A Tribute to Lucien Postlewaite

I am a huge ballet fan.  I have been dancing for almost 10 years now (I think my fifth year on pointe), and I LOVE it.   

A couple years ago, my grandma took me to my first ballet, of coarse, it was the Nutcracker.  Since then, I have been to several ballets, my favorite being Romeo and Juliet. It was at my first time seeing Romeo and Juliet that I saw Lucien Postlewaite for the first time.  He is (was actually, he moved to the Monte Carlo Ballet...so sad) incredible.  So, here is my little tribute to him.  

Lucien Postlewaite

Unfortunately, the way that the realm of ballet is right now, many of the men in most dance companies are homosexual.  I appreciate male dancing for the athleticism and power, not for the grace and poise that many men attempt to carry today.  That said, there are a few male dancers who are able to embody both poise and power, and one of them Lucien (yes, we are on a first name basis).  He is homosexual, but he is able to pull off the roles that require power and dare I say it, manliness.

He retired from PNB to move to Les Ballets de Monte Carlo this last year, which was a huge bummer, because he was my favorite PNB dancer.  He became his characters on stage and played them over the top, but not to the point where it pushes the audience away from the performance.  The most striking character I ever saw him play (which was his favorite character, and the one that caused him to make the move to Monte Carlo) was Romeo in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Romeo and Juliette.  Maillot works extensively with the company at Monte Carlo, causing Lucien to make this move because he got to work with him a lot when learning this role.    In an interview that an editorialist at Seattle Met had with Lucien, this is what he said about his role of Romeo when asked what his favorite role was to play. 

“Because it’s kind of what has led me to this decision, I would say Roméo et Juliette. When we performed that, it really changed the way I danced. It changed the way I look at dance. It gave me a way to completely express every range of my emotion on stage.”

Lucien carried the emotion of Romeo through the entire performance.  It was breathtaking.   The moment that he came on stage, my eyes were glued on him.  The air that he took on as Romeo carried the entire performance. 

Maybe I will go to the Monte Carlo Ballet some day, and I can see him again.

So, here's to Lucien :)