1.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
2.
Serge Lifar
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Serge Lifar –15 December 1986, Lausanne, Switzerland) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer of Ukrainian origin, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century. Not only a dancer, Lifar was also a choreographer, director, writer, theoretician about dance, Lifar was born in Kiev, Ukraine. His year of birth is shown as 1904. He was the pupil of Bronislava Nijinska in Kiev, in 1921 he left the Soviet Union and was noticed by Serge Diaghilev, who sent him to Turin in order to improve his technique with Enrico Cecchetti. He made his debut at the Ballets Russes in 1923, where he became the dancer in 1925. Lifar was considered the successor to Nijinsky in the Ballets Russes and he was cast at the age of 21 opposite Tamara Karsavina in Nijinskas Roméo et Juliette, Karsavina was twice his age. Lifar gave the company a new strength and purpose, initiating the rebirth of ballet in France, as part of his effort to revitalize dance, Lifar thought the basic principles of ballet—specifically the five positions of the feet—denied mobility for the dancer. He codified two additional positions, known as the sixth and seventh positions, with the feet turned in, during his three decades as director of the Paris Opéra Ballet, Lifar led the company through the turbulent times of World War II and the German occupation of France. He is credited for saving many Jewish and other minority dancers from the Nazi concentration camps during World War II, ironically, after the war, Lifar was forced to go on leave while accusations of being a collaborator were investigated. During this three-year period, Balanchine was hired to replace him, returning to his former position, Lifar brought the Paris Opéra Ballet to America and performed to full houses at the New York City Center. Audiences were enthusiastic and had great admiration for the company of dancers and he undoubtedly influenced Yvette Chauviré, Janine Charrat, and Roland Petit. In 1958, he was rejected by the Paris Ballet theater workers, on 30 March 1958, at age 52, Lifar faced off against the 72-year-old impresario George de Cuevas in a duel in France. The duel was precipitated by an argument over changes to Black and White, Lifar had his face slapped in public after insisting that he retained the rights to Black and White. Lifar sent his seconds to Cuevas who refused to extend an apology, as duels had been technically outlawed in the 17th Century, the time and location of the duel were not disclosed to the public. In 1977 the Paris Opéra Ballet devoted an evening to his choreography. He died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1986, aged 81, editions Sauret published his memoirs, titled Les Mémoires dIcare, posthumously in 1993. The title references one of his greatest roles in the ballet Icare, the story of the ballet is based on the ancient Greek myth of Icarus, whose father Daedalus builds him a pair of artificial wings. Disobeying his fathers orders, Icarus flies too close to the sun, the Serge Lifar Foundation was set up on 23 August 1989 by Lifars companion, Countess Lillian Ahlefeldt-Laurvig
3.
Serge Gainsbourg
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Serge Gainsbourg was a French singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet, painter, screenwriter, writer, actor, and director. His lyrical work incorporated a vast amount of word play to hoodwink the listener, often for humorous, provocative. Common types of play in his songs include mondegreen, onomatopoeia, rhyme, spoonerism, dysphemism, paraprosdokian. Through the course of his career, Gainsbourg wrote over 550 songs, since his death, Gainsbourgs music has reached legendary stature in France. He has also gained a following in the English-speaking world. Born in Paris, France, Gainsbourg was the son of Jewish Ukrainian migrants, Joseph Ginsburg and Olga, who fled to Paris after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Joseph Ginsburg was a trained musician whose profession was playing the piano in cabarets and casinos, he taught his children - Gainsbourg. Gainsbourgs childhood was affected by the occupation of France by Germany in World War II. The identifying yellow star Jews were required to wear haunted Gainsbourg, during the occupation, the Jewish Ginsburg family was able to make their way from Paris to Limoges, traveling under false papers. Limoges was in the Zone libre under the administration of the collaborationist Vichy government, after the war, Gainsbourg obtained work teaching music and drawing in a school outside of Paris, in Mesnil-Le-Roi. The school was set up under the auspices of local rabbis, here Gainsbourg heard the accounts of Nazi persecution and genocide, stories that resonated for Gainsbourg far into the future. Before he was 30 years old, Gainsbourg was a disillusioned painter, Gainsbourg changed his first name to Serge, feeling that this was representative of his Russian background and because, as Jane Birkin relates, Lucien reminded him of a hairdressers assistant. He chose Gainsbourg as his last name, in homage to the English painter Thomas Gainsborough and he married Elisabeth Lize Levitsky on 3 November 1951 and divorced in 1957. He married a second time on 7 January 1964, to Françoise-Antoinette Béatrice Pancrazzi and he divorced Béatrice in February 1966. In late 1967 he had a short but ardent love affair with Brigitte Bardot, to whom he dedicated the song, in mid-1968 Gainsbourg fell in love with the younger English singer and actress Jane Birkin, whom he met during the shooting of the film Slogan. Their relationship lasted over a decade, in 1971 they had a daughter, the actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. Although many sources state that they were married, according to their daughter Charlotte this was not the case. Birkin remembers the beginning of her affair with Gainsbourg, he first took her to a nightclub, then to a transvestite club, Birkin left Gainsbourg when pregnant with her third daughter Lou by the film director Jacques Doillon
4.
Yves Saint Laurent (brand)
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Yves Saint Laurent YSL is a French luxury fashion house founded by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé. Saint Laurent Paris revived its haute couture collection in 2015 under creative director Hedi Slimane, the new collection, Yves Saint Laurent Couture or Saint Laurent Paris 24, Rue de L’Université is the French houses first couture collection ever since the retirement of its legendary founder in 2002. Founded in 1961 it has considered one of the worlds most prominent fashion houses and known for its modern and iconic pieces. Today Saint Laurent Paris markets a range of womens and mens ready-to-wear products, leather goods, shoes. Yves Saint Laurent Beauté also has a presence in the luxury beauty market. Competitors to Yves Saint Laurent include, among many, the houses of Chanel, Burberry, Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton. The eponymous brand was founded by designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé in 1961, some of his most memorable collections include the Pop Art, Ballet Russes, Picasso, and Chinese ones. He also started mainstreaming the idea of wearing silhouettes from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s and he was the first, in 1966, to popularize ready-to-wear in an attempt to democratize fashion, with Rive Gauche and a boutique of the same name. Ambassador to the couturier during the late 1970s and early 1980s was London socialite millionairess Diane Vandelli, making the brand more popular among the European jet-set. The brand continued to expand in the 1980s and early 1990s with fragrances for men and women, having launched its cosmetic line in 1978. However, by 1992 the companys profits were declining and the share price had fallen. In 1993, the Saint Laurent fashion house was sold to the pharmaceuticals company Sanofi, in the 1998–1999 seasons, Alber Elbaz, formerly of Lanvin, designed three ready-to-wear collections. Pierre Bergé appointed Hedi Slimane as collections and art director in 1997, Hedi Slimane decided to leave the house two years later, and became head of couture menswear at Dior Homme. In 1999, Gucci bought the YSL brand and asked Tom Ford to design the collection while Saint Laurent would design the haute couture collection. In 2002, dogged by years of health, drug abuse, depression, alcoholism. Reflecting on his career and impact on the industry, Saint Laurent was heavily quoted around the world for stating, Chanel freed women. Saint Laurent also stated, I created the contemporary womans wardrobe, the prêt-à-porter line was produced under the direction of Stefano Pilati after Tom Ford left in 2004. His style was decidedly more French than the overtly sexy image that Tom Ford propagated
5.
Max Ernst
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Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a pioneer of the Dada movement. Max Ernst was born in Brühl, near Cologne, the third of nine children of a middle-class Catholic family and his father Philipp was a teacher of the deaf and an amateur painter, a devout Christian and a strict disciplinarian. He inspired in Max a penchant for defying authority, while his interest in painting and sketching in nature influenced Max to take up painting himself, in 1909 Ernst enrolled in the University of Bonn, studying philosophy, art history, literature, psychology and psychiatry. In 1911 Ernst befriended August Macke and joined his Die Rheinischen Expressionisten group of artists, in 1912 he visited the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, where works by Pablo Picasso and post-Impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin profoundly influenced his approach to art. His own work was exhibited the same year together with that of the Das Junge Rheinland group, at Galerie Feldman in Cologne, in 1914 Ernst met Hans Arp in Cologne. The two soon became friends and their relationship lasted for fifty years, after Ernst completed his studies in the summer, his life was interrupted by World War I. Ernst was drafted and served both on the Western and the Eastern front, such was the devastating effect of the war on the artist that in his autobiography he referred to his time in the army thus, On the first of August 1914 M. E. died. He was resurrected on the eleventh of November 1918, however, for a brief period on the Western Front, Ernst was assigned to chart maps, which allowed him to continue painting. Several German Expressionist painters died in action during the war, among them Macke, Ernst was demobilized in 1918 and returned to Cologne. He soon married art history student Luise Straus, whom he had met in 1914, in 1919, Ernst visited Paul Klee in Munich and studied paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, which deeply impressed him. Also in 1919 Ernst, social activist Johannes Theodor Baargeld, in 1919–20 Ernst and Baargeld published various short-lived magazines such as Der Strom and die schammade, and organized Dada exhibitions. Ernst and Luises son Ulrich Jimmy Ernst was born on 24 June 1920, Ernsts marriage to Luise was short-lived. In 1921 he met Paul Éluard, who became a lifelong friend. Éluard bought two of Ernsts paintings and selected six collages to illustrate his poetry collection Répétitions, a year later the two collaborated on Les malheurs des immortels, and then with André Breton, whom Ernst met in 1921, on the magazine Litterature. During his first two years in Paris Ernst took various odd jobs to make a living and continued to paint, in 1923 the Éluards moved to a new home in Eaubonne, near Paris, where Ernst painted numerous murals. The same year his works were exhibited at Salon des Indépendants, although apparently accepting the ménage à trois at first, Éluard eventually became more concerned about the affair. In 1924 he abruptly left, first for Monaco, and then for Saigon and he soon asked his wife and Max Ernst to join him, both had to sell numerous paintings to finance the trip
6.
Pas de deux
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In ballet, a pas de deux is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The pas de deux is characteristic of classical ballet and can be found in many ballets, including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake. It is most often performed by a male and a female though there are exceptions, such as in the film White Nights, in which a pas de deux is performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. A grand pas de deux is a pas de deux that typically has five parts, consisting of an entrée. It is often considered to be the pièce de résistance and bravura highlight of a ballet and is performed by a leading pair of principal dancers. A grand pas de deux usually begins with an entrée, which serves as a prelude to. During the entrée, the dancers first appear on the stage and, typically with great pageantry, acknowledge each other, depending on the choreography, the ballerina and danseur may enter the stage simultaneously or at different times. The adagio or adage part of a pas de deux features graceful. In the adagio, the ballerina performs elegant, often slow, the danseur, in turn, strives to maintain a display of poise and seemingly effortless strength while providing support for the ballerina. Because of this support the adagio is sometimes called supported adagio, examples Upon completion of the adagio, the dancers separate and each dancer, in turn, takes center stage and performs a variation. In general, the variations are intended to showcase spectacular, acrobatic leaps and turns, as well as the skills, the danseurs variation is usually performed first, followed by the ballerinas variation. Examples The coda is the segment of a grand pas de deux. Elements of the pas de deux first appeared in the early 18th century as opening acts of operas and ballets in which a couple would perform identical dance steps. At that time and throughout the Baroque period, ballet dancing was evolving to show more dramatic content. For example, in The Loves of Mars and Venus ballet of 1717, Mars strove to portray gallantry, respect, ardent love and adoration, while Venus showed bashfulness, reciprocal love, and wishful looks. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries a romantic pas de deux emerged that involved physical contact. As the 19th century progressed, the became a showcase for the skills of the increasingly sophisticated ballerina. The ballets of the late 19th Century—particularly of those of Marius Petipa—introduced the concept of the pas de deux
