IT was the laugh heard around the Web. Natalie Portman, glowing in a pink Viktor & Rolf gown, bounded onstage at the Golden Globes last month to accept the award for best actress for her role in the psychological thriller “Black Swan.”
The speech began awkwardly — with the requisite nods to the presenter, Jeff Bridges, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — before she thanked her grandmother, her parents and, finally, Benjamin Millepied.
“Benjamin choreographed the film,” Ms. Portman told the audience. “You might remember him in the movie as the guy, when they ask, ‘Would you sleep with that girl?’ he’s like ‘No.’
“It’s not true,” she continued, as the camera cut to Mr. Millepied, a handsome 33-year-old ballet dancer in a black tuxedo and a wide grin. “He totally wants to sleep with me!” She let out the now-famous laugh — part chortle, part hee-haw — that became a YouTube sensation.
The real joke was not lost on the room or the 17 million viewers at home. Ms. Portman was not only engaged to Mr. Millepied, but as her dress did little to conceal, she was also four months pregnant.
For Mr. Millepied, a superstar in the insular world of ballet, the moment was his prime-time coming out. Already, he has been featured in glossy magazines like Details, which photographed him shirtless, hanging from a barre, in a profile last December that said he was about to “leap into the upper echelon of celebrity.” His rugged good looks and athletic frame were also featured in an advertising campaign for Club Monaco last fall and for the Gap 2010 holiday campaign.
But now, as Ms. Portman’s fiancé, Mr. Millepied has become tabloid fodder and is arguably the biggest danseur to cross over into pop culture since Mikhail Baryshnikov.
“Benjamin’s a triple threat,” said Coco Kopelman, the Chanel heiress who is on the board of the School of American Ballet. “He’s a very talented principal dancer. He’s an amazing choreographer and he happens to be very attractive.”
And, she added, “It doesn’t hurt that he has a French accent.”
MR. MILLEPIED is a busy guy these days. An agreement to be interviewed was weeks in the making. Even then he proved elusive, first sending an e-mail suggesting, “let’s do btw 3 and 7, tribeca.” Then, after the reporter wandered that neighborhood for hours on a frigid January afternoon waiting for some sign of Mr. Millepied, he excused his absence with an apologetic text. “So sorry,” the message read. “Something came up.”
To be fair, many things could have come up. Perhaps Mr. Millepied was stuck at rehearsals for “The Bartered Bride,” which he is choreographing for the Metropolitan Opera. Or maybe he was demonstrating a particularly complicated pas de deux for the as-yet-unnamed new ballet he is choreographing for the American Ballet Theater that will have its premiere next month.
Another interview was set for the next evening at 9:30. The appointed time came and went. A text arrived an hour later: “Sorry, now at dinner. I promise we speak tonight.” Friday night turned to Saturday morning. At half past midnight the phone rang. “I have time to chat now,” said a sleep-softened voice, “then I leave for Los Angeles.”
Such has been Mr. Millepied’s life for much of the last year and a half. In 2009, the director Darren Aronofsky was preparing to film “Black Swan” and needed a ballet insider, “someone who was deeply steeped in classical ballet,” Mr. Aronofsky said in a recent telephone interview. “Benjamin’s name came from two different people.” Mr. Millepied jumped at the chance not only to
choreograph, but also to be a ballet consultant to ensure the film’s verisimilitude.
Midway through filming, Mr. Millepied heard that a part had opened up to play Ms. Portman’s on-screen dance partner. It was only a few lines, including the now famous would-you-have-sex-with-her scene, but Mr. Millepied eagerly volunteered.
And thus began a romance fit not only for the ballet stage but also for the New York tabloids.
Photo courtesy of the New York Times
It’s been quite a journey. Mr. Millepied, whose fortuitous last name can be roughly interpreted as “thousand footed,” was born in the south of France (“in a small town outside of Bordeaux”), raised in Senegal (“African dance is part of my upbringing”) and is the son of a decathlete and a ballet teacher (“I’ve danced as soon as I could walk”).
Mr. Millepied arrived in New York in 1993 at age 16, with a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, the grooming academy for the New York City Ballet. His athleticism and musicality caught the eye of Jerome Robbins, who cast him in “Two- and Three-Part Inventions,” one of Mr. Robbins’s last works. He was showered with accolades. Anna Kisselgoff, who was then the dance critic for The New York Times, proclaimed Mr. Millepied’s long athletic solo “brilliant.”
Upon graduation from the school, he moved seamlessly into the New York City Ballet, where he rose from a member of the corps de ballet to soloist to principal dancer — all by age 24.
In 1998, Dance magazine anointed him one of five male ballet dancers to watch. He was also perceived as a protégé of Mr. Robbins’s — the choreographer had not only mentored the young dancer, but had also introduced him to his inner circle of patrons.
But his big break came in 2002, Mr. Millepied said, when he was given the chance by Peter Martins, the ballet master for the New York City Ballet, to choreograph. The piece, “Clapping Music,” was set to five minutes of rhythmic applause by the minimalist composer Steve Reich.
Other commissions soon followed. By the time he turned 31, Mr. Millepied had choreographed for many of the world’s marquee ballet companies: the Paris Opera, the American Ballet Theater, the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and the New York City Ballet. He even choreographed a solo piece entitled “Years Later” for Mr. Baryshnikov in 2006, a symbolic passing of the torch.
