Nadine Lavi’s Dance Notes:“Claude Bessy, Lignes d’Une Vie”

Dance on Camera: “Claude Bessy, Lignes d’Une Vie” (Traces of a Life), a film directed by Fabrice Herrault, 2010

Opening for the Dance on Camera film festival at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center on January 28^th and 29^th, 2011, Fabrice Herrault’s new film, "Claude Bessy, Lignes d’Une Vie" (Traces of a Life), captured the essence of Claude Bessy as a Paris Opera Etoile,

creative muse, and Directrice of the Opera School for three decades.

Inspired by old film footage made on 8 mm and 18 mm reels, Herrault has made a film comprised of this never-before-seen footage, interspersed with narration and interviews by Mme. Bessy at various stages of her long career. Most interesting is the happenstance by which the project occurred. Herrault was teaching ballet classes to young competitors at the New York International Ballet Competition where Bessy was one of the judges on the jury four years ago. A number of decades had passed since Herrault himself had been a student under Mme. Bessy’s direction at the Opera school, and the fortuitous meeting so many years later led to an invitation when Herrault later went to home to Paris for a visit, for him to stay at her home. There he found such a wealth of photographic material of Bessy’s career that was virtually unknown to the rest of the dance world that he set about making it into a film which also required putting the silent footage to music.

It is clear that Herrault’s keen eye for movement and understanding of musicality stood him in good stead. The pieces he has chosen match the choreography of the various ballets in the film, are interesting and of a varied nature, and form a welcome backdrop to even the simplest transitions in the film, such as Mme. Bessy’s walking across the vast Paris Opera stage towards the camera while reflecting on her life.

With his attention to detail and painstaking dedication to his subject, Herrault displays an artistic sensibility that is both refined and polished. He shows Mme. Bessy in various lights and moods, so that the audience gains a full and in-depth portrait of this revolutionary and compelling dancer and artist. As a serious filmmaker (one of his many talents besides photography, dancing and being a ballet master extraordinaire), Herrault presents a rich portrait of a life that is also a symbol of French ballet and dance.

Hearing Mme. Bessy’s personal recollections of the highlights of her career are particularly moving and insightful. Her admiration for her “spiritual father,” Serge Lifar, who ran the company when she joined in 1946 who pushed her to give her all, her recollection of working with Maurice Bejart whom she credits with much guidance when she became a ballet mistress at the school, her joy at dancing various ballets, her comeback after a car accident left her sidelined for 8 months and the audience’s ovation at the start of her return performance in Daphnis and Chloe, and a clear dedication to and love of dance in all its forms, unusual for a classical ballerina of that time, is quite moving.

There is also her vision for the evolution of the school itself, which as she says, “had not changed much since 1942.” This part of the film amounts to a history of the Opera school. This includes its evolution: a new building to house and train the students, public demonstrations of the students’ dancing beginning in 1972, and later, a ballet mounted especially for the students each year to afford them stage experience and encourage the development of their artistry. This fine depiction shows the evolution of the school under Mme. Bessy’s directorship while still adhering to the great classical ballet tradition for which the Opera School is known.

An interesting and perhaps little known nugget of the film is Mme. Bessy’s work with Gene Kelly, both when he asked her to perform in a Hollywood film, and when she, in turn, invited him to choreograph a ballet for her at the Opera. He came, and the result was Pas de Dieux; a jazzy series of pas de deux set to George Gershwin’s music. In addition, he choreographed the dance numbers for an all-dance film shot in England called, “Invitation to the Dance.” Patricia Ward Kelly, his widow, who was in the audience for both showings, remarked afterwards how moved she was to see Kelly and Mme. Bessy on screen, particularly as this is a side of him, ballet collaborateur, that is not well known to audiences who remember him in such box office classics as the film, “Singing in the Rain.”

Most interesting were the Question and Answer sessions following Herrault’s film. Mme. Bessy and Herrault described the process, and Mme. Bessy credited Herrault for the nearly four year long work, remarking that the achievement was really his and lauding his genius in putting the film together. Herrault himself was quite modest in terms of him role and expressed his admiration for Mme. Bessy and the body of work that he found “in her closet” while visiting her, and said that he had been inspired by her to work on the film.

The short film clip that was shown after Herrault’s film, that of Nicolas Ribowsky’s “Reflets de la Danse,” of the students at the Opera School at various levels, was revelatory when paired with Lignes D’Une Vie. It illustrated the great demands placed on ballet students at the school, with their varied curriculum of dance classes including character, mime, jazz, etc. It also showed the high caliber of dance training from this school that continues to produce extraordinary dancers.

Mme. Bessy has entered a third act in terms of dance: having retired from the directorship of the Opera School in 2009, she now mounts ballets, some of which she turned into star vehicles, such as Serge Lifar’s Phaedre, for both the Opera and other ballet companies which are now headed by her former students.

As Herrault’s second dance film to date, his first was on Fernando Bujones, “Claude Bessy, Lignes d’un Vie” is an achievement on many levels that is both endearing and inspiring to watch.

Nadine's past blogs:

Nadine Lavi's Dance notes: "Dance as Image: Film Night at Steps on Broadway"

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes: ABT’s “Beauty” with Alina Cojocaru

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes: "Corella Ballet: US debut"

Nadine Lavi’s Dance Notes:"ABT's 70th Anniversary"

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes: Nadine Lavi’s Dance Notes:"Avi Scher & Dancers"

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes: Nadine Lavi’s Dance Notes March 13, 2010

Nadine Lavi’s Dance Notes: The gift of a great teacher – Fabrice Herrault

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes: "Morphoses at Central Park’s Summerstage 2009 in NY"

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes "The Latin Choreographers Festival 2009: An Evening of Dance and Theater"

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes "Beatriz Stix-Brunell: First-class dancing from a young dancer on the rise

Nadine Lavi's Dance Notes "Highlights of ABT's Spring Season"