FLASH #29: ONE OF A KIND
Dance, and ballet in particular, is an ephemeral art. It exists only in the moment of performance – no amount of photographic or filmed images can ever convey that which moving bodies do in the context of space and time. Which is why in the passing on of dance we rely not on text books or treatises, but on teachers, choreographers and coaches. Junior Ballet Antwerp’s program revolves around bringing in the best of these to train their young professionals.
Christiane Marchant isa JBA regular. She has performed and taught the world over, working with some of the finest artists of today. We remember her here in Antwerp as ballet mistress for Ballet of Flanders at the time when JBA’s leaders Alain Honorez and Altea Nuñez were figureheads of the company and when the repertoire consisted of works by George Balanchine, William Forsythe, David Dawson and many more choreographic luminaries.
Today she travels far and wide as a personal assistent to visionary dance maker David Dawson, rehearsing and perfecting the latter’s ballets in companies such as La Scala de Milan, Opera di Roma, Dutch National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Stuttgart Ballet and soon the Paris Opera Ballet.
But since the launch in 2019, this generous lady has also given unstintingly of her time and knowledge to JBA, helping to form and mold each new generation of young artists. And without exaggeration, she is one of a select band – what we call ‘A master teacher of dance’: a pedagogue who not only teaches well, but in the words of a famous ballerina: ‘they mold the personality of the (young) dancer into one capable of creating an artistic image’.
At the start of our 25/26 season, Christiane was teaching our youngsters sections of choreography from ballets by David Dawson and George Balanchine during an educative workshop. The former both trained in the purist of classical traditions; however it was their genius which enabled them to stretch the boundaries of ballet, creating for and beyond the 21st century.
In like fashion Christiane, as a teacher, ensures that the art form of ballet lives and breathes. Her invaluable classes, constructed around her vast knowledge of a wide variety of dance styles and techniques and inserted with nuggets of information about music, art and sculpture, are shared passionately and in a very enjoyable way.
Christiane Marchant underlines all that JBA stands for: it is while training these young people that we are forming the artists of tomorrow.
© Alain Honorez