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“A si lent revolut ion,

seized by this capt ivat ing documentar y.”

TÉLÉRAMA

“A visual bal le t , beaut i fu l ly breathtaking.

An except ional document.”

VANITY FAIR

“This documentar y knew how to splendidly catch

movements and feel ings, power and grace.”

ELLE

“Thri l l ing, fascinat ing, fun.”

L IBÉRATION

THE STORY OF A WORLD PREMIERETHIRTY-THREE MINUTES TO DEMONSTRATE, WIN OVER, AND IMPOSE ONESELF.

Thir ty - three minutes. That was the durat ion of the f i rs t bal le t created

for the new season by Benjamin Mil lepied as director of dance at the

Opéra National de Paris.

Thanks to his experience in America, his youth, reputat ion, and sense

of communicat ion, Benjamin Mil lepied is shaking up this prest igious

ins t i tu t ion. His in tent ions are c lear: The bal le t is in need of renewal,

and this renewal is going to occur at each s tage of i ts creat ive pro-

cess.

I t a l l s tar ts wi th a s imple, per fect ly square, gray box. This wi l l form the

set for his f i rs t show, wi th jus t a bank of l ights picking out the space

for the dancers.

Mi l lepied selected his dancers f rom the corps de bal le t . There are no

s tars or lead dancers on s tage. Through his headphones, Mil lepied

l is tens to the music wri t ten by his f r iend, the young American composer

Nico Muhly. He f i lms his quest for movements in the mirror wi th his

phone, then notes down the s teps in a notebook.

This is how “Clear, Loud, Br ight, Forward” was conceived, sketched

out, noted down, and ul t imately, per formed.

Benjamin Mil lepied al lowed Thierr y Demaizière and Alban Teur lai to

fol low his ever y s tep during the creat ive process, f rom his ini t ia l ideas

through rehearsals and up to the gala premiere.

This immersion provides an insight in to his creat iv i ty, his moderni ty,

and his abundant energy. We discover his approach to choreography,

but also wi tness his re lat ionship wi th the dancers and how he gets to

gr ips wi th the adminis t rat ion of such a venerable ins t i tu t ion.

DIRECTORS’ NOTE BY THIERRY DEMAIZIÈRE AND ALBAN TEURLAI .

We are por trai t is ts and we fol lowed Benjamin Mil lepied throughout

the creat ion of his f i rs t show as Director of Dance at the Opéra Natio -

nal de Paris. By agreeing to le t us f i lm him, he put his legi t imacy on

the l ine f rom the f i rs t day of rehearsals, s ince i t is in the heat of the

act ion that this man of abundant energy reveals himsel f through his

choreography work, his re lat ionship wi th the dancers, and his dea-

l ings wi th the bal le t ’s management. We fol low his creat ive process, the

pathways of his imaginat ion, his ambit ions, each of s tage of his work.

He is the central character in the f i lm, in the midst of the key players

in his product ion.

Ever y week, he conf ides in the camera about his doubts, his progress,

and his discoveries.

The visual approach is unadorned, shunning sophis t icat ion, yet care-

fu l ly f ramed and focused. This resul ts in a resolute ly documentar y look,

but wi th an ar t is t ic touch which makes this a theatr ical f i lm. We want

the spectator to be immersed in this universe, consciously or not, and

to be faced wi th a s tor y that has never before been told in this way,

wi th the dis t inct feel ing of being plunged into a genuine narrat ive.

BENJAMIN MILLEPIED

Benjamin Mil lepied, former principal dancer of the New York Ci ty Bal -

le t , choreographer of the L.A. Dance Project , t raveled the world before

returning to his homeland to succeed Brigi t te Lefèvre as Director of

Dance at the Opéra National de Paris on 1 November 2014 – a dream

for this young man with a tas te for r isk and innovat ion.

Born in Bordeaux in 1977, he spent par t of his chi ldhood in Senegal.

He was introduced to dance by his mother, a teacher of Afr ican and

contemporar y dance. He joined the Conser vatoire National Supérieur

de Musique et de Danse in Lyon aged 13, where he s tudied under

Michel Rahn. During the summer of 1992, he at tended a course at the

School of American Bal le t , which he joined in 1993. He won the Pr ix

de Lausanne in 1994, and that same year, Jerome Robbins picked him

to play the lead role in “2 & 3 Par t Invent ions”, a piece created for

s tudents of the School of American Bal le t . He joined the corps de bal -

le t of the New York Ci ty Bal le t in 1995, and was promoted to solois t

in 1998 before becoming principal dancer in 2002. In paral le l , he

made his debut as a choreographer wi th “Passages”, which he created

for s tudents at the Lyon Conser vator y in 2001. Numerous other works

fol lowed for various theaters and bal le ts around the world.

