Dance Lessons with Alizee and/or Gregoire
 

The price for dance lessons at Gregoire and Alizee's studio is quite reasonable. From what I see in videos taken in the studio, Gregoire is the main teacher and Alizee seems to help out mostly in the front. I did see a few videos of other teachers in the summer program, but I imagine the two of them are around, so you might want to request Gregoire.

For a big fan, if you happen to be in Europe anyway, stopping by to take a few lessons might be a good idea. Beats just asking for an autograph. For the price of a few private lessons over a few days, you would actually personally know them.

Private Lesson - 36 €
Trial Lesson - 10 €
2 Lessons per week for a year - 266 €

http://www.danselyonnet.fr/tarifs.php

Good info to know zingy! I'll have to make sure I bring my credit card with me next time I go.

This is actually a common technique of social climbers. Find an interest of a celebrity or nobleman/old money and use that to know the person. That is one of the reasons charities try to get famous patrons. If a celebrity has an interest in saving the red tailed snail darter of Cucamonga, he would do expensive fundraisers, and the social climbers would buy the tickets for access. They would also know to discuss the snail darter or whatever else interested the celebrity.

Lady (NOT Princess!) Diana raised many, many millions for charity with this method. She was the ultimate person "to know."

Social climbing is a skill, one that women are the best at. There are many books written about it. Can't push too hard, need to do it just right.

Social climbing can be an expensive hobby, but "I know" (quotes intentional, this is about "who you know") social climbers that actually became friends of celebrities and old money people, as in even getting invited to their houses for dinner.

https://img.thriftbooks.com/api/imag...97cc7a4829.jpg

I think this is a subject that Bamagirl may know a few things about but she's on a trip and might not be able to respond for a few days.

Interesting bit of information. I'm surprised the cost is so modest.

i can see them doing this because they wanted to most of all and Alizee's previous fortune would keep them comfortable. It wouldn't surprise me if they're hardly making any money at all after all expenses are considered. Bot a bad deal for all, given both one day wanted to have a dance school one day. Looks like everyone wins!

Her financial situation has always been a big puzzle to us. We think she should have made plenty of money from her early years (1999-2004), but one of the interesting rumors and I do stress rumors of what happened in her life is that Jeremy came along and told her she wasn't making as much money as she should be. So how much money did she make?

She's always seemed to like expensive accessories, yet we've never seen her in an expensive car.

I think she could have had her own place built in Ajaccio, after she moved back there, yet she chose to move into an apartment/condo that had a great view of the Blood Islands, a view she treasured so much. Was that view from that apartment/condo, more important to her than owning a place of her own?

We see today, more and more new fans come along, listening to her music, but in today's world, does that generate any serious money for her or is most of that lost due to pirating?

We saw from one of her early interviews that though we see she certainly wasn't surrounded in luxury, she never wanted. A woman who except for her expensive accessories, many of which she receives money for endorsing, she's never sought out luxury.

She could be set for life financially, or she may need that money from the studio.

I tend to think she's in very good financial shape, but I certainly can't say that for sure. She is a very hard person to figure out.

Well, this website says:
The French singer has an estimated net worth of $ 215 million. It owes its money to some smart equity investments, a substantial number of properties, and lucrative sponsorship deals with CoverGirl cosmetics. She also owns several restaurants (the “Fat Alizée Burger” chain) in Paris, a soccer team (the “Ajaccio Angels”), has launched her own vodka brand (Pure Wonderalizée - France) and is now trying to reach a younger target group with its well-selling perfume line ("From Alizée with love") and the fashion line "Seduction by Alizée".:))


The apartment offered enough room for 2 people and the view is really beautiful. I think owning your own property also requires a certain amount of maintenance, even when you are not at home.

Some suggestions.

If you go there for dance lessons, go before a holiday. Dance schools often have a party before a holiday, and thus a higher chance to meet and talk to the owners.

If you take private lessons, say you are taking lessons for an upcoming wedding and a cruise.

If you take a private lesson and are male, you would likely take the lesson with the female employee. Maybe higher odds to get Gregoire if you take a group lesson or two.

They might be away on a trip for a week, you might want to stay 3 weeks in Ajaccio to make sure you see them. However, it could be costly, hotels in Ajaccio start at $73 a night, hostel with breakfast $37.

Avoid making a faux pas by talking about dancing, and have a list of good questions to ask about dancing. Maybe ask about thing like what are the best places to visit in Paris, general things. Small talk.

Something am not sure about. Should you call in advance to see if they will be there the week you would visit? Even this cannot guarantee they will be there because there might be a sickness, etc.

Does Greg speak English? How about the other teachers?

