Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, a graduate from London’s Central Saint Martins Academy, has been Givenchy’s Creative Director for the last eight years. His first ballet costumes were seen last night in Marina Abramovic’s take on Boléro. Belgian choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet were responsible for the dance, but it was Abramovic’s concept, and set design. This coming together was organised by the Paris Opera Ballet […]
Paris
Boris Bilinsky: costume and set designer for ballet, opera and film and legendary graphic artist
Boris Bilinsky was born in Odessa in 1900, but left Russia in 1920, escaping from the aftermath of the Revolution. He settled in Berlin where he was still able to collaborate with Russian theatres, but in 1923 he moved to Paris and worked with the Studio Albatros, a production company in Montreuil. Albatros had only been set up […]
Pointe shoes and tutus at the Ziegfeld Follies
Florenz Ziegfeld created his Follies in 1907, and the successful format continued on Broadway until 1931. The Ziegfeld Follies were extraordinarily elaborate revues inspired by the Folies Bergères in Paris. While being a high-class Vaudeville variety show, mixing comics, singers and speciality dancers, it was the Ziegfeld girls that made them a hit. That whiff of sex disguised as art presented by […]
Claire Motte, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, at the circus
Claire Motte, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, died when she was just 48. She was a striking beauty and possessed a strong personality, such that Roland Petit created Esmeralda for her in his ballet Notre Dame de Paris. Motte came through the school at the Paris Opera with teachers Carlotta Zambelli and Serge Lifar. Her strong technique permitted […]
The Times reviews two casts of La Source in Paris
Ludmila Pagliero, as Naïla, is a dancer of regal polish, plangent grace and classical conviction, though Myriam Ould-Braham as the second cast Naïla brought more visible heartbreak to the spirit’s sacrifice. Nouredda, the woman Djémil loves, is so passive it’s hard to bring her alive, but Isabelle Ciaravola and Muriel Zusperreguy did well in their […]
‘Restored’ video of Rudolf Nureyev’s version of Romeo and Juliet with Carla Fracci and Margot Fonteyn, now on YouTube
In 1983, Rudolf Nureyev’s version of Romeo and Juliet was filmed in Milan, and broadcast in Italy and in Britain on Boxing day of the same year. It stars Carla Fracci as his Juliet and the extraordinary participation of Margot Fonteyn as Lady Capulet. This cameo is rather like another wonderful homage by Nureyev when in his […]
Milanese are ‘the coolest dressers in Europe’
The Milanese are the coolest dressers in Europe according to a new poll from TripAdvisor. The trendy inhabitants of Milan beat out their counterparts in Paris, Rome and London thanks to the way they translate catwalk looks to the streets, according to the survey of 3,000 European travellers. Parisian fashion lovers came second and Roman trendies […]
Cecilia Bartoli meets her match: wax and feathers in the musée Grévin
The musée Grévin in Paris has unveiled its Cecilia Bartoli waxwork. She joins the good company of Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti. The waxwork wears the costume designed for her “Sacrificium” tour. Looking at her likeness Bartoli commented, “She is more beautiful than me. If I get sick, she can sing.”
President of the Louvre Museum: “Janet Jackson is one of the world’s greatest artistic treasures”!
Raising the bar for charity fundraising, Becca Cason Thrash has scored an entertainment coup for her Liaisons au Louvre II benefit in Paris in June with announcement that six-time Grammy Award-winning superstar Janet Jackson will perform. Jackson will privately entertain the intimate gathering of 250 notables attending the Grand Nuit, the finale of a three-day […]
Naked dancers in The Naked Dance
Photographer, and ex-dancer, Yang Wang drew a lot of attention last year with his Living Dance photos of naked Angelin Preljocaj dancers. Now he has photographed a sequence called The Naked Dance with three of those dancers together: Aurélien Charrier, Carlos Ferreira Da Silva and Liam Warren. Sophie Cullinane on her blog finds an elegant connection between […]