From 2004 to 2005, he was also ar t is t ic director of the Mark Morr is

Dance Center of Br idgehampton in New York, then resident choreo-

grapher at the Bar yshnikov Ar ts Center in New York (2006-2007). In

2010, he worked as choreographer and advisor on the Oscar -winning

movie BLACK SWAN directed by Darren Aronofsky. In 2011, he lef t

the New York Ci ty Bal le t , directed f ive shor t f i lms about dance, and

founded his own company in Los Angeles, the L.A. Dance Project , a

col lect ive of creators which sets out to present dance in al l i t s forms.

Benjamin Mil lepied is a Cheval ier des Ar ts et des Let t res, and was also

honored wi th the Uni ted States Ar t is ts Wynn Fel lowship in 2007.

His f i rs t decis ion at the Opéra de Paris was symbol ic: Upon his arr i -

val , he ordered the replacement of the old f loorboards in the rehear -

sal s tudios wi th shock-absorbent f looring to protect the dancers f rom

injur ies. Since f inancing this f rom publ ic funds would have taken too

long, Mil lepied himsel f found patrons to pay for the work, providing

a power fu l i l lus t rat ion of his approach. Benjamin Mil lepied has s ince

created a choreography academy and a heal th uni t .

“As a kid, I danced the way you do drawings.”

BENJAMIN MILLEPIED

HIS COLLABORATORS

Benjamin Mil lepied l ikes to br ing together ta lents of today to form a

creat ive laborator y.

He works alongside contemporar y ar t is ts such as the s ty l is t I r is van

Herpen, designer of out landish costumes; musician Nico Muhly, who

has worked wi th some of the leading l ights of the electronic scene;

conductor Maxime Pascal; the col lect ive UVA, creators of l ight ing de-

s igns that in teract wi th bodies; and the corps de bal le t i t se l f , which

is l ike a varied garden made up of 154 di f ferent f lowers. The new Di -

rector of Dance sets out to ins t i l l a f reedom of being in al l the dancers

chosen for this f i rs t show, whether pr incipals or not, and has adapted

his choreography to bring out the best in each. Sixteen wi l l per form.

IR IS VAN HERPEN Born in 1984 in Wamel, in the Nether lands, I r is van

Herpen graduated in 2006 from the Ar tEZ Ins t i tu te in Arnhem. The

same year, she s tar ted to work for designer Alexander McQueen in

London and presented her f i rs t col lect ion in 2007 in Amsterdam. Her

ver y individual approach to fashion at t racted the at tent ion of the

Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris, of which she became

a guest member in 2011. The same year, Björk commissioned some

dresses f rom her for the cover of her album “Biophi l ia” and to wear on

s tage. Time Magazine named another of I r is van Herpen’s dresses as

one of the best invent ions of the year. In March 2013, she presented

her f i rs t ready- to -wear col lect ion in Paris, embodied by her muse, the

ar t is t and musician Grimes.

In 2014, she received the ANDAM Fashion Award Grand Pr ize. Her

work is current ly the focus of an exhibi t ion at the High Museum of Ar t

in At lanta, which runs f rom 7 November 2015 to 15 May 2016.

NICO MUHLY Born in 1981 in Vermont, Nico Muhly graduated from Co-

lumbia Univers i ty in Engl ish l i terature (2003). He cont inued his s tudies

wi th a master’s in musical composi t ion at the Jui l l iard School in New

York in 2004. Since 2002, he has been wri t ing pieces for orchestra

and composing works for smal ler ensembles, solois ts and choirs. He

has col laborated wi th many ar t is ts , including Phi l ip Glass, Björk, and

Antony ( leader of the group Antony and the Johnsons). In 2004, he

worked on the orchestrat ion of the score for Jonathan Demme’s thr i l ler

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, and with the author and i l lus t rator

of chi ldren’s books, Maira Kalman, he wrote a ser ies of songs based

on “The Elements of Sty le” by Strunk and White. Regular ly cal led upon

by Benjamin Mil lepied, he has already composed the music for several

of his bal le ts. In 2006, he directed the per formances of “Amoveo”, a

bal le t by Benjamin Mil lepied created for music by Phi l ip Glass for the

Opera Bal le t .

MAXIME PASCAL The son of musician parents, Maxime Pascal began

learning the piano ear ly in l i fe, then the viol in in Carcassonne. He

entered the Conser vatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse

in Paris in 2005, fol lowing classes in wri t ing, musical analysis and

orchestrat ion. He soon fe l t the urge to conduct and joined classes run

by François -Xavier Roth. In 2008, whi le s t i l l a s tudent, he founded the

orchestra Le Balcon (named af ter a work by Jean Genet) , in conjunc-

t ion wi th composers Pedro Garcia-Velasquez, Juan-Pablo Carreño and

Mathieu Costecalde, pianis t Alphonse Cemin, and sound engineer F lo -

rent Derex. The par t icular i ty of this orchestra wi th variable geometr y,

which dips in to al l k inds of reper toires, is i t s use of sound techniques.

