CHANEL NEXUS HALL

Germain Louvet from the “Confidences” series

After joining the company, the dancers take part in an annual competitive examination in hope of rising in rank and perhaps one day become the next étoile. In April 2014, the Young Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet performed for the first time in a while and twenty-five dancers who hoped to join the company as members of the Corps de ballet in the future danced that night. Among them were Germain Louvet, Léonore Baulac and Hugo Marchand, who are all now étoiles. During the two years he was photographing, Pierre-Elie also paid special attention to Germain and Hugo. This was the last season that Brigitte Lefèvre would serve as dance director and probably for this reason, she organized a performance consisting of ten creative works she had asked the choreographers to produce during her tenure. More than half of these were works created by dancers who were members of the company. For instance, the dance that Germain Louvet performed was from Nicolas Le Riche’s Caligula, produced in 2005. He played the part of Emperor Caligula’s favorite horse, Incitatus, dancing to a violin rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: Winter, expressing the grace and power of the horse through marvelous leg and pointe work. Even if this work were to be performed again, an étoile would never play the part of Incitatus and so this priceless moment can only be experienced now through his photographs.

From the “Confidences” series

Pierre-Elie was able to move freely throughout the Paris Opera Ballet, witnessing everything that happened there. Becoming like the invisible man or a chameleon, the opportunities he had to photograph were limitless. His lens captured the dancers when they were both tense and relaxed. He captured the various moments that were revealed before his eyes everyday focusing on the contrast of light and shade. The soloists waiting behind stage for their entrance, the dancers from the corps de ballet watching from the wings, dancers relaxing during a break in rehearsals…behind the scenes or in the rehearsal studio, he captured the dancers’ daily lives, from unguarded moments, through the course of the dance until the climax in a perfect pose. It is a secret world that rarely sees the light of day. He named the series of work he took in this way, using his power of observation and insight to secretly capture these moments, “Confidences”.

Lessons in the morning, rehearsals in the afternoon and performances in the evening—this is the dancers’ daily routine but for outsiders, it appears to be an incredible succession of days. However, while Pierre-Elie was photographing, the dancer’s daily program underwent a major change. A young choreographer with whom he had had become friendly while he was working on Daphnis et Chloé, Benjamin Millepied, took over from Brigitte Lefèvre as dance director a few months later when she left after almost twenty years in the post. Witnessing this change in dance director, it felt to Pierre-Elie as if a fresh wind had blown through the atmosphere backstage. Millepied took over the post in November 2014 and not wanting to miss this opportunity, there was a baby boom among the women dancers from the end of the season, this being a little-known inside story of the 2013–14 season.

From the “Catharsis” series, Pina Bausch’s Orpheus and Eurydice

The Paris Opera Ballet company has the image of focusing on classical ballet but, for instance, this season included Le Parc, which had moved Pierre-Elie greatly, and Pina Bausch’s Orpheus and Eurydice, contemporary works making up an important part of the program. Another reason why he applied to photograph for a second season was because one of his favorite works, Wayne McGregor’s L’Anatomie de La Sensation, which was created in homage to Francis Bacon, was on the program. Compared to classical ballet, the artist is given more leeway to interpret the work freely in contemporary ballet and sometimes it even includes improvisation by the dancer. After his “Confidences” series in which he merely captured what he saw in front of him, he decided to take a more personal approach and this resulted in the “Catharsis” series. The majority of works he chose for the “In Situ” exhibition feature scenes from contemporary ballet. The heat, light and energy that diffuse the dancer’s inner being…the shock and excitement Pierre-Elie experienced is transmitted abstractly through the blurred outlines in the photographs, leaving the viewer free to interpret the emotions these evoke when confronted with them.

From the “Analogia” series

It is impossible to talk about the Paris Opera without mentioning the building that houses it. Although not a royal palace, it takes the name of its architect and is referred to as the Palais Garnier. Completed in 1875, it is the thirteenth theater to have housed the Paris Opera since it was founded more than 350 years ago during the reign of Louis XIV. Having won the architectural design competition for the building, Garnier’s stage equipment and lighting, etc., still remain in use 150 years after they were planned. Even the invisible parts of the design were revolutionary for the time and it employed an iron framework in the period before the Eiffel Tower was built. The Grand Foyer is reminiscent of the Palace of Versailles in the way that it employs numerous mirrors, and the ‘look and be looked at’ Grand Staircase, make it a most sumptuous and graceful building that never fails to excite the imaginations of its visitors.

In order to express his respect for this building, Pierre-Elie produced the “Analogia” series in which he positioned the dancers within its historical dignity. The auditorium, the subscriber’s rotunda, the dance foyer backstage, the roof…numerous young dancers cooperated with him to take these pictures, wearing their stage costumes and adopting poses. He put a lot of thought into the lighting, sometimes creating an atmosphere, sometimes using bright lights in order to capture fine details and sometimes using daylight to achieve the compositions that he had planned in advance. These photographs differ from the “Confidences” series, in which he captured moments in the lives of the dancers or the abstract photographs of the “Catharsis” series, expressing instead the splendor of the building in painting-like photographs.

When asked their favorite place in the Palais Garnier, many of the dancers choose the dance foyer, where they warm up before going on stage. Brilliantly lit by chandeliers, the walls are covered in mirrors that multiply the splendor of the golden decoration, adding to its magnificence to create a place of concentrated beauty. It has a high ceiling and all the way around the top of the walls hang portraits of the étoiles of the past, looking down gently on the dancers who are about go onto the stage.

However, this wonderful place has a dark past. The artist Edgar Degas visited the Paris Opera regularly at the end of the nineteenth century to paint a series of work featuring ballet dancers, but at this time the ballerinas still had to depend on rich and powerful men in order to receive money and protection. As can be seen in these paintings by Degas, the place where these women met the rich subscribers was the dance foyer. This evil custom was finally stopped by Serge Lifar, who had himself been a dancer with the Ballets Russes and was also friends with Coco Chanel. In 1930 he became the ballet master and not only forbid the entry of men to the foyer, but also turned out the lighting in the auditorium during performances, making every effort to elevate ballet from mere entertainment to art.

From the “Confidences” series, ‘les petits rats‘

Another event that is as popular as the farewell performance by one of the étoile and for which it is difficult to obtain tickets is the Défilé du Ballet, which is unique to the Paris Opera. The défilé had originally been held in 1926 but Lifar resurrected it after it had fallen out of use for many years and changing the music from Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser’ to Berloiz’s Les Troyens, he included it in the annual repertoire from 1947. Starting with the pupils of the Paris Opera’s Ballet School, the entire company parade gracefully onto the stage, finishing with the étoiles. When this takes place, the wall at the rear of the stage is removed, providing the audience with a rare glimpse of the resplendent beauty of the dance foyer. The light of the chandeliers is reflected by the mirrors to create a dazzling space from which the dancers appear in succession, creating a magical moment in a magical space. The students of the Paris Opera’s Ballet School are known as ‘les petits rats‘ or ‘the little rats’, this nickname deriving from when the school was situated on the highest floor of the Palais Garnier and during the défilé, they are able to share the space and experience of the Garnier’s sloping stage with their favorite étoiles for the first time and dream of their future as inheritors of Fance’s culture. Excitement, anticipation, unease…Pierre-Elie was blessed with the opportunity to photograph the défilé closeup from the backstage area.

“In Situ” allows the viewers to immerse themselves in this world as they look at each photograph and in this way Pierre-Elie shares his lucky opportunity with everyone.

Text: Mariko Omura

All Photos ©Pierre-Elie de Pibrac/Agence Vu’