Opera Orchestra — Music director: Philippe Jordan
Program notes
Given as a world premiere at the Paris Opera House in 2010, La Petite Danseuse de Degas (literally, Degas' Little Dancer) pays tribute to the "dancers' painter."..
This ballet by Patrice Bart, who worked as a Ballet master for the Opéra de Paris from 1987 to 2011, stages the fourteen-year-old ballerina who posed for Edgar Degas's canvas and also for his sculpture The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, currently exhibited at the Orsay Museum. The idea of the ballet was born in Martine Kahane's mind, when in the end of the 90s, the museum asked the sewing shop of the Opéra de Paris to restore the tutu of the wax statue.
The universe of the ballet reflects that of the dance troop of the Opéra national de Paris, the same way Degas' work did. Several levels of dance are revealed through the choreographies since the dancers play the characters of Patrice Bart's ballet but they also enact their own stories, when they were students at the School of the Opéra de Paris. Ezio Toffolutti designed the set of this ballet according to the architecture of the Palais Garnier, which is at some points recreated to perfection on stage.
The ballet recalls the tragic story of its main character, Marie Van Goethem. She lost her father and supported her mother by dancing, posing for painters, but also prostituting herself on her mother's account... For this reason she is fired from the Opera Dance School.
