Paris Opera Ballet star Hugo Marchand curated a program about love at New York City Center on July 23, 2026, featuring Balanchine, Béjart, and more.
On July 23, 2026, New York City Center presented “Artists at the Center,” an evening curated by Hugo Marchand, danseur étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet. Featuring dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet and Béjart Ballet Lausanne, the program centered on love. Marchand wrote: “love is deeper than language, deeper than thought, deeper than borders.”
The evening opened with George Balanchine’s Sonatine (1975, music by Maurice Ravel). Lénore Baulac and Germain Louvet danced with well-matched frames. Baulac proved more solid technically, while Louvet spun “like a top” with a welcoming smile. Next, Maurice Béjart’s The Firebird (1970) to Igor Stravinsky’s score told a Russian fairy tale. Hideo Kishimoto (alternating with Konosuke Takeoka) wore a red unitard with a peek-a-boo heart cut-out. The ensemble’s camouflage jackets (by Roger Bernard and Joëlle Roustan) and Stravinsky’s pounding music gave the piece a militaristic feel. Kishimoto demonstrated remarkable power in hitch kicks and barrel turns, and the choreography included contemporary collapses, shoulder raises, and foot claps.
A low point was L’Abandon from Angelin Preljocaj’s Le Parc (1994) to Mozart, an intimate duet with Dorothée Gilbert and Marchand. Described as “sex en plein air,” the minimal movement now feels dated. Hans van Manen’s Trois Gnossiennes (1982) to Erik Satie featured Baulac and Marchand with pianist Elena Bonnay. Baulac executed a piqué into attitude with a flexed foot, a modern touch; Marchand lifted her as a single frame, making her appear immobile. Carolyn Carlson’s L’Esprit du Bleu (1997, from Signes to René Aubry’s music) paired Gilbert and Louvet in a duet of longing, mixing gesture and pedestrian movement with ballet in quick-slow dynamics.
The pièce de résistance: Maurice Béjart’s Boléro (1961) to Ravel’s score. Marchand performed a solo on a raised round platform surrounded by 18 male dancers in tights and bare chests (costumes by Béjart). At 6’4”, Marchand demonstrated unusual flexibility, slowly lifting an arm at a time, then executing grand battements bringing his knee nearly to his nose. As tempo accelerated, his precision deepened. Béjart originally created Boléro for Duška Sifnios; Maya Plisetskaya famously performed it near age 50. Adapting it for a male dancer altered the dynamics, adding male-on-male gaze and raw sexual charge in pelvic thrusts reminiscent of Fosse. Nicole Colbert wrote: “Marchand dances with formidable technical virtuosity and fierce athleticism… confined to the narrow platform, he executes high kicks and swift jetés with immense control.” The audience gave a thunderous ovation.
That combination of control and expression is exactly what we nurture at GoDance.
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The program included George Balanchine’s Sonatine (1975), Maurice Béjart’s The Firebird (1970), L’Abandon from Angelin Preljocaj’s Le Parc (1994), Hans van Manen’s Trois Gnossiennes (1982), Carolyn Carlson’s L’Esprit du Bleu (1997), and Maurice Béjart’s Boléro (1961).
Hugo Marchand performed the solo on a raised round platform surrounded by 18 male dancers. At 6’4”, he executed grand battements bringing his knee almost to his nose. Béjart’s Boléro, originally created for Duška Sifnios, was adapted for a male dancer.
