Ponant and the Paris Opera (Opéra national de Paris) have partnered for a themed voyage from Athens to Venice in 2024. The seven-night itinerary, August 1-8, 2024, on L’Austral, will have six dancers from the Opera’s ballet company onboard, including prima ballerinas Valentine Colasante and Mathieu Ganio, for a program of performances both at sea and ashore, themed lectures and introductory ballet classes.
Two sessions will include the prima ballerinas and dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet, where they will share details about their careers and what drives them. There will also be two screenings of performances and excerpts from documentaries on dance, followed by a discussion. Ponant and the Paris Opera Ballet have also created two “danced lectures” involving rehearsing the pas de deux in front of an audience, an invitation to find out what goes on behind the scenes when preparing a ballet. Travelers will also have the opportunity to participate in an introductory classical ballet class with a dance teacher from the Paris Opera. The dancers will hold two performances planned with extracts of the classical and contemporary ballets in the Municipality Theatre of Corfu on August 3, 2024 and the Dubrovnik Theatre Marin Držić on August 5, 2024.
“Through this partnership, [Ponant is] offering travelers an opportunity to discover the Opera’s classical and contemporary dance treasures and to exchange views. It is an odyssey that I know in my heart will inspire the six dancers as they perform against a backdrop of theatrical Greek and Croatian landscapes,” said Alexandre Neef, director general of the Paris Opera.
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