Le Spectre de la rose

A few lines by the poet Théophile Gautier inspired Jean-Louis Vaudoyer for this short ballet, created on 19th April 1911 by Tamara Karsavina and Vaslav Nijinski, in a choreography signed by Michel Fokine. A young girl returns from the ball and falls asleep. The rose on her bodice falls; with its perfume comes the memory of the recent feast. A dreamy dancer enters the darkened room and whirls around her, embracing her in his enchantment. Suddenly, the spectre flies out of the open window, after taking leave of her with a final bow: that’s the end of the dream. A dream is essentially a window open towards all sorts of fantasies. This young girl’s dream is about the ghost of a rose, a spirit full of various symbols. It means love, desire, spilled blood, when thorn-pricked, life-saving blood. A gallery of scattered images to be visited with the key of dreams.

Thierry Malandain

How often foes a dance critic see something and start thinking « Oh, not this again », and then end up thinking « Wow, what an evening ! ». Ballet Biarritz debuting at the Joyce Theater recently, turned out to be just such an event. […] A splendid ballet dancer to his articulate feet, which allow him to take his height across the floor with an airy precision. The girl dreams, but this Spectre has other ideas. […] When he leaves, she is a broken doll, left to forage in a mound of pink balloons.

Backstage, Phyllis Goldman • 2001

Ballet Biarritz delivered a chic and sexy take on the legendary dance sensations of early 20th century Paris. Biarritz is a small coastal resort in the Basque country of south-west France […] but the program he has brought to New York is anything but unformed or provincial.

Newsday, Sylviane Gold • 2001