And like Mr. Baryshnikov, who achieved wider fame after starring in the ballet films “Turning Point” and “White Nights,” Mr. Millepied would soon make another jump — this time to Hollywood.
And, of course, Natalie Portman.
Maybe it was all the hours of rehearsals, but Mr. Millepied and Ms. Portman soon began to date. “We fell in love dancing,” Ms. Portman said on Ellen DeGeneres’s show last month. “It’s very romantic to dance together.” (Notably, a younger Mr. Baryshnikov was also known for dating starlets like Liza Minnelli and Jessica Lange.) For months, the couple kept the office romance
to themselves. “I actually was one of the last to find out,” said Mr. Aronofsky, with a hint of amusement. Then around Christmas, as reports of Ms. Portman’s pregnancy and her engagement to Mr. Millepied hit the blogosphere, the actress released a statement to Entertainment Weekly. In it, she said she was “indescribably happy.”
NOT everyone in the ballet world is equally smitten. Though roles and commissions have come to Mr. Millepied with ease, some argue his greatest talent isn’t as a choreographer, but as a blue-eyed charmer able to raise money, court donors and attract audiences.
“I personally don’t like to schmooze,” said Adam Hendrickson, a soloist at the New York City Ballet, who is a choreographer himself. “But some people just have that gift. Benjamin is great at it.”
To be fair, charming patrons is an integral part of ballet, a genre that grew out of court cultures of 16th-century France and Italy. By the 19th century, the backstage of the Paris Opera was a “privileged venue for sexual assignation” between dancers and season ticket holders, wrote Judith Lynne Hanna, a dance historian, in her book, “Dance, Sex and Gender.”
Ballet still relies on patrons and foundations (ticket sales barely cover expenses), and wooing donors is an inevitable part of the profession. After all, Mr. Martins’s ability to hobnob with donors, particularly Ms. Bass, is often cited as a reason he eventually succeeded George Balanchine at the New York City Ballet (particularly in contrast with the famously ill-tempered Mr.
Robbins).
But some go further and cattily whisper that Mr. Millepied’s charisma makes up for his shortcomings as a choreographer, and is the real reason for his numerous commissions. For instance, when the Pacific Northwest Ballet tapped him to choreograph an original work in 2008, it did so knowing that the work would be underwritten by an endowment from the Joyce Theater, the Stephen and Cathy Weinroth Fund for New Works. It helped attendance, too; his piece “3 Movements”
received “both good reviews and a good audience roar,” said Peter Boal, the ballet’s artistic director. Even at New York City Ballet, where donations are usually given to a general fund, Mr. Millepied’s work is a fund-raising magnet. “There are specific donors that sponsor my work,” Mr. Millepied said. His pieces are among the most well-attended each season, said Robert Daniels, a company spokesman.
Others wonder whether Mr. Millepied has spread himself too thin across all the world’s stages. “We called him Benjamin A Million Gigs,” said Wendy Perron, editor in chief of Dance magazine. “He always seemed to be doing something.”
“Millepied’s work has been very spotty,” Ms. Perron added. “After 2009, he made a couple of good pieces, but recently he has done a couple of not very good pieces.”
The choreographers Christopher Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky, she said, are the “real golden boys.”
“But they’re busy, and if you want a world premiere,” she said, “you go down to the next tier, to Millepied.”
But Mr. Millepied isn’t without his many defenders. His critics, they say, are just envious of his success and high profile. “There’s always the fear of spreading oneself too thin, but Benjamin’s smart enough to know what he’s doing,” said Mr. Hendrickson, the City Ballet dancer.
Linda Shelton, executive director of the Joyce Theater, called Mr. Millepied “a very talented choreographer who works with extraordinary dancers and who is developing his voice as a major choreographer.” Even Ms. Perron is a fan. “He definitely has talent,” she said. “Some of his pieces, like ‘Quasi Una Fantasia,’ are really terrific.”
The final verdict on Mr. Millepied’s talents may be in the commissions. New pieces are also under way for the New York City Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Lyon Opera Ballet, the Paris Opera and the Ballet de Geneve have also commissioned new pieces, Mr. Millepied said.
His film career, meanwhile, continues to grow. In December, he was the leading man in a short film co-directed by Asa Mader and starring Léa Seydoux, called “Time Doesn’t Stand Still.” Mr. Mader called the film “a steppingstone for a feature.”
“I’m booked for the next three years,” Mr. Millepied said, not unhappily.
As for his newest and most public role, as Ms. Portman’s consort, Mr. Millepied is still getting used to celebrity. After attending the Golden Globe Awards, he was absent during the Screen Actors Guild awards last Sunday; there’s no word if he’ll take time from his schedule to attend the Oscars on Feb 27. His ballet “Plainspoken” is scheduled for the New York City Ballet the night before.
Otherwise, Mr. Millepied is reluctant to discuss his relationship with Ms. Portman. He is an artist, he maintained, not a celebrity. “I don’t Google myself so honestly why would I care?” he said. “What I want to do is my work. The rest is completely irrelevant.”
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment