4/4/22 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: White Night Opening Credits

The opening ballet sequence, Le Jeune Homme et La Mort, originally choreographed by Roland Petit in 1946 and performed anew by Baryshnikov and Florence Faure, was filmed at the Bristol Hippodrome.  Continue reading

6/7/19 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY: Le Jeune Homme Et La Mort

Le Jeune Homme et La Mort, the iconic masterwork choreographed by Roland Petit featuring Nicolas Le Riche and Marie-Agnès Gillot as Death.

With a libretto by Jean Cocteau and choreography by Roland Petit, the 1946 ballet Le Jeune Homme et la Mort is a highly theatrical mix of post-war existentialism and chic. It has an explosive star part for a male dancer, all soaring jumps and writhing gymnastics, and a vampish figure of death. This rendition set in 2005 for the Paris Opera is a very sensual interpretation probably staged by Petit who died in 2010. 

Le Jeune Homme Et La Mort

7/26/18 O&A NYC SHALL WE DANCE FRIDAY ENCORE PERFORMANCE: Le jeune homme et la mort by Roland Petit (Zizi Jeanmaire & Rudolf Nureyev)- 1966

ENCORE

jeune-homme-mort-rudolf-noureev

Le Jeune Homme et La Mort was choreographed by Roland Petit  choreographed in 1946 to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, with a one-act libretto by Jean Cocteau. It tells the story of a Young Man driven to suicide by his faithless lover. Sets were by George Wakhevitch and costumes variously reported as being by Karinska or Cocteau. Continue reading

8/22/16 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: American In Paris- Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron

Hollywood-Mondays  11842.view

 An American in Paris is a 1951 musical film inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition An American in Paris by George Gershwin. Starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, and Nina Foch, the film is set in Paris, and was directed by Vincente Minnelli from a script by Alan Jay Lerner. The music is by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira, with additional music by Saul Chaplin, the music director. Continue reading

11/6/15 O&A NYC Shall We Dance Friday: Le Jeune Homme et la Mort- Rudolf Nureyev or Mikhail Baryshnikov? You decide

Petit

Le Jeune Homme et la Mort (1946) choreography by Roland Petit, set to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, with a one-act libretto by Jean Cocteau. The story of a young man driven to suicide by his faithless lover. Two of the most memorable interrupters of the male role (both stage and film) have been Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.  Continue reading

5/1/15 O&A Shall We Dance Friday- Encore Performance: Le jeune homme et la mort by Roland Petit (Zizi Jeanmaire & Rudolf Nureyev)- 1966

ENCORE

jeune-homme-mort-rudolf-noureev

Le Jeune Homme et La Mort was choreographed by Roland Petit  choreographed in 1946 to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, with a one-act libretto by Jean Cocteau. It tells the story of a Young Man driven to suicide by his faithless lover. Sets were by George Wakhevitch and costumes variously reported as being by Karinska or Cocteau. Continue reading

2/27/15 Shall We Dance Friday: Diana Vishneva in Moses Pendleton’s F.L.O.W. I, II and III

Shall We Dance

diana-vishneva

Diana Vishneva is a Russian ballet dancer who performs as a principal dancer with both the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly the Kirov Ballet) and the American Ballet Theatre. Vishneva’s repertoire includes Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Firebird and Giselle. She also performs the works of modern choreographers, especially those of George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Martha Graham, Roland Petit and Moses Pendleton. Continue reading

10/31/14 Shall We Dance Friday Halloween: Pas de deux From Roland Petite’s NotreDame de Paris featuring Sylvie Guillem and Cyril Atanassoff (1988)

Shall We Dance

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Cyril Atanassoff created the role of Frollo in Roland Petit’s ballet Notre-Dame de Paris, but he soon made Quasimodo his own. Here, towards the end of his career, he dances with the 23-year-old Sylvie Guillem at the beginning of hers. Continue reading

11/29/17 O&A NYC DANCE: Rudolf Nureyev and Zizi Jeanmaire: Le Jeune Homme et La Mort by Roland Petit (1966)

jeune-homme-mort-rudolf-noureev

Le Jeune Homme et La Mort was choreographed by Roland Petit  choreographed in 1946 to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582, with a one-act libretto by Jean Cocteau. It tells the story of a Young Man driven to suicide by his faithless lover. Sets were by George Wakhevitch and costumes variously reported as being by Karinska or Cocteau. Continue reading