“Gala pour les 50 ans de l’Académie Princess Grace”
L’Académie Princesse Grace
Salle Prince Pierre, Grimaldi Forum
Monte Carlo, Monaco
December 19, 2025
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo has much to celebrate this season: the company’s fortieth anniversary and the associated Academy Princess Grace’s fiftieth anniversary. The company will host a gala in July 2026, and the Academy’s gala took place last Friday. It combined a “best of” selection of works performed by the Academy during the past sixteen years. Princess Caroline of Hanover, president of Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo, attended the gala.
The legs of seven girls flew high to George Gershwin’s I’ve got Rhythm, and the joy and confidence in their faces, as well as the freedom, dash, and buoyancy of their movements, left no doubt that this would be a pleasant evening. Michel Rahn’s 2011 neoclassical choreography of almost the same title, We’ve Got Rhythm!, looked Balanchine-esque and employed a large group of male and female students. Although the opening seemed promising, I wasn’t prepared for the Marco Goecke piece (Black Swan, 2015) of breathtaking perfection and power that Ella Justi and especially Yarden Arieli delivered. Bravo!
An excerpt of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Dov’è la Luna (Where is the Moon, 2013) relieved the adrenaline response. The pas de deux, accompanied by serene piano music by Alexander Scriabin, focused first on Utako Takeda. Natan Ggrzybowski, hidden by the semidarkness, observed her pensive solo in the light of a full moon. The moment he joined Takeda with a lithe jump, both began to explore hidden layers of their personalities, inspired and encouraged by one another. When the moon moved, they followed its shine, their arms stretched as if moonstruck.
The pitter-patter of multiple pointe shoes that opened Roland Vogel’s Andante (2024) came from a flock of white-clad girls huddling in a circle of light. The perky boy (Camille Cariou), who heartily jumped into their midst and was lifted above their heads, posed with a beautiful back-bend as if basking in admiration. Wearing a white, shimmery, full-body leotard, he reminded me of a proud fish. At times, the melancholy of Shostakovich’s piano music contrasted with the freshness of the white costumes and the elegance of Cariou’s jumps. After the line of girls had fallen under his touch, he jumped again and sailed above their heads a second time.
Clean lines and symmetry defined Julien Guérin’s Elles (2016), a pas de deux danced by Utako Takeda and Dayoung Ryoo. Both wore salmon-colored tutus with stiff, plate-like skirts that enhanced the purity of their movements. The beauty of Elles was its visual clarity rather than decorative frills.
Jeroen Verbruggen’s Hold Fast, For If (2016) also employed two female dancers, Ella Justi and Kadelle Smith, who were meant to hold fast to a transparent balloon attached to their left hands. As they rolled across the floor, the balloons danced their own choreography, which often competed with Justi’s and Smith’s edgy acrobatics. Did one of them trip the other up, causing two consecutive falls? In any case, that incident made the “For If” of the title real. Both let loose the balloons, which flew straight up.
Yahel Zaid Hernandez Cruz had a similar balloon at his lips, which he must have blown up in the wings just before entering the stage for Bruno Roque’s K3 (2016). During his supple solo, he let go of the balloon. After some sudden, panther-like jumps, Cruz picked up the deflated balloon and blew it up again. Eric Satie’s calm piano music connected Elles, K3, and Hold Fast, For If.
Zippy Latin rhythms by Rodrigi y Gabriela carried the whirlwind that Julieta Martinez’s Sang Mêlé (2024) seemed to be. Wide, black, floor-length skirts with red inner linings, along with bare chests (covered by skin-colored tops for the women), blurred the distinction between the sexes. As they whirled, the skirts dazzled the eye. Sometimes, when only the upper bodies were lit, the hunching of shoulders and flailing of arms looked especially wild. The eleven dancers performed like one entity, which perfected Sang Mêlé’s punch.
Bach on Track (2021), Maillot’s second contribution, premiered a few months before his company’s creation, Back on Track 61. Both pieces feature similar costumes, sporty black and white skirts, trunks, and tops, but different music. Ravel’s Concerto in G accompanied Back on Track 61, but a Bach compilation infused the humorous Bach on Track with seriousness. The youth initially attempted to take to their heels when they became aware of being on stage. A few times, dancers collapsed (or faked collapse) and resurrected thanks to inscrutable rituals. Gray gloom briefly pervaded a pas de deux but was quickly replaced by thigh-slapping hops and high leaps. The banter between the sexes that propelled the pacy, flirtatious shenanigans had an ease and chic one typically associates with the Riviera.
