Men in Point Shoes

PARIS-Marie-Agnès Gillot's new “Sous Apparence,” which opened at the Palais Garnier on Wednesday night, has no shortage of strange features-dancing trees, indefinable bubble-shaped creatures and mysterious sculptural objects. But one particularity takes a while to sink in: The men, as well as the women, are on point for the entire piece.

There is a venerable history of men on point in ballet, but it almost entirely relates to parody -most famously in the case of the Trocks, the all-male Ballet Trocadero de Monte Carlo. In “Sous Apparence,” the point work is taken entirely seriously and presented in a neutral, asexual manner. For the nine men in the piece it was a crash course in part of the daily experience of their female colleagues: blisters, pain and shoe-taming.

But the experience was also a fascinating insight into ballet technique, said Vincent Chaillet, a principal Paris Opera Ballet dancer who has the leading male role in the work.

“ In the beginning, we didn't really believe Marie-Agnès,” said Mr. Chaillet in a telephone conversation. “We thought, at worst, we'll be on point for five minutes. But gradually we realized that she took the idea very seriously, that we were really going to go quite far technically.”

For the first week, Mr. Chaillet said, Ms. Gillot worked with the women, while the men were coached in point technique by a ballet mistress, Florence Clerc.

“She worked with us on basic exercises, on how to distribute your weight when you are up on point, how to balance and turn,” he said. “It was fascinating because of course most of the steps are the same as in male technique, but at the same time you have to work very differently. I hadn't realized how much more risk there is for women; you have to judge your momentum very carefully, because you can't stop yourself in the same way as you can when you are on the ball of your foot.”

By the second and third week s of rehearsal, the men were suffering badly from blisters and bleeding toenails.

“We see that of course with the women, but I used to think they got used to it,” Mr. Chaillet said. “Now I understand that it always hurts!”

Despite the difficulties and pain, Mr. Chaillet said that the experience had been both enjoyable and valuable to him as a dancer and as a partner.

“It has pushed me to be technically more precise and more refined,” he said. “I also understand much better now why sometimes your partner will ask you to move just a centimeter or two, or adjust your grip very slightly. Before, I might have thought to myself, come on! But now I realize that you are balancing on this tiny area, and every subtle shift in weight is vital.”

The sensation of dancing on point was completely different to anything he had experienced as a dancer, he added.

“You have longer legs, you turn faster, slide farther. You have to have greater con centration, an interior steadiness, and not be afraid to fall or take risks. I think even those men who were a bit reticent about it all at the beginning think it was worthwhile. Anyway, dancers like to have new challenges: here, every show is a small personal victory for us.”