Ballerina Mathilde Froustey should be flying high.
Mathilde Froustey in Serge Lifar’s SUITE EN BLANC (Photo: Erik Tomasson)
In 2013, she fled the inhospitable Paris Opera Ballet for the warmer, welcoming climes of the San Francisco Ballet, which has showered her with the title of Principal Dancer and the leading roles she has worked so hard for.
So the Froustey who confronts us in her boyfriend Charles Redon’s new documentary – filmed over a period of five years in France and California – comes as a shock. Click here to read my review for KQED Arts.
Photo: Julien Benhamou
Mathilde Froustey and Charles Redon in Redon’s film ‘In California’ which aired at the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival in June 2016
There is something terribly terribly wrong with the promotions scheme in POB. Millepied tried reforms but the traditionalistes were against him from the departure, it was hopeless. Mathilde has been very much loved in Paris though some fans worried that she was too fragile. Now it looks like she has been taken advantage of. A very sad and troubling story.
ElenaF, why is this “sad and troubling”? She became a star at San Francisco Ballet. Lots of dancers who are not considered principal level in the top companies are able to make principal in the regional companies. That was a smart move for her.
So she agreed to be in a movie that she probably thought was art but turned out to be trashy. Not so smart this time but it was her choice, doesn’t sound like she was a victim.