Interview with Guillaume Siard

Francis Kurkdjian Endowment Fund: Why is such an event important?

Guillaume Siard: "It's important because it's rare for professional companies to organise meetings for young ballet dancers. We give young dancers an artistic space: a stage. It's difficult when you're a young ballet, particularly in a school, to go on tour. So we wanted to offer this network our stage. We also wanted our loyal audience at the Pavillon Noir to discover all these young dancers, to discover the artistic and technical quality of their work. In addition, the National Dance Center and the Ministry of Culture are co-organising round tables at which we'll be talking about highly technical subjects, professional integration and teaching methods.”

The Francis Kurkdjian ED: How are you involved in organising this event?

GS: "I'm working on the educational content, particularly the masterclasses. I want to give a philosophy to all these meetings. I take part in all the meetings about these round tables, their dynamics and themes. Then with Carole Redolfi, who is our general secretary working on the programming, we chose together the plays that were going to be presented during these meetings. And finally, I'm the educational link with all the partners I know and who I'll be delighted to meet again in Aix.”

The Francis Kurkdjian ED : How do you approach conferences on subjects such as a dancer's well-being or retraining after a career as a dancer?

GS: "When it comes to well-being, we can even talk about health and physical awareness, and we talk about this with them every day. There are health centers in the colleges because it's something we have to talk about all the time. I think we'll be discussing this with professionals in the sector, particularly in the first year when dancers join the Ballet Preljocaj Junior. When the first month starts, all their injuries due to a change of rhythm come out. Not because the pace isn't fast enough in the schools, but because it's different in the company. When you start your professional life, during the first year and the first few months, you're not in the same state as when you spent 3 or 4 years at the same school. You're also starting to settle in, and fortunately you're in a better frame of mind. But now we want to prove ourselves, we want to know if we're making good progress, so I think that's also where the physical problems come from. We'll also be looking at mental preparation, which is very important for top-level sportspeople, but less so for dancers. But it's starting to happen little by little. For example, at the Pôle Supérieur in Cannes, they call on a psychologist to accompany the students. I think this is an important and interesting approach.”

The Francis Kurkdjian ED : Does being part of the Ballet Junior Preljocaj award a diploma?

GS: "The dancers are on a sandwich course. At the end of the year they obtain the Diplôme National Supérieur Professionnel de Danseur (DNSP), which is the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. To do this, they have practical lessons in classical dance, contemporary dance, composition and improvisation, as well as courses on the history of dance and music. They also have courses in anatomy, known as "functional analysis of the body in danced movement". This enables them to learn about muscle chains and where movements originate. It's also quite interesting in their practice and it's completely in line with the dancer's physical health concerns. It's important to distinguish between the fact that we, Ballet Preljocaj Junior, are the employer and that it's the apprentice training center that awards the diploma, if they pass all the exams.”

The Francis Kurkdjian ED : Can you describe a typical day for a young dancer in the Ballet Preljocaj Junior?

GS: "The class starts at 10.30am and lasts 1.5 hours. We call it 'dance class'. It's the warm-up, but above all it's the continuation of the technical progression. The dancers generally arrive half an hour before the class to prepare.

Then they rehearse from 12.15pm to 2pm and then from 3pm to 6pm. That's a typical day. So there are 2 shifts, 2 rehearsals, which are staggered during the day when we're performing. That's when they're with us in Aix at the Pavillon Noir."

The Francis Kurkdjian ED : Each piece of choreography is notated, as a musical score might be, using the Benesh method. How do you use this process to teach the dancers the choreography?

GS: "This has been a choice of Angelin Preljocaj's since practically the beginning of the company, I think in 1987. The idea of writing down the dance is not to freeze it, but to find the essence of what he wanted to create. The notators transmit what they read on the score without artifice. It's completely different from deciphering a video. For example, if your head is slightly tilted, you might think it's the choreography. But it could be that you've got a neck problem that day that's distorting the result. There are all sorts of subtleties like that that would distort the performance over time. Angelin Preljocaj likes to be fairly faithful, not to himself, but to his original thoughts. A notator transmits a dance that has been written down, so he just gives indications like a musician deciphering a score. It's above all the performer's freedom that's the most important thing about notation.”

The Francis Kurkdjian ED : These young people come from all over the world. How do you organize their reception and residency in France?

GS: "These young people are mainly European dancers. At the Ballet Preljocaj Junior, the dancers come from all over Europe because the apprenticeship contracts in France are intended for dancers who have a visa in the Schengen area, who are therefore EU citizens (Germany, Netherlands).

The host team is organized in the same way as for a classic Pavillon Noir tour which would welcome a company. We talk to their managers about logistics and accommodation, where they are reimbursed by the hotel. All in all, it's business as usual for our team!”

The Francis Kurkdjian ED : At what point does a young dancer from Ballet Preljocaj go from non-professional to professional?

GS: “It’s done gradually. We see them evolve from September to June. There is a shift in January where it is said that in fact they are pre-professionals. It is also the sums of professional experience that build them. There is also the moment of rejection of the school. It is not easy to manage and we can’t even blame them. At this point, they find it too academic and we feel that there is a maturity that is built. It is the finesse of the relationship with the training partners to say to themselves how not to be offended but to capitalize on this maturity. I believe that you become professional throughout your career. Being professional means continuing to learn. We build ourselves all the time and it’s the same in pedagogy. I’ve always been interested in that, whether I’m a dancer or a pedagogical director.”

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