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Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
For Luke Kirby, ‘Étoile' Was a History Lesson
After charming audiences as New York City comedian Lenny Bruce in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Luke Kirby returns this week as a new New York star: Jack McMillan, director of the (fictional) Metropolitan Ballet Theater. Kirby's protagonist leads Étoile, Prime Video's ballet dramedy from Maisel co-creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino (the wife-husband team also made Gilmore Girls and Bunheads). In a last-ditch attempt to spark ticket sales, Jack agrees to trade his company's biggest stars with France's (also fictional) Le Ballet National, helmed by Charlotte Gainsbourg's Genevieve Lavigne. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Étoile' Review: Amy Sherman-Palladino's Amazon Ballet Dramedy Pirouettes Gracefully Before Stumbling in the Final Act 'The Amateur' Star Rachel Brosnahan Insists She Still Feels Like an Amateur Amy Sherman-Palladino Recalls "Weird" Network Notes For 'Gilmore Girls': "Why Isn't Rory Having Sex?" Étoile's eight episodes are stuffed with whimsical characters, sharp humor and an impressive cast of real dancers and great ballet. Through it all, Jack and Genvieve's fight to save their beloved art form becomes the show's most central duet. Below, Kirby talks to The Hollywood Reporter about returning to a Palladino set, stepping into the ballet world and learning about how our history can inform our future. *** When did you first hear about ? I'm pretty sure it was 2022. Amy and Dan called me out to dinner and it was right on the heels of Maisel wrapping. What was the pitch? I think it was a free meal (laughs). It may have involved the promise of wearing nice clothes, but I think it was mostly the free meal. And then we started to talk about our shared affection for the dance world. We talked about our romantic notions about ballet and the dance world and then with it being Amy and Dan, the potential for folly inside of that world. It's a workplace. We know that workplaces are ripe for folly. The world of ballet is — as with all art forms, there's the threat of people taking this thing very, very seriously. People that work in the arts, it's serious. It's as important as water. Did you know anything about your character, Jack, at that point? More than anything I remember the idea that this was a guy who was from the city, who had grown up immersed in the world of New York. I certainly romanticized New York in the 1980s, it was a very hot time creatively, a hot and painful time. I thought about this kid — Jack — growing up in that world and having all that greatness within reach. I just got excited about the idea of this guy. Did you look to anyone specific for inspiration? Nobody in the contemporary world. The biggest one was Lincoln Kerstein, because his passion for ballet was so evident. [Famous for his contributions to New York City's arts throughout the 20th century, Lincoln Kerstein co-founded New York City Ballet with George Balanchine in 1948]. Kerstein was such a good spokesperson for dance — he had a clear affection for it, and he was so committed to making it something culturally important in America. That degree of drive is so juicy and exciting. I think he probably had an artistic bent that was never fully fulfilled, and I see Jack similarly. Jack definitely has that drive, but this show is set in the 21st century, and post pandemic at that. The arts are in a different place than they were in Kerstein's world. That feels like part of the comedy, almost, the way your character feels out of place. I think that's right. I think Jack probably laments the age we're in. Born a little bit too late, for sure. I think Amy and Dan have this knack for writing really irreverent characters. I think we like the characters for that reason. They're characters who tell truths we're too afraid to tell. They're certainly not afraid to have cruelty be a part of their nature. But [Amy and Dan's] affection for people — for ballet — comes from a purebred heart. They'll never give you enough time to tell you how serious they are about it without pulling the rug out from underneath that sincerity. Part of how the show gets away with being irreverent and funny is the way the Palladinos hired so many real dancers. The art form is very respected. The dancers were fantastic. They adopted this idea that I was the head of their actual company. They were fully invested, fully engaged in the story. And they had to do the hardest work on set by repeating those moves day in and day out. I found them to be the biggest inspiration, seeing how early in the day they would get there and how dedicated they would be all day. Just as the case was with Maisel, everybody on the crew worked to make the immersion into the world fluid. And those dancers just provided this environment where you just — everything was in a constant state of motion. It felt very kinetic. Kinetic is a great word. I love how much of the show