A former student of the Paris Opera Ballet School, discovered by Rudolf Nureyev at the age of 19, chosen by Maurice Béjart to be the lead in The Rite of Spring, his worldwide reputation as a dancer and choreographer preceded him. Appointed Artistic Director of Ballet Nice Méditerranée in September 2009, it is no surprise that seats at the Opéra de Nice were in high demand for three days to discover the particularly ambitious program of Eric Vu-An, where the magical names of Auguste Bournonville, Vaslav Nijinsky, Michel Fokine, and George Balanchine resonated. As the cherry on top, or on the rock from which he awakens and stretches lazily, the former Director of Ballet at the Opéra d’Avignon and former Associate Ballet Master of Marseille, treated himself to the luxury of performing “Afternoon of a Faun” in a traditional choreography that pays a tribute as faithful as it is moving to the very creator of this work.
A program of great coherence: the introductory piece “Conservatoire” is intended as the personal reminiscence of choreographer Auguste Bournonville’s classes. Trained in 1824 at the Royal Danish Theatre in Paris, he took the helm of the prestigious Royal Danish Ballet at the height of his career in 1848. The scene depicts a dance rehearsal under the direction of a Ballet Master, played—with dense and agile batteries but somewhat short elevations—by the young and brilliant Thomas Gallus, who joined the Nice school in December 2009.
For “Les Sylphides,” a ballet created in June 1909 at the Théâtre du Châtelet by Michel Fokine, the sumptuous overall aesthetics of the opening, all on pointe and lightness, gradually give way to soloist couples who evolve to more spirited melodies of Frédéric Chopin: literally enchanting, Paola de Castro seems to surrender to the harmonious and natural expression of movements suggested by her slender body, whose infinite flexibility manages to erase the very idea of prior techniques. A pure marvel.
“Afternoon of a Faun,” performed by Eric Vu-An and Céline Marcinno in the role of the main Nymph, reproduced the attitudes, new for 1912, of a choreography inspired by “the frontal aspect of ancient friezes imposing keeping the head in profile and the body facing forward, moving in a lateral and straight manner, with knees bent, striking the floor with the heel contrary to classical dance which requires the pointe.” An impressive performance that blends voluptuousness powerfully tinged with eroticism and precision imbued with spatial and temporal geometry.
Finally, in “Allegro Brillante,” a work restaged by Nanette Glushak thus legally enabling its performance, soloists Cinthia Labaronne, notably more comfortable than in Fokine’s piece, and José Ramirez Del Toro showcase their undeniable artistic talent: they highlight their duo in this opus of “demonstrative Russian romanticism,” to borrow the expression of the one who created it at New York’s City Center of Music and Drama in March 1956. Indeed, George Balanchine said that this work “contained everything I know about classical ballet,” while it was Tchaikovsky’s last musical composition. A concentration of genius and sensitivity that concluded an evening of high caliber.
With the participation of students from the Dance Department of the Conservatoire National à Rayonnement Régional de Nice Pierre Cochereau (Director Jérôme Bénézech) and students from the Rosella Hightower Dance School (Director Paola Cantalupo).
Photos: Dominique Jaussein (Eric Vu-An in “Afternoon of a Faun”); Francette Levieux (“Conservatoire,” “Les Sylphides,” “Allegro Brillante”).
