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shallowness) wrote2025-06-26 08:04 am
shallowness) wrote2025-06-26 08:04 am
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Étoile - 1.4 The Hiccup
Sisu was experiencing the ups and downs of having Cheyenne as a patron. Go her for politely asking Cheyenne not to make her life in class more difficult (echoes of Mishi’s issues), and getting through to Cheyenne, who initially couldn’t understand why the girl might want to be friends with ‘the mediocrities.’ Heh. (But add to new girl sprung on your contemporaries angst the particular pressures of being a first-generation immigrant.)
Jack was having to watch wrathfully from the sidelines as the newly renamed Shamblee Thater was unveiled, while Shamblee made several Fish jokes. Then, like magic, Shamblee was in Paris, making Genevieve’s life more difficult (the recurring issues of wearing heels, which she clearly doesn’t love, and trying to get Mme. Macron to meet here, the Tobiasness of TOBIAS). Shamblee said that he doesn’t actually have clones yet (referencing the fact that they’d had Callow play several characters in one restaurant in the previous ep) although with all the transatlantic travelling, he might like one. Oh, and Genvieve might have to deal with a ‘hiccup’ in the press. I don’t get why she didn’t get her assistant to…keep an eye on the news or get some sort of alert for Shamblee news on her phone, but she was blindsided to learn in an interview that said hiccup was a massive oil spill off the French coast. Although for me, the saddest part of that interview was that she’s only an ‘interim’ whatever her job title is.
The momentum was building for the two companies’ gala performance. I loved the intercutting between the two rehearsals, one with needy, peacocky Gabin and Tobias the Choreographer, and the contrasting (in mood and music) lyrical dance between Cheyenne and Gael. Absolutely made sense that the latter two were having sex afterwards, typical that we found this out as Jack did because it had been on his couch. Was on his side about that.
Jack’s crisis was one of the dancers getting injured doing something stupid on TikTok, but afterglowing Cheyenne offered to step in. (His afterglow or the Force of Nature that is Cheyenne Effect had flaky Gael agreeing to sign an ironclad contract with Jack.) It seems as if there is a bit of sexual jealousy from Jack WRT to Cheyenne, among all the managerial frustration at the temperamental artiste magnified by Cheyenne’s Cheyennitude.
Genevieve’s press conference after the hiccup interview went worse – mild diversion at her taking Mishi and dog to stay with Cheyenne’s mother. I presume Mishi survived the night. And then Tobias didn’t turn up for a photoshoot. And Not!Greta Thunberg and other protesters vowed to come for Genevieve (as if that would do anything to stop the oil spill.) By the time of the Paris gala (ha, yes, which would be first, if it was on the same night), Genevieve was in the sort of mindset where she all but offered that the Culture Minister (who’d noticed that Mishi and her things were gone, possibly noticing the absence of the dog first) could sack her tomorrow.
We got to see excerpts of the galas, although the first one was…ballet dancers walking like a balletic march. I preferred literally every other clip we saw. The one of Mishi, dancing free was probably the one that mattered most emotionally. Poor Gabin was in a mood.
In New York, we got to see more of Cheyenne and Gael dancing ‘Bound to’ (which is choreographed by Christopher Weeldon), and the new Tobias dance where she was replacing the injured dancer. And we learned that Tobias was, in fact, in New York, and having REACTIONS to the staging of his work. The audience loved it.
Tobias raced backstage to rant, Cheyenne furiously wanted to know what she’d done wrong, in between adoring curtain calls. She took the chance to make a glum speech calling out Shamblee (who was in the audience, ridiculously attired, and somehow not injuring himself with the champagne flutes in his pockets) for the oil spill. Jack tried to cope with all this, but Cheyenne got her answer from Tobias – she hadn’t done anything wrong, but he’d have choreographed the dance differently had he known she’d be dancing it (as he used the wrong name for the dancer she was replacing and had forgotten that he’d okayed the name of the piece, who knows if this is true.) So they had an ad hoc rehearsal.
Gabin got into a punch up with a more senior dancer who was winding him up. When Tobias turned up for rehearsals next morning, he got to make a big speech about it, and his frustrations, one of which was that his choreographer was going off and cheating with another dancer (although in this verse, she’s the étoile, so a choreographer is of course going to do that) got through enough to Tobias that he acknowledged he might have messed up a little, but the work was the thing. (They’re playing the relationship between choreographer and dancer using the language of personal relationships, except it’s not quite that.)
It's not quite always pulling off the OTT komedy (eg in Shamblee piloting himself back across the Atlantic), although a part of me wants to believe that a lot of the absurdity is totally what happens in ballet companies. And then they go and make gorgeous dance.
Jack was having to watch wrathfully from the sidelines as the newly renamed Shamblee Thater was unveiled, while Shamblee made several Fish jokes. Then, like magic, Shamblee was in Paris, making Genevieve’s life more difficult (the recurring issues of wearing heels, which she clearly doesn’t love, and trying to get Mme. Macron to meet here, the Tobiasness of TOBIAS). Shamblee said that he doesn’t actually have clones yet (referencing the fact that they’d had Callow play several characters in one restaurant in the previous ep) although with all the transatlantic travelling, he might like one. Oh, and Genvieve might have to deal with a ‘hiccup’ in the press. I don’t get why she didn’t get her assistant to…keep an eye on the news or get some sort of alert for Shamblee news on her phone, but she was blindsided to learn in an interview that said hiccup was a massive oil spill off the French coast. Although for me, the saddest part of that interview was that she’s only an ‘interim’ whatever her job title is.
The momentum was building for the two companies’ gala performance. I loved the intercutting between the two rehearsals, one with needy, peacocky Gabin and Tobias the Choreographer, and the contrasting (in mood and music) lyrical dance between Cheyenne and Gael. Absolutely made sense that the latter two were having sex afterwards, typical that we found this out as Jack did because it had been on his couch. Was on his side about that.
Jack’s crisis was one of the dancers getting injured doing something stupid on TikTok, but afterglowing Cheyenne offered to step in. (His afterglow or the Force of Nature that is Cheyenne Effect had flaky Gael agreeing to sign an ironclad contract with Jack.) It seems as if there is a bit of sexual jealousy from Jack WRT to Cheyenne, among all the managerial frustration at the temperamental artiste magnified by Cheyenne’s Cheyennitude.
Genevieve’s press conference after the hiccup interview went worse – mild diversion at her taking Mishi and dog to stay with Cheyenne’s mother. I presume Mishi survived the night. And then Tobias didn’t turn up for a photoshoot. And Not!Greta Thunberg and other protesters vowed to come for Genevieve (as if that would do anything to stop the oil spill.) By the time of the Paris gala (ha, yes, which would be first, if it was on the same night), Genevieve was in the sort of mindset where she all but offered that the Culture Minister (who’d noticed that Mishi and her things were gone, possibly noticing the absence of the dog first) could sack her tomorrow.
We got to see excerpts of the galas, although the first one was…ballet dancers walking like a balletic march. I preferred literally every other clip we saw. The one of Mishi, dancing free was probably the one that mattered most emotionally. Poor Gabin was in a mood.
In New York, we got to see more of Cheyenne and Gael dancing ‘Bound to’ (which is choreographed by Christopher Weeldon), and the new Tobias dance where she was replacing the injured dancer. And we learned that Tobias was, in fact, in New York, and having REACTIONS to the staging of his work. The audience loved it.
Tobias raced backstage to rant, Cheyenne furiously wanted to know what she’d done wrong, in between adoring curtain calls. She took the chance to make a glum speech calling out Shamblee (who was in the audience, ridiculously attired, and somehow not injuring himself with the champagne flutes in his pockets) for the oil spill. Jack tried to cope with all this, but Cheyenne got her answer from Tobias – she hadn’t done anything wrong, but he’d have choreographed the dance differently had he known she’d be dancing it (as he used the wrong name for the dancer she was replacing and had forgotten that he’d okayed the name of the piece, who knows if this is true.) So they had an ad hoc rehearsal.
Gabin got into a punch up with a more senior dancer who was winding him up. When Tobias turned up for rehearsals next morning, he got to make a big speech about it, and his frustrations, one of which was that his choreographer was going off and cheating with another dancer (although in this verse, she’s the étoile, so a choreographer is of course going to do that) got through enough to Tobias that he acknowledged he might have messed up a little, but the work was the thing. (They’re playing the relationship between choreographer and dancer using the language of personal relationships, except it’s not quite that.)
It's not quite always pulling off the OTT komedy (eg in Shamblee piloting himself back across the Atlantic), although a part of me wants to believe that a lot of the absurdity is totally what happens in ballet companies. And then they go and make gorgeous dance.