features dancers in the background, warming up or stretching or just talking to each other. It's quite beautiful. I love the touch at the end of the episodes showing dancers in more documentary style, too. Amy and Dan are so specific in that they reject close-ups at every turn, But to give the dancers a closer look at the end just makes it very clear what this love letter is about. Did you learn anything about ballet or dance yourself? I learned a lot about the history of ballet. The biggest thing that stood out was the way that for the first 200 years of the art form, there was nothing written down. The dances lived in the dancers' bodies and they told these stories to each other over the course of time. When you consider the history of turmoil of the countries who practice ballet, it's so remarkable. You get a sense of the meaning of survival of an art form. I don't know if 'hope' is the right word, but it's something. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays your Parisian counterpart, and Europe's arts face similar and different challenges from the U.S. — how did you two play off of your contrast? I think they kind of mirror each other. They find great relief in knowing that there's another one [of them] out there. I think they both share this mysterious thirst-quenching affection for ballet, but also they don't know what odds they'd have at any kind of art [themselves]. I'm such a fan of [Gainsbourg]. Her work is always so compelling, and just to get to have her around for this was a remarkable gift. I couldn't believe our luck. I think she's really remarkable in this show. She's like Gena Rowlands to me, her talent, her ease is really remarkable. The is already confirmed. Do you have any hopes for where the next installment will take us? I do have hopes, but I dare not say them. My feeling with Amy and Dan is that they are the guiding light to this stuff. They're so committed to their stories and I'll follow them. I just hope that they keep digging. I think that there's a lot to be [drawn] from this world. I did have a request for Amy a long time ago, I told her that I wanted to be in a cape. I was really jealous that Tony Shalhoub got to wear a cape [on Maisel] and I don't think that he should be the only one. *** All eight episodes of Étoile season one are streaming on Prime Video. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise 'Yellowstone' and the Sprawling Dutton Family Tree, Explained
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Étoile': 'Gilmore Girls' creator gives us another endearing mother-daughter relationship in new show
Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Bunheads creator Amy Sherman-Palladino continues to make smart, witty, fun and incredibly enjoyable TV with the release of Étoile (now on Prime Video). Co-created with her husband Daniel Palladino, Étoile is centred around two struggling ballet companies, one in New York and one in Paris, that decide to do a talent swap to try to reinvigorate interest and hopefully make some money. Led by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel alum Luke Kirby, along with Gideon Glick, and French talents Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou de Laâge, in addition to Gilmore Girls star Yanic Truesdale, Étoile has that signature Sherman-Palladino tone, but with an interesting immersion into the international world of ballet. If you're thinking filming a series in two countries and two languages is a lofty goal, the show's creators agree, but they pulled it off with great success. The very first scene of the series shows a young dancer, Susu Li (LaMay Zhang), following along to a video of a ballet class on a cellphone. Her mom is a cleaner at the Metropolitan Ballet Theater in New York and records classes for her daughter to learn from, at the studio at night, while she's working. As the story progresses we meet Cheyenne Toussaint (de Laâge), a strong-willed French dancer who's among the talents swapped to New York City. It was the connection between Susu and Cheyenne that began the journey to create Étoile. "The relationship between Cheyenne and the little girl, Susu, was a germ of an idea that we were mulling, a ballerina who is a little contentious, has her own way of doing things and is constantly searching for the meaning in what ... her life has become," Sherman-Palladino told Yahoo Canada. "A very un-motherly person finds it in mentoring this little girl." "That was the initial thing, way, way, way back when Cheyenne wasn't even French then, she was American. And then when the idea of the swap and the two companies ... came into it, that's when it all started to blossom out from there. And that's when we decided, 'Hey, here's how we make sure that Luke Kirby has to look us in the eye for the next few months, and he can't go anywhere.'" Gilmore Girls fans fell in love with the mother-daughter relationship between Rory and Lorelai, and Sherman-Palladino gave us another endearing mother-daughter duo in Étoile, between Cheyenne and her mom Bruna (Marie Berto). But their bond isn't