Departing in triumph.

PARISIANS are a hard lot to please, but when the chemistry is right, nothing holds back their enthusiasm. Such was the case when, on the occasion of Claude Bessy's impending retirement, the former Paris Opera Ballet etoile was enthusiastically hailed for her thirty-plus years at the helm of the POB School. As if to put a definitive end to the blasphemous accusations of tyrannical discipline that last year nearly tarnished Bessy's otherwise blemish-flee reputation [see "Scandal, French Style," Dance Matters, DM, July 2003, page 14], the crowd provided Bessy with two standing ovations during this joyous four-hour gala March 30 at the Palais Garnier.

"I dread the idea of the homage," commented Bessy prior to the performance. "It is like a burial; it shouldn't happen when one is still alive." Despite her initial hesitation, the ten-minute ovation left the former director speechless, turning what began as an homage into a consecration. The eclectic evening's entertainment offered revivals of works originally danced by Bessy, as well as those she choreographed, those she integrated into the school's repertory, and some of those selected by her former students.

One of Bessy's most cherished roles, that of Daphnis in George Skibine's 1959 Daphnis et Chloe, was danced here by Paris' newest favorite, the dynamic etoile Marie-Agnes Gillot, who was wildly applauded for her performance with partner Yann Saiz. Eleonora Abbagnato seduced Wilfried Romoli and Karl Paquette to the music of George Gershwin in Gene Kelly's sultry and timeless Pas de Dieux, tailored for Bessy in 1960.

This panoply of dances provided the promising youngsters of the POB school, as well as the company's current stars and their former peers, with an opportunity to express their respect and admiration for their teacher. Lifelong colleague and friend Maurice Bejart sent his adieux with the lighthearted and didactic La Barre, a celebration of hard work and discipline. At the end, it was clear that Bessy had succeeded in infusing her passion for dance into the hearts and bodies of her students, and is now ready to pursue her latest goal: freedom.

Throughout her career, Bessy strove to keep the teachings of her own mentors--Serge Peretti, Serge Lifar, and Serge Golovine--alive. She is leaving a school that she transformed from the archaic institution she inherited in 1972, cramped under the drafty glass dome of the Gamier, into one of the world's most prestigious dance academies, now housed in a magnificently luminous building on the outskirts of Paris. After over fifty years with the POB, her love affair is finally coming to a close.

As she writes at the conclusion of her fascinating autobiography, Claude Bessy, Dance as Passion, published in France last February, "At the end of the gala, I will climb up on the Palais Garnier stage, and will once again feel amazed by these dancers who are so linked to my own history, who are following a path in an art that is also my own. My life was not lived in vain."