Maxime Pascal used this to develop his v is ion of a musical show: I t

must be a compel l ing and radical experience for the audience. This

led him to work wi th leading f igures such as Pierre Boulez, George

Benjamin, Michaël Levinas and Ar thur Lavandier. Maxime Pascal be-

came the resident conductor at the Athénée Théâtre Louis - Jouvet in

2013. There, wi th the Le Balcon, he s taged Richard Strauss’s opera

“Ariadne auf Naxos” directed by Benjamin Lazar. E lsewhere, his great

fascinat ion for the operas of Stockhausen led him to work in Cologne

wi th Suzanne Stephens and Kathinka Pasveer, and to per form several

scenes f rom these operas in Paris. He is s t rongly at tached to promoting

amateur symphonic per formance, and since 2008 has been musical di -

rector of the Impromptu, an amateur Paris ian orchestra. In November

2011, the Académie des Beaux-Ar ts awarded him the Pr ix de Musique

de la Fondat ion Simone et Cino Del Duca for his ear ly career’s work.

In March 2014, he became the f i rs t Frenchman to win the Nest lé and

Salzburg Fest ival Young Conductors Award.

UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS United Visual Ar t is ts was founded in London in

2003 by Matthew Clark, Chris Bird and Ash Nehru, and is a digi tal

ar t col lect ive. UVA explores the relat ionship between real i ty and vir -

tual experiments, between technology and the physical experience in

al l i t s complexi ty. UVA has worked on several commissions for Ar twise

Curators, The Creators Project , the Gaî té Lyr ique, etc. Their work has

been exhibi ted in several London ins t i tu t ions and gal ler ies, such as

the Southbank Centre, the Wel lcome Col lect ion and the Bri t ish L ibrar y,

as wel l as elsewhere in the world, including Barcelona, Bei j ing, Hong

Kong, Melbourne, Saint Petersburg, and so on.

LUCY CARTER Lucy Car ter is a graduate of the Central School of Speech

and Drama in London. She accompanied Wayne McGregor s ince his

debut at the Random Dance Company in 1992, as wel l as for his crea-

t ions at the Royal Bal le t . She has also worked wi th choreographers L io -

nel Hoche, Ar thur Pi ta, Shobana Jeyasingh, Douglas Lee, Margueri te

Donlon, Fin Walker, Mat thew Dunster and CoisCéim. She also works

on lyr ical pieces, s tage plays and musicals.

THE TROUPE

MAIN FEMALE DANCERS Léonore Baulac, Éléonore Guérineau, Aubane

Phi lber t , Marion Barbeau, Let izia Gal loni, Laurène Levy, Ida Vi ik in -

koski , Jenni fer Visocchi ( rehearsals and up to the gala per formance,

subsequent ly replaced).

REPLACEMENTS Roxane Stojanov (danced from the f i rs t per formance),

Amél ie Joannidès, Camil le Bon.

MAIN MALE DANCERS Axel Ibot, F lor imond Lorieux, Germain Louvet, Al l is -

ter Madin, Hugo Marchand, Marc Moreau, Yvon Demol, Jeremy-Loup

Quer.

REPLACEMENTS Cyri l Chokroun (danced for the dress rehearsal ) , F lorent

Melac, Pablo Legasa, Isaac Lopes Gomes, Antonin Monié.

FOUR QUESTIONSFOR BENJAMIN MILLEPIED

What was i t l i ke hav ing the f i lm c rew present dur ing those in t imate moments?

I soon forgot about them. Their presence was more of a pleasure than

a discomfor t . I was qui te at ease.

We see you tak ing notes , sketch ing , f i lm ing , and tak ing photographs throughout

the f i lm. Are images an essent ia l too l i n your work?

Yes, I love taking photographs. I t ’s di f f icul t to capture the beauty of an

ins tant through the imaginat ion alone. Fi lming is qui te s imply a tool

for doing my job. Video al lows me to take a cer tain dis tance from my

bal le t , to correct and improve i t .

What d id you th ink when you saw th is documentary?

I t was ver y in teres t ing to see mysel f at work in the theater. That dis -

tance helped me unders tand a lot of things; i t ’s a real help today.

Which f i lms about dance , e i ther f i c t ion of documentary, l e f t the greatest impres-

s ion on you?

THE RED SHOES, BLACK SWAN (of course!) , WHITE NIGHTS, and

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN.

CREW

110-minute documentar y

Directed by THIERRY DEMAIZIÈRE and ALBAN TEURLAI

Produced by STÉPHANIE SCHORTER

Original music PIERRE AVIAT , publ ished by FALABRACKS

Camera ALBAN TEURLAI

Addit ional camerawork ÉRIC DUMONT

Sound EMMANUEL GUIONET

Edi t ing ALICE MOINE and ALBAN TEURLAI

A FALABRACKS/OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS coproduct ion

In associat ion wi th CANAL+

With the par t ic ipat ion of the CENTRE NATIONAL DU C INÉMA ET DE L’ IMAGE

ANIMÉE , the PROCIREP PRODUCERS’ ORGANIZATION , and the ANGOA .

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