The kiss of Mercan Celik and Natan Grzybowski, who embraced center stage in Francesco Nappa’s Les Amants Voilés (2018), was separated by the scarves covering each head. Maybe the kiss opened new worlds for them given that the back-and-white patterned floor expanded the moment they pulled the scarves away. The pas de deux that unfolded to music by Brahms was acrobatic, witty, and sinuous. Some feigned furious jumps by Grzybowski later, the floor pattern contracted, confining the couple. Suddenly, their torsos repeatedly bumped together as if to be unified by raw force.
Four ballerinas in fancy white-and black Chanel-like tutus occupied the black-and-white striped floor of Eugenio Buratti’s Quadro (2017). One tap of a pointe shoe set the zebra stripes and Carl Czerny’s music in motion. The ladies’ awkward, edgy movements and the way they kinked their hips sideways reminded me of Douglas Lee’s style. Maybe it’s designed to look cool, but it is certainly not beautiful. After the dancers posed at the front stage like models, they strutted off.
The four boys who stormed on stage in Sara Lourenco’s Danse Hongroise N°5 shouted and turned like daredevils. Each kick of their legs manifested strength and determination; edgy movements underscored how tough they felt. No less bold, the four women who joined them swiveled like windmills through the air. Repeated shouts added fire to Brahm’s fast-paced Hungarian Dance No.5.
Claude Brumachon’s 1992 Les Indomptés made me think back to Otto and Jiří Bubeníček who danced the duet often. Merging sharp, athletic prowess with tender lyricism, it portrays the love, trust, and vulnerability of two men connected by a deep bond. Being identical twins, the Bubeníčeks infused Les Indomptés with a poignant intensity no one can rival. Halfway into the piece, the Academy’s two students, Dillon Brizic and Dylan Gaddis, had taken up the thread, and the energy thrived henceforth.
Yarden Arieli danced his own choreography, Rom, which premiered earlier this year. Invisible forces seemed to shake him; his arms wriggled with a life of their own, and his hands, which had just held something precious we could not see, fluttered uncontrollably. At times, Arieli seemed to portray a robot and at others, a drug addict. Perhaps the black-and-white striped floor, gray pants, and gray top indicated that he was a prisoner of his own mind.
Michel Rahn’s Études (2017), set to music by Carl Czerny, featured the students in a grand finale to which Denis Watanabe and Lucien Renet contributed excellent solos. The positive vibes that radiated from the stage were infectious.
| Link: | Website of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo | |
| Photos: | 1. | Students of the Academy Princess Grace, “We’ve Got Rhythm!” by Michel Rahn, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 |
| 2. | Students of the Academy Princess Grace, “We’ve Got Rhythm!” by Michel Rahn, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 3. | Ella Justi and Yarden Arieli, “Black Swan” by Marco Goecke, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 4. | Ella Justi, “Black Swan” by Marco Goecke, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 |
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| 5. | Yarden Arieli, “Black Swan” by Marco Goecke, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 6. | Students of the Academy Princess Grace, “Andante” by Roland Vogel, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 7. | Students of the Academy Princess Grace, “Andante” by Roland Vogel, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 8. | Utako Takeda and Natan Ggrzybowski, “Dov’è la Luna” by Jean-Christophe Maillot, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 9. | Utako Takeda and Dayoung Ryoo, “Elles” by Julien Guérin, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 |
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| 10. | Yahel Zaid Hernandez Cruz, “K3” by Bruno Roque, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 11. | Students of the Academy Princess Grace, “Sang Mêlé” by Julieta Martinez, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 12. | Mercan Celik and Natan Grzybowski, “Les Amants Voilés” by Francesco Nappa, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 13. | Student of the Academy Princess Grace, “Quadro” by Eugenio Buratti, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 14. | Student of the Academy Princess Grace, “Quadro” by Eugenio Buratti, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 15. | Dillon Brizic and Dylan Gaddis, “Les Indomptés” by Claude Brumachon, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 |
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| 16. | Dillon Brizic and Dylan Gaddis, “Les Indomptés” by Claude Brumachon, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 |
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| 17. | Students of the Academy Princess Grace, “Études” by Michel Rahn, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 | |
| 18. | Students of the Academy Princess Grace, “Études” by Michel Rahn, L’Académie Princess Grace 2025 |
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| all photos © Alice Blangero | ||
| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |