Paris Opera Ballet school workshop at New York University

Dance Magazine, March, 1998 by Marian Horosko

The Practice and Theory of Teaching Ballet, a summer program created by Gregory Scott, director of doctoral studies in dance education at New York University, presented a unique opportunity for teachers, would-be teachers, critics, historians, and observers interested in ballet technique and pedagogy. He invited Claude Bessy, director of the Paris Opera Ballet School and Serge Golovine, instructor of the advanced boys at POBS, to NYU to teach and answer questions concerning the practice and theory that has produced etoiles since Louis XIV founded this first school for professional dancers in the seventeenth century.

In 1987 POBS moved from their original home at the Palais Garnier to their beautiful new home in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, where academic and dance classes, as well as housing, are provided.

Bessy began in 1973, upon her appointment as director, to extend the academic program and introduce other dance courses in addition to ballet technique: ancient, folk, character, modern, and jazz dance as well as mime, gymnastics, acrobatics, music, dance history, and other dance-related subjects. Today the school is one of the foremost in the world, producing highly trained artists.

Bessy, who has been the director of the school for more than twenty years, and her husband, Golovine, were both extraordinary dancers before they began their teaching careers.

Bessy performed the standard classics in the Paris Opera Ballet and created roles including Balanchine's Le Palais de Cristal -- known as Symphony in C in New York City Ballet's repertoire. She was a guest artist with major companies and appeared in films and on television. Twelve of her POBS students have won medals in major competitions and have become etoiles throughout the dance world, including Patrick Dupond and Sylvie Guillem (whom she recruited from a gymnastics team).

Golovine performed with the New Ballets of Monte Carlo, Paris Opera Ballet, and Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas and staged classics for the Grand Thetre in Geneva. In 1981 he became an instructor at POBS, where he teaches the most advanced boys. Golovine has been a guest teacher at Bejart Ballet, Victoria Ballet in Australia, Royal Academy of Dancing in London, Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, and San Francisco Ballet.

In 1977 the first demonstrations of the teaching at the school were introduced to an increasingly large public. In 1988 the demonstrations, executed by the teachers and students at each level and ending with a performance, extended to the Juilliard School, and, in 1992, to demonstrations at City Center in New York City.

The seminars at NYU, however, did not include POBS students, but teachers and young American students who auditioned for participation in the classes. Although most of the students were far below POBS standards, the primary intent of the program -- to present the philosophy underlying the system of teaching at the Paris school -- was accomplished in a more exposed manner through the corrections made by Bessy and Golovine, than if the students had been from the POBS.

Scott's program (June 30 to July 18) presented typical classes in the teaching of students nine to twelve years old; intermediate students thirteen to fourteen years old; and advanced student fifteen and sixteen years old. Repertory classes were taught in the midafternoon. (Students enter POBS from ages eight to twelve -- extended to age fourteen for boys -- by audition. Instruction is rigorous and tuition-free, apart from boarding fees.)

Membership in the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera Ballet at the end of six years of training is by competition for available places. For those not admitted, a certificate is given so that they may enter other companies with proof of their training. Three credits are also given toward a state diploma that will permit them to teach -- a requirement in all Common Market countries.

Bessy and Golovine answered questions daily after each session, emphasizing that there is no set methodology to POBS teaching, but ample logique is used in advancing their pupils. When a student is ready to advance by examination to the next of the six levels, or when the class needs to increase in difficulty, logic is the guiding philosophy. This answer is not evasive, but a profoundly understood principle administered and embraced by their faculty.

GOLOVINE'S CLASSES

Although Golovine's class must be seen and cannot be described, as might be expected from a faculty member at POBS, he tolerated no departure from a proper stance by his young charges. "Push down" was his most frequently used expression to explain to a child how to achieve a lengthened and straight spine from head to tail, with weight distributed on big toe, little toe, and heel (arch lifted). While all teachers are aware of the importance of this basic stance, Golovine produced it in his students by using a gende but insistent voice. He explained that kneecaps should not be locked backwards but gently raised. He placed his hands impersonally and softly on a child's shoulders to reduce tension and gently guided a head with two hands into inclinee a droit or inclinee A gauche. In all movements at the barre and in the center and throughout all combinations, correct use of the head, arms, and epaulement was consistently required. Athough there was piano accompaniment, Golovine's slow counting was loud and clear.