exactly warm and fuzzy like Lorelai and Rory. They're very direct with each other, almost harsh, but it's a quality they both share. Bruna is the complete opposite of a prima ballerina, but you get an understanding of why Cheyenne is so committed, not just to ballet, but to everything she's interested in. "We wanted her to come from a background where the mother had no interest in the arts, very blue collar, the arts were frivolous," Sherman-Palladino explained. "Because there was a feeling that it opened Cheyenne up to thinking about the world, thinking about the world around her, thinking about things other than just ballet." "It allowed her [to] think bigger, which also allowed her to be even more judgmental of people who don't think big and don't commit as much, and don't commit to everything. No matter what she does, she's 100 per cent in. ... She just doesn't understand a world where people aren't like that. She suffers no fools gladly, and so does her mother. So there's an interesting dynamic there between what she learned and how she put it into her life, which is so different from her mother's life." Sherman-Palladino also highlighted that de Laâge and Marie Berto together are a great pairing. "They should have a sitcom, a French sitcom," she said. "Just follow those two around all day long." "The talent that we got to harness in France was unbelievable and Marie and Lou together are just, they're just golden." Quirky characters are also Sherman-Palladino's specialty, and while that applies to many characters in Étoile, possibly the best example of that is Glick's character Tobias Bell. He's a New York choreographer who always has his headphones on, or around his neck, and has a unique way of working through his dances, including dancing in the middle of a busy New York street. When he moves to Paris, it just feels like chaos for him without his routine, and a significant source of his stress is not having access to his Crest toothpaste. But Glick actually started in the writers room for Étoile, and as Tobias developed in the story, it was clear that Glick was the best person for the role. "We worked with Gideon as an actor on Maisel ... and he was really interested in writing, and he gave us a couple of samples, and ... we really liked them," Palladino explained. "And he's such an intelligent actor, we knew that giving him his first writing job was going to be a bargain for us." "And then, as we had created this character, ... it was slowly dawning on us that it's Gideon. And as we were talking about the character in the room, ... we would look over at Gideon, and I know Gideon was kind of looking at us like, 'You haven't said anything, but am I?' It naturally evolved. ... Through osmosis I think we wrote it for him. He may have controlled our minds." While Étoile has a lot of beloved guest stars, including Kelly Bishop who played Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls, a particularly exciting cameo is Jonathan Groff, who starred alongside Glick in the musical Spring Awakening. Groff plays Tobias' estranged boyfriend and the two have an interesting, and hysterical moment of reconnection later in the season. "We knew Jonathan ... and it just seemed perfect to bring those two together," Palladino said. "They had not acted across from each other since Spring Awakening, so they were really, really excited." As much as we love watching projects led by Palladino and Sherman-Palladino, it's clear that actors love working with them just as much, if not more, with many of them returning collaborate with the duo on multiple projects. That includes two Canadian talents Luke Kirby, who's from Hamilton, Ont., and Yanic Truesdale, who played the beloved character of Michel Gerard in Gilmore Girls, who's from Montreal. "Luke, ... we wanted him to be the lead and we wanted to spend more time with him, ... and I just think he's so incredibly talented, and there's so many things that he can do that we didn't get to explore on Maisel because Lenny Bruce was a very specific character," Sherman-Palladino said. For Truesdale, Palladino and Sherman-Palladino were excited about being able to write a character for the actor that was "completely different" from Michel. "We have somebody who we know how to write for, we know how funny he is, we know all these things that he could do, and he speaks French," Sherman-Palladino said. "And we put him next to Charlotte and the two of them just clicked immediately." But Sherman-Palladino also highlighted that as she works with many stars from her shows, it's in the back of her mind to bring them back for a new role in another story. "Whenever you work with great people, one of the sad things about shows ending is the people that you look forward to writing for, ... I looked forward to writing for Rachel [Brosnahan], I looked forward to writing for Alex [Borstein]. And when you don't get to do that anymore, it feels like you've lost a limb or something," she said. "In the back of your mind you're kind of like, 'Yeah, I've got to get them back in. ... It's always there."
San Francisco Chronicle
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Can 'Étoile' make ballet cool? 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' creators pirouette to ballet-themed show
NEW YORK (AP) — Ballet is beautiful. Ballet is ethereal. Ballet is mysterious. Can ballet also be cool? The creators of the new Prime Video show 'Étoile' – Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, of 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' fame — are betting yes. Or, shall we say 'oui' – the show is split between New York and Paris as it tracks the story of two ballet companies joining forces to attract audiences and stay afloat. And 'afloat' is a good word to describe the chief appeal of the show: real lifts, not to mention turns and leaps, by real ballet dancers, many of whom are in the cast. Sharp-eyed viewers might notice several New York City Ballet stars in supporting roles. A mix of 'Bunheads' (also from the Palladinos), 'Emily in Paris' — with way more leg warmers — and perhaps classic ballet movie 'The Turning Point,' 'Étoile' seems to know it lives and dies by the quality of its dancing. You can't fake it And that's because, as actor David Alvarez says, 'Ballet is one of those things you can't fake.' 'You can't just wing it and pretend you can do it,' says Alvarez, who made his name as one of the original dancing Billy Elliots on Broadway, winning a best-actor Tony along with two other Billys at age 14, and later played Bernardo in Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story' remake. 'Any dancer will be able to spot from a mile away that you're not actually a ballet dancer, just by how you walk or your posture,' he says. Alvarez plays Gael, a dancer who has a stormy relationship with Cheyenne, herself a very stormy prima ballerina — or 'étoile,' the French word for "star' — who comes to New York as part of an elaborate talent swap between the two companies. The gimmick has made uneasy partners of Jack, who runs Metropolitan Ballet Theater in New York, and Geneviève (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who runs the top company in Paris. (The two troupes are very thinly veiled versions of New York City Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.) Dancers learned to act, and actors to dance Alvarez is one of those hybrids, an actor who also dances. Taïs Vinolo, who plays young dancer Mishi, is a real-life ballet dancer who's making her acting debut. Normally, she says, 'We express with our body. Expressing with another form, like speaking and acting, was a bit of a challenge.' Minolo feels confident that the creators found the truth in ballet. 'People don't have a good idea of what ballet is and how hard it is,' she says. 'They see the pink tutu and the pointe shoes. But they don't see that it's very physical. And it's hard. It's a lot of discipline, and it's also very hard mentally.' Ballet dancers are trained athletes The physical challenge of ballet was just what Sherman-Palladino was looking to get across. The showrunner trained seriously in ballet from the age of 4, before fate guided her into a writing career. 'And she has the back surgeries to prove it,' quips husband Dan. 'It's an amazing world,' says Sherman-Palladino. 'They're amazing artists. And it's literally an art form where you're just guaranteed not to make any money. So you have to truly just love it. 'You know, they're trained athletes,' Sherman-Palladino adds. 'They're unbelievably strong, and just the things that they can do with their bodies is ridiculous.' She sees dance as like 'silent movies almost — it's storytelling, it's acting, it's emotion and heartache and happiness and love ... I think that so many people who think that dance is not for them just haven't seen it.' Lost in translation? Some of the French cast members barely spoke English, and vice versa. The show takes place in two languages — but the signature rat-a-tat Palladino banter can be hard to translate. 'It was tricky because we are very precise with our language, but our language doesn't exactly translate to French," Sherman-Palladino says. 'Finding a translator may have been the hardest thing that we had to deal with on the entire show — the right translator that caught the essence of our script. So we kept changing translators 'til we finally found one that everybody could agree on.' For Lou De Laâge, who plays Cheyenne, it was especially challenging because she spoke little English when she was cast. But the writer's strike meant she had nine months to prepare, rather than three, which proved a huge help. Gainsbourg, a British-French actor and singer-songwriter, spoke English but still found it tricky to get into the Palladino rhythm. 'I was very nervous about learning the lines,' she says. 'I'm very slow. That was already challenging. Then the rhythm was something completely new. … in the end, I got to understand the humor and the pace, (but) it took me a little while.' Learning what ballet is all about Kirby, whose Jack runs Metropolitan Ballet Theater, says he knew little about ballet beforehand — but had a cousin who was a dancer, 'and so I'd see her putting her body through torment.' Gainsbourg only spent a year studying ballet when she was 4. She stopped but did piano in the same building — the Salle Pleyel in Paris — and remembers the elevator stopping on the ballet floor, where she'd go into the dressing room and pick up 'a very good, talcum powder smell. And that's my emotional remembrance of ballet.' As for De Laâge, her mother enrolled her in intensive dance training as a child, but it was a mother's dream and not the daughter's. 'So that became a fight between us because she wanted that for me, and I didn't want that for me,' De Laâge says. As an actor, 'I worked with really good dancers, but that wasn't my passion. I love watching dance.' What Gainsbourg has taken away from doing a series on ballet is 'the fact that it's so extreme and that everybody is working there for their passion. It's not about money ... it's really about the art, and they're all completely passionate.' Just don't touch the pointe shoes! Ask the real ballerinas in the cast — for example, NYCB stars Tiler Peck and Unity Phelan, who play small roles, as does former principal Robbie Fairchild — and they'll tell you: Ballerinas sew their own ribbons on their pointe shoes. Nobody does it for them. So Minolo had to demur when, on the series, the crew offered to sew the ribbons on for her. 'I have a very specific way,' she explains. 'And I don't like when people touch my pointe shoes. I like to stitch the edge of my pointe shoes to make the platform bigger." 'I do that too!' replies Alvarez, and the two laugh. 'Good for balancing." 'Yeah exactly,' Minolo giggles. "You understand.'
Winnipeg Free Press
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Can ‘Étoile' make ballet cool? ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' creators pirouette to ballet-themed show
NEW YORK (AP) — Ballet is beautiful. Ballet is ethereal. Ballet is mysterious. Can ballet also be cool? The creators of the new Prime Video show 'Étoile' – Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, of 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' fame — are betting yes. Or, shall we say 'oui' – the show is split between New York and Paris as it tracks the story of two ballet companies joining forces to attract audiences and stay afloat. And 'afloat' is a good word to describe the chief appeal of the show: real lifts, not to mention turns and leaps, by real ballet dancers, many of whom are in the cast. Sharp-eyed viewers might notice several New York City Ballet stars in supporting roles. A mix of 'Bunheads' (also from the Palladinos), 'Emily in Paris' — with way more leg warmers — and perhaps classic ballet movie 'The Turning Point,' 'Étoile' seems to know it lives and dies by the quality of its dancing. You can't fake it And that's because, as actor David Alvarez says, 'Ballet is one of those things you can't fake.' 'You can't just wing it and pretend you can do it,' says Alvarez, who made his name as one of the original dancing Billy Elliots on Broadway, winning a best-actor Tony along with two other Billys at age 14, and later played Bernardo in Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story' remake. 'Any dancer will be able to spot from a mile away that you're not actually a ballet dancer, just by how you walk or your posture,' he says. Alvarez plays Gael, a dancer who has a stormy relationship with Cheyenne, herself a very stormy prima ballerina — or 'étoile,' the French word for 'star' — who comes to New York as part of an elaborate talent swap between the two companies. The gimmick has made uneasy partners of Jack, who runs Metropolitan Ballet Theater in New York, and Geneviève (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who runs the top company in Paris. (The two troupes are very thinly veiled versions of New York City Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.) Dancers learned to act, and actors to dance Alvarez is one of those hybrids, an actor who also dances. Taïs Vinolo, who plays young dancer Mishi, is a real-life ballet dancer who's making her acting debut. Normally, she says, 'We express with our body. Expressing with another form, like speaking and acting, was a bit of a challenge.' Minolo feels confident that the creators found the truth in ballet. 'People don't have a good idea of what ballet is and how hard it is,' she says. 'They see the pink tutu and the pointe shoes. But they don't see that it's very physical. And it's hard. It's a lot of discipline, and it's also very hard mentally.' Ballet dancers are trained athletes The physical challenge of ballet was just what Sherman-Palladino was looking to get across. The showrunner trained seriously in ballet from the age of 4, before fate guided her into a writing career. 'And she has the back surgeries to prove it,' quips husband Dan. 'It's an amazing world,' says Sherman-Palladino. 'They're amazing artists. And it's literally an art form where you're just guaranteed not to make any money. So you have to truly just love it. 'You know, they're trained athletes,' Sherman-Palladino adds. 'They're unbelievably strong, and just the things that they can do with their bodies is ridiculous.' She sees dance as like 'silent movies almost — it's storytelling, it's acting, it's emotion and heartache and happiness and love … I think that so many people who think that dance is not for them just haven't seen it.' Lost in translation? Some of the French cast members barely spoke English, and vice versa. The show takes place in two languages — but the signature rat-a-tat Palladino banter can be hard to translate. 'It was tricky because we are very precise with our language, but our language doesn't exactly translate to French,' Sherman-Palladino says. 'Finding a translator may have been the hardest thing that we had to deal with on the entire show — the right translator that caught the essence of our script. So we kept changing translators 'til we finally found one that everybody could agree on.' For Lou De Laâge, who plays Cheyenne, it was especially challenging because she spoke little English when she was cast. But the writer's strike meant she had nine months to prepare, rather than three, which proved a huge help. Gainsbourg, a British-French actor and singer-songwriter, spoke English but still found it tricky to get into the Palladino rhythm. 'I was very nervous about learning the lines,' she says. 'I'm very slow. That was already challenging. Then the rhythm was something completely new. … in the end, I got to understand the humor and the pace, (but) it took me a little while.' Learning what ballet is all about Kirby, whose Jack runs Metropolitan Ballet Theater, says he knew little about ballet beforehand — but had a cousin who was a dancer, 'and so I'd see her putting her body through torment.' Gainsbourg only spent a year studying ballet when she was 4. She stopped but did piano in the same building — the Salle Pleyel in Paris — and remembers the elevator stopping on the ballet floor, where she'd go into the dressing room and pick up 'a very good, talcum powder smell. And that's my emotional remembrance of ballet.' As for De Laâge, her mother enrolled her in intensive dance training as a child, but it was a mother's dream and not the daughter's. 'So that became a fight between us because she wanted that for me, and I didn't want that for me,' De Laâge says. As an actor, 'I worked with really good dancers, but that wasn't my passion. I love watching dance.' What Gainsbourg has taken away from doing a series on ballet is 'the fact that it's so extreme and that everybody is working there for their passion. It's not about money … it's really about the art, and they're all completely passionate.' Just don't touch the pointe shoes! During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. Ask the real ballerinas in the cast — for example, NYCB stars Tiler Peck and Unity Phelan, who play small roles, as does former principal Robbie Fairchild — and they'll tell you: Ballerinas sew their own ribbons on their pointe shoes. Nobody does it for them. So Minolo had to demur when, on the series, the crew offered to sew the ribbons on for her. 'I have a very specific way,' she explains. 'And I don't like when people touch my pointe shoes. I like to stitch the edge of my pointe shoes to make the platform bigger.' 'I do that too!' replies Alvarez, and the two laugh. 'Good for balancing.' 'Yeah exactly,' Minolo giggles. 'You understand.'
The Independent
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Can 'Étoile' make ballet cool? 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' creators pirouette to ballet-themed show
Ballet is beautiful. Ballet is ethereal. Ballet is mysterious. Can ballet also be cool? The creators of the new Prime Video show 'Étoile' – Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, of 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' fame — are betting yes. Or, shall we say 'oui' – the show is split between New York and Paris as it tracks the story of two ballet companies joining forces to attract audiences and stay afloat. And 'afloat' is a good word to describe the chief appeal of the show: real lifts, not to mention turns and leaps, by real ballet dancers, many of whom are in the cast. Sharp-eyed viewers might notice several New York City Ballet stars in supporting roles. A mix of 'Bunheads' (also from the Palladinos), 'Emily in Paris' — with way more leg warmers — and perhaps classic ballet movie 'The Turning Point,' 'Étoile' seems to know it lives and dies by the quality of its dancing. You can't fake it And that's because, as actor David Alvarez says, 'Ballet is one of those things you can't fake.' 'You can't just wing it and pretend you can do it,' says Alvarez, who made his name as one of the original dancing Billy Elliots on Broadway, winning a best-actor Tony along with two other Billys at age 14, and later played Bernardo in Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story' remake. 'Any dancer will be able to spot from a mile away that you're not actually a ballet dancer, just by how you walk or your posture,' he says. Alvarez plays Gael, a dancer who has a stormy relationship with Cheyenne, herself a very stormy prima ballerina — or 'étoile,' the French word for "star' — who comes to New York as part of an elaborate talent swap between the two companies. The gimmick has made uneasy partners of Jack, who runs Metropolitan Ballet Theater in New York, and Geneviève (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who runs the top company in Paris. (The two troupes are very thinly veiled versions of New York City Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.) Dancers learned to act, and actors to dance Alvarez is one of those hybrids, an actor who also dances. Taïs Vinolo, who plays young dancer Mishi, is a real-life ballet dancer who's making her acting debut. Normally, she says, 'We express with our body. Expressing with another form, like speaking and acting, was a bit of a challenge.' Minolo feels confident that the creators found the truth in ballet. 'People don't have a good idea of what ballet is and how hard it is,' she says. 'They see the pink tutu and the pointe shoes. But they don't see that it's very physical. And it's hard. It's a lot of discipline, and it's also very hard mentally.' Ballet dancers are trained athletes The physical challenge of ballet was just what Sherman-Palladino was looking to get across. The showrunner trained seriously in ballet from the age of 4, before fate guided her into a writing career. 'And she has the back surgeries to prove it,' quips husband Dan. 'It's an amazing world,' says Sherman-Palladino. 'They're amazing artists. And it's literally an art form where you're just guaranteed not to make any money. So you have to truly just love it. 'You know, they're trained athletes,' Sherman-Palladino adds. 'They're unbelievably strong, and just the things that they can do with their bodies is ridiculous.' She sees dance as like 'silent movies almost — it's storytelling, it's acting, it's emotion and heartache and happiness and love ... I think that so many people who think that dance is not for them just haven't seen it.' Lost in translation? Some of the French cast members barely spoke English, and vice versa. The show takes place in two languages — but the signature rat-a-tat Palladino banter can be hard to translate. 'It was tricky because we are very precise with our language, but our language doesn't exactly translate to French," Sherman-Palladino says. 'Finding a translator may have been the hardest thing that we had to deal with on the entire show — the right translator that caught the essence of our script. So we kept changing translators 'til we finally found one that everybody could agree on.' For Lou De Laâge, who plays Cheyenne, it was especially challenging because she spoke little English when she was cast. But the writer's strike meant she had nine months to prepare, rather than three, which proved a huge help. Gainsbourg, a British-French actor and singer-songwriter, spoke English but still found it tricky to get into the Palladino rhythm. 'I was very nervous about learning the lines,' she says. 'I'm very slow. That was already challenging. Then the rhythm was something completely new. … in the end, I got to understand the humor and the pace, (but) it took me a little while.' Learning what ballet is all about Kirby, whose Jack runs Metropolitan Ballet Theater, says he knew little about ballet beforehand — but had a cousin who was a dancer, 'and so I'd see her putting her body through torment.' Gainsbourg only spent a year studying ballet when she was 4. She stopped but did piano in the same building — the Salle Pleyel in Paris — and remembers the elevator stopping on the ballet floor, where she'd go into the dressing room and pick up 'a very good, talcum powder smell. And that's my emotional remembrance of ballet.' As for De Laâge, her mother enrolled her in intensive dance training as a child, but it was a mother's dream and not the daughter's. 'So that became a fight between us because she wanted that for me, and I didn't want that for me,' De Laâge says. As an actor, 'I worked with really good dancers, but that wasn't my passion. I love watching dance.' What Gainsbourg has taken away from doing a series on ballet is 'the fact that it's so extreme and that everybody is working there for their passion. It's not about money ... it's really about the art, and they're all completely passionate.' Just don't touch the pointe shoes! Ask the real ballerinas in the cast — for example, NYCB stars Tiler Peck and Unity Phelan, who play small roles, as does former principal Robbie Fairchild — and they'll tell you: Ballerinas sew their own ribbons on their pointe shoes. Nobody does it for them. So Minolo had to demur when, on the series, the crew offered to sew the ribbons on for her. 'I have a very specific way,' she explains. 'And I don't like when people touch my pointe shoes. I like to stitch the edge of my pointe shoes to make the platform bigger." 'I do that too!' replies Alvarez, and the two laugh. 'Good for balancing." 'Yeah exactly,' Minolo giggles. "You understand.'
