Musical chairs in France.

IN 1997, a group of forty young dancers and choreographers addressed a letter to France's culture minister requesting a new examination of the country's dance agenda. Among their demands was the re-evaluation of the tenure of the nineteen choreographers who run the National Choreography Centers (CCN) that dot the French countryside. Their request was a foreshadowing of the acute growing pains that are currently crippling the country's twenty-year old CCNs.

One of the country's oldest, in Angers--founded in 1978 by Alwin Nikolais and later led by Viola Farber--changed hands in February when young dancer/choreographer Emmanuelle Huynh replaced Joelle Bouvier and Regis Obadia, who had been absent since June 2003. Huynh is part of the young generation of performing artists who, in her words, "are now ready for such a promotion, ready to be consecrated with such a title, ready to be on the frontlines." She hopes to remain in Angers for six to nine years.

MOVING ON is precisely what Karine Saporta did in January, putting an end to fifteen years at the helm of the CCN in the northern coastal city, of Caen. "It's not that I don't like Caen," she commented. "But I really need to move." That desire to move, however, might prove fatal as Saporta, now out of the cushioned existence she once enjoyed at the state-funded CCN, has to fight for funding from an increasingly frugal government. "I had no idea it would be this bad on the outside. The bewilderment is hitting me now."

The CCN of Caen is currently functioning with an interim director, as is the one in Marseille, orphaned in March after most of the ballet and its adjoining school went on strike to demand the resignation of their director, Marie-Claude Pietragalla. The 41-year old etoile, five months pregnant, made national headlines in March declaring that she "was not a quitter." She eventually succumbed to pressure, however, and, while negotiating her departure, managed to cancel all performances of the slated "Evening of Marie-Claude Pietragalla" gala that should have run from March 11-20.

THIS WAS an ongoing battle that began in 2001 when the ballet accused Pietragalla of verbal and moral harassment, of putting her own promotion over that of the company, and of failing to keep the prestigious ballet afloat. "We welcomed her with open arras and enthusiasm," said Jacqueline Ginoux, leader of the popular workers' union, Confederation Generale du Travail. "But by 2001, we knew what type of person we were working with." Ginoux additionally argued that the company was "already in agony" when she arrived there on the heels of the dramatic departure of Roland Petit, who, in 1997, left after twenty-five years, taking the whole of his original repertory with him.

In addition to the administrative changes, a preview of the hostilities that may surround the summer's upcoming festival season (perhaps a repeat of the 2003 disruptions) took place March 1, when 8,000 performing artists marched through the streets of Paris to defend their dwindling unemployment benefits. Although discussions to reconsider the current regulations continue among elected officials within the National Assembly, it is certain that the dance industry has suffered an irrevocable blow with the new reforms that were applied last December on a retroactive basis.