Paquita [transmission 2022]

A choreographic extract remodelled by the group Les ateliers chorégraphiques du Château Coquelle, artistic coordinator Christine Vandenbussche, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme 2020/2022 (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing). Transmission by Yannick Stephant.

Presented on 18 June 2022, Maison de la danse in Lyon.

The piece when it was created 

Paquita

Firstly produced 25 January 2001 at the Opéra national de Paris

Choreography: Joseph Mazilier, Marius Petipa, Pierre Lacotte

Ballet in two acts. Creation of the original ballet (choreography by Joseph Mazilier) 1 April 1846 at the Opéra national de Paris with Carlotta Grisi

Adaptation and choreography Pierre Lacotte after Joseph Mazilier (1846) and Marius Petipa (1881)

Piece for nineteen performers: Marie-Agnès Gillot, Agnès Letestu, Clairemarie Osta, Jean-Guillaume Bart, Jérémie Bélingard, Manuel Legris, José Martinez, Jean-Sébastien Colau, Gil Isoart, Karl Paquette, Yann Saïz, Fanny Fiat, Mélanie Hurel, Laëtitia Pujol, Cécile Sciaux, Géraldine Wiart, Bertrand Belem, Mallory Gaudion, Emmanuel Thibault

Music: Édouard-Marie-Ernest Deldevez and Ludwig Minkus

Original duration: 1h35

The group

Based in Dunkirk, Les ateliers chorégraphiques du Château Coquelle was founded in 1995. The group is made up of 10 children and 15 teenagers, ranging from 11 to 18 years of age. The dancers work under the supervision of Christine Vandenbussche and Nathalie Brasme, teachers of ballet, modern jazz and contemporary dance. Working with a group of this size creates interesting opportunities to participate in dance events and regional and national competitions. This is the fourth time the group has participated in the Amateur Dance and Repertoire programme. Having danced excerpts from Odile Duboc’s 3 Boléros and Insurrection, as well as Jean-Claude Gallotta’s 3 Générations, the group is performing an excerpt from the classical ballet Paquita, created in 1846 by Joseph Mazilier and Marius Petipa.  

The project

For the group, dancing Paquita, a classical ballet created by Joseph Mazilier and Marius Petipa, is a way to promote canonical repertoire and classical ballet. Rarely performed in France, this ballet was recreated down to the finest detail by Pierre Lacotte for the Paris Opera Ballet in 2001. It is about a young woman, Paquita, kidnapped by gypsies, who saves a French officer from an assassination plot during the Napoleonic occupation of Spain. This extraordinary tale of adventure, with its happy, romantic ending, is told through a mix of virtuosic original choreography and traditional Spanish dances adapted for the stage. Its performance requires a combination of expressivity, elegance, romanticism and poetry. Dancers and teachers Pascal Cyprien and Yannick Stephant helped the group to rise to this challenge. 

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
+33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme