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Guillaume Graffin
American Ballet Theatre
Interviewed by Mary Cargill
published in Ballet Alert! (No. 26-27) 2002
copyright © 2003 Mary CargillGuillaume Graffin began studying ballet in France, joined the Paris Opera Ballet during Nureyev’s tenure, moved to the Ballet de Monte Carlo, and joined the American Ballet Theatre as a principal in 1988. He danced all the principal roles, performing with a distinctive combination of romantic lyricism and intelligence. He has recently taken on character roles with great success, and he talked with me recently about his training, his career, his approach to character parts, and his recent work as a ballet master at ABT.
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I know you started ballet with you mother. What type of training was it?
I started when I was four, in Normandy, and it wasn’t really serious ballet training. It was a little school, and I was the only boy. My mother was on her own, and it was a way to keep an eye on me. But my mother’s students gave an annual performance in a real theater, and I loved the idea of performing. I loved the theater aspect of ballet from the beginning.
My first real professional class was when I was ten, in Cannes. We were vacationing there and I took class at Rosella Hightower’s school. They thought I had potential, and told my mother I should go to Paris to study. So for a year I took the train twice a week and studied with Alan Davesne. He had trained at the Paris Opera Ballet, and also taught at the Paris Conservatoire, which I went to later when I moved to Paris.
Could you explain its relationship with the Paris Opera Ballet School?
There is none, officially. The Conservatoire is mainly a music school, but the ballet teachers all come from the Paris Opera Ballet School. They would teach at the Paris Opera Ballet School in the morning and the Conservatoire in the afternoon. I studied at the Conservatoire because I was too old to start at the Paris Opera Ballet School. But if you win the prize at the Conservatoire, which I did, you are allowed to audition for the Paris Opera Ballet School, and I studied there for three years, from 15-18.
Sacha Kaliousny was one of my main teachers at the Paris Opera Ballet School. He had been a principal with the Paris Opera Ballet in the 1940’s, but broke his hip jumping down the stairs in Schéhérazade and never danced again. He was an unbelievable teacher. The classes were impossible. Very few people could actually do the steps, but they were so beautiful. Baryshnikov had taken classes with him, and when I joined ABT, he asked me if I had written them down. I hadn’t, but I still remember them.
It was an amazing time to be at the school. I have never seen so much talent all at once. Sylvie Guillem was there, Isabelle Guerin, Manuel Legris. Elizabeth Platel had just graduated. That ten year span was unbelievable—twenty-five or so dancers who were really talented and really hungry.
At the Paris Opera Ballet School, you audition for the company in the last class. Now I think there are open auditions but at that time they only took people from the school. Out of my class of fifteen, they took two. That is pretty normal—generally there are about one hundred ten-year olds who start and one or two who make it into the company.
I got into the company in 1983, the year Nureyev became the director, and I think he did a great job in opening up opportunities for the young dancers. The talent was there, but he used it and channeled it in the right way. He inspired us, so the dancers in the company couldn’t become lazy or sloppy. It was a great time to be there. He gave me wonderful opportunities as a corps dancer, and I became a coryphée in 1984. Of course, I wasn’t the only one, there were about ten to fifteen people he worked closely with, but I was one of the lucky ones. He could be difficult but I got on very well with him. Even after I left the Paris Opera Ballet, I worked with him, guesting with Nureyev and Friends.
Technically, of course, he was very strong, but just looking at him work was an inspiration. He had such presence. He could stand still and dominate the stage. To be around that at eighteen was such a gift. You can’t imitate him, of course, but you can learn from the mechanics.
Why did you leave in 1985 to join the Ballet de Monte Carlo?
It seemed like a good idea that the time! Pierre Lacotte was just starting the company, and he was recruiting people. I was doing great at the Paris Opera Ballet, that wasn’t the issue, I just wanted to go a little faster. The Paris Opera Ballet is such a big company, it is easy to get a bit lost. I was a little impatient, and I was curious to see what other things were going on in the world of dancing, to extend my horizons a bit. So I left, but I left in a good way.
When I joined Monte Carlo, Lacotte said I had six months to learn Giselle and Theme and Variations. They were the first principal parts I had done.
Who taught you Giselle?
Obviously, I knew Giselle from the performances at the Opera. I had seen it many times, and we had learned the variations in the school. So I wasn’t completely without weapons. But obviously there is a lot more to it than just doing the variations. I have a few memories of my first Giselle, but I doubt it turned the world around!
Monte Carlo was very good for me. Since it was a new company, it didn’t get a lot of exposure, which allowed me time to do the classical roles without much damage—if I made mistakes, not too many people saw them. But I got a lot of experience.
Monte Carlo had a huge repertoire, all the classics, plus new works. Maillot had just started, and he did a piece on me. The company had a lot of money, and the theater, about 500 seats, was wonderful. The city, of course, had a lot of money too, and it could import great artists, so we were exposed to so much. I had a wonderful time, but in some ways it was a weird place to work. I was twenty years old, could go to the beach in the afternoon, then go skiing in the mountains, go grocery shopping in Italy—it was quite a life. It was hard to keep your focus strongly on work. The city isn’t really conducive to ballet as it should be done. Ballet could be a sideline. When I came to New York, I found the focus I was looking for. Lots of shows, lots of work, lots of rehearsing. Dance is such a brief career, so you can’t spend your time skiing. But Monte Carlo was a great life.
How did you come to join ABT?
Monte Carlo toured the U.S. in 1988, and after the tour I came to New York and took class at ABT. Baryshnikov was the director then, and about a month later he called an offered me a principal contract.
Could you talk about your favorite roles at ABT?
They really change with age. But obviously for a man Albrecht is a great role, because it can be done so many different ways. There is so much you can do with his character, with the mime, whether he is really in love with her or not. I did it many different ways, but I really like the idea of Albrecht as a cad. Of course, to do it that way, you have to be a great actor, or a cad yourself.
Swan Lake is harder. Siegfried isn’t as rich, but the dancer can make him interesting. I had a wonderful time dancing Onegin, which I did for the first time last year. Obviously these kinds of parts are good for a person like me who is more comfortable with ballets which require acting and some depth of character. Not to say that I don’t love dancing for the sheer fun of it, but I was always more in my element when I had something to say.
How did you approach Onegin?
I read the book several times, and saw the opera. In the ballet I think he has a tendency to come across as more evil and one-dimensional than he is in the book. He is more complex in the original. Tatiana could not be so madly in love with him if he were only dark, so there has to be something about him, a sort of a fallen angel. He had so much, and then life disappointed him. People who are disappointed in life can be terrible, but it happens. I am not sure of all the keys to his character, I didn’t dance it enough.
But I do like him, in a way. I like his choices, even though they are wrong. He pays for his mistakes, too, and you see that in the last pas de deux, which is physically so different from the other acts. It is hard to bring all that depth to the character, because it is choreographed in such a way that he seems to be very pedantic, which I think he is, but there has to be a good, an attractive side, or Tatiana wouldn’t feel the way she does.
I am not sure I have found all that, but it has to be in there somewhere. The first pas de deux they dance is just a dream of Tatiana’s, so it isn’t really Onegin. You can’t really show his true character in the pas de deux, because it is just her projection of what she wants him to be. It is difficult and interesting to perform, because the first scene is easy if you are in character. You just walk out and be that man, in the countryside with those little people who you are polite to but who you really despise. Then in the next scene you come out of the mirror like Désiré. The mirror scene is a real killer physically, too. You have to have incredible stamina. I am doing three Onegins the first week at the Met, so that might just retire me right there.
Who is your Tatiana?
I am doing two with Irina Dvorovenko, which is great, and one with Alessandra Ferri. That will be very interesting, because we haven’t danced with each other for a long time. She is a wonderful artist, and you never know what is going to happen with her when she is on the stage, which is great.
We have rehearsed it a bit, but she is going back to Milan, and won’t be back until two weeks before the performance. I haven’t done it since last year, and she just had a baby about three months ago. So in the rehearsal we thought we would just see how it went, and it was unbelievable, such a wonderful time. She dances with such abandon. It is difficult to partner someone who is a little tentative and afraid to be lifted, but that is no problem with Alessandra, she just throws herself and you had better be ready to catch her. It is going to be such fun dancing with her.
I thought your Dim Lustre with Susan Jaffe was so moving last year. Who taught it to you?
We put it together from old tapes and David Richardson and Victor Barbee coached it. Kevin McKenzie worked a lot on it too, because he had worked with Tudor. It’s an interesting little ballet. At first, it didn’t do anything for me. As with every Tudor work, it is a bit tedious to learn. You don’t realize it when you see it on stage, but Tudor’s physicality is very awkward, which is really an outward sign of people’s traumas. It is very rigid, and it works, but it takes a real effort to learn it, like walking with the wrong hand going forward. We can remember a three-hour ballet with our body, with our muscles, not our head, but not a Tudor ballet, because the muscles are always fighting to go in a different direction. But then all of a sudden you have it, and when you get the coordination, you never forget it.
And the story is very real. I don’t think it is sad, they really should go off in different directions because they wouldn’t be happy together. There were obviously happier in other times. I find it real and to the point. It is a little dry, but I like that. It isn’t sappy.
I have enjoyed your mime roles very much. They are so varied, Gamache in Don Quixote to the Rajah in La Bayadére. I remember in the betrothal scene, you get up and walk to the back of the stage to the Aya, Rosalie O’Connor, and just whisper to her. It was so riveting way you worked together.
The Rajah is a strong character, he doesn’t really have a lot to do, but it is always fun for me to try to make it bigger. That is the fun of the acting roles. Rosalie is very, very good. I think we did a bit of work together, nothing major. But the key to good acting, I think, it to work with other good actors, so you can improvise. Well, not really improvise, but you can have a conversation in mime and they will respond. If you give them a line, they will react, and you can react. In the example you mentioned, the betrothal scene, the movements have to be subdued, but very clear. There can’t be any fussing—two, three clear, sharp moves at the most, or it will get lost.
With roles like that, if you do your job seriously, if you believe in your character, no matter how small the part, the character will grow bigger. I do enjoy being the Prince, doing the big jumps. But in a funny way, doing the mime roles helps your approach to the principal parts, and vice versa. I do Hilarion a lot now, not Albrecht, but I think I have a good grasp of Hilarion because I was interested in Albrecht’s character. If you respect the other’s parts, you can have some interaction on stage. A conversation that is only one-sided doesn’t interest anybody.
Gamache [the foppish suitor in Don Quixote] is very hard. There is less mime in this new version, so there is less to say. I was interested in the part at first because the character could be very elegant, but it has turned into more of a slapstick part, which gets a little tiresome.
Are you doing any parts in the Ashton ballets ABT is dancing this spring?
I am learning the Widow Simone, in La Fille Mal Gardée. I think I will be doing it, but I haven’t had much time to rehearse, and I want to be sure I can do it justice. It is a great part, but very difficult to get right. It can’t be a drag act.
I know you are doing some coaching now.
I am ballet master now, and am teaching and coaching, and am also talking care of the educational program for the kid’s shows, so I have many hats!
Are you responsible for any particular ballets?
We don’t really have an enormous artistic staff, so we are all doing a lot of things. I have been coaching the principal dancers a lot on partnering, which is very interesting, because I have been dancing these roles for so many years. But I have to work hard learning the corps parts. But I really enjoy it and I am very lucky to have the chance. But the hard part is doing all this and keeping fit to do the dancing roles. I spend a lot of time now watching other people dance, and rarely get up to do it myself.
How did you start as a ballet master?
I got injured a few years ago in Giselle, and when I came back I was doing less and less. I talked to Kevin McKenzie and said I wanted something to do. He asked me if I wanted to teach, and I did some classes, which went well. One thing led to another, and I started doing some coaching. There are a lot of younger dancers now, without a lot of partnering experience, and I really enjoy helping them. I loved partnering, it was my favorite thing to do, dancing together, when the woman trusts you. And this year I was given the official title.
ABT has a big educational program, which is trying to get bigger. I work on the school performances, when we have school classes in to see the ballet. I decide the repertoire, and do all the talking and explaining to the audiences. I also do the Guggenheim talks—there is one coming up on mime—select the topics and the participants.
This production work is very interesting. I am learning so much every day, and we’ll see where that leads me. I have no real plans, I am interested in it all.