Edit:


Wait a sec...

http://www.danselyonnet.fr/tarifs.php
http://www.danselyonnet.fr/index.php

I think the above urls are Greg's father's studio in mainland France ????

This seems to be A&G's facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/studiodedanselyonnet/

I thought A&G had a website? I can't seem to find it.

Greg appears to be pretty fluent in English.

I am unsure about any of the teachers there.


Correct, those images are of the dance studio of Greg's parents.

I don't remember ever seeing a regular website for A&G.

I actually bought this book a few days ago, pretty good read actually. Hmmm... maybe I'll give this a try LOL. :))

A thought just came to mind. I hope to make at least one more trip to Ajaccio. More than one if my health holds out.

I had for many years wanted to get a portrait done of Alizee. It was when I took a vacation to Hawaii, that I finally saw someone I thought good enough to do her beauty justice.

I made a video of that, but when I went to visit the studio, I didn't think to take that portrait with me. Maybe we could work a deal out. We recently put together a bunch of questions to send over to her in the hope she would answer them, but then the Corona virus hit.

Maybe we could set something up where I pay for a couple of hours of private lessons and in that time, get a dance lesson and also get our questions answered.

The main question is, which dance? I think the waltz would be fun. Now with dances like the Waltz and the Tango, there are versions where you can dance really, really close or you can dance at hands length and of course hands length would be what I'd choose.

There are also dances like the Samba, where you can cross into the Cha Cha and back again. That would probably be fun.

I'd actually pay her for four hours of lessons, but call an end to it after one, if all was accomplished in that hour.

We are still far away from a point where visitors in these times would be trusted by a mother with a newborn. Still.....it's food for thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm3C0VDI-kQ

I don't think Alizee and Greg give private lessons, from what I can determine.

As to the list of questions, she will never answer questions like that. Handing her a list of questions in person would be awkward and pointless, I think.

I wonder if she knows how to waltz?
We'd probably have to update the list of questions we already have.

I kinda agree with Mr Coucou on this matter. It would seem strange handing over a list of questions, asking "could you please answer these", and then saying bye. Then you have to have an effective way of receiving those answers, I suppose by Email, though no matter what some subtle things could easily be lost in translation.

What if the answers she sends back are shorter than hoped and don't go into any detail that we could learn something new from? She probably doesn't mind answering questions sent by fans, it just might come off as a bit clingy or desperate, as if to say "Nothing's going on career wise so we'd like to squeeze some information out of you". That may be a bit extreme to assume she'd receive it like that but it's a possibility, the questions may feel too personal for her to answer.

Maybe I'm wrong with this, but regardless we'd need to be very careful how we handle such a situation. I assume it's a one off thing so if we go ahead with it we can't waste the opportunity, but maybe shouldn't make her write a thesis length letter just to get to all the questions.

I'm not opposed to the idea, just voicing some concerns.

We discussed this quite a bit last year and most members who were active at the time were okay with it and in fact, sent in several questions to be asked. We put a cap on it of 50 I believe.

At the time, the idea was to mail the questions to the studio. As with the recent discussion of us sending her another gift at some point, we know she might not accept the gift or if she did accept it, she might never acknowledge it. It's just I think she has a policy of how to treat fans. A lot of fans send her gifts. If she thanks one, she has to thank them all. So it's very understandable why she wont respond in most cases and she's under no obligation to acknowledge this group of questions if we do send it.

What we were hoping for was they'd do a video, where maybe Gregoire or a friend would ask the questions and Alizee would answer and in fact there were a couple questions where Alizee would be asking Gregoire the questions and they could do it all in French. I think we could figure out a way to get it interpreted.

We had already reached out to a friend of Bamagirl who used to live in France and had been to Corsica a few times and is very familiar with the dialect to do the translations of the questions we were sending so the questions would be presented in English and French.

Now Alizée's a big girl now. If she received and envelope with a bunch of questions in it and either doesn't like the idea or doesn't have the time for them, I'm sure she can figure out how to throw them out. It's not going to create an international incident. We will not go to war with France. We will not change the name of French fries to Freedom fries again.

So at a point last year, we had gathered and reviewed the questions, but there was still some work to do because we wanted to send pictures along with it to better explain some of the questions, but then the pregnancy came along and we felt it was best to hold off until after the baby arrived.
Then the Covid-19 came along and was a game changer. Of course with this Corona virus, we could not mail a packet of questions to them. I'm sure during this time, they'd never open up a packet from fans, so it would have to be done electronically which I think would give us lower odds of this happening.

Still, I thought that this was the perfect time to send the questionnaire. They are stuck at home. It's going to be a while longer before the studio opens up. Maybe they'd enjoy the opprtunity to do something different than what little has probably been going on in this Covid 19 world, but apparently I was the only one who felt that way, so it didn't happen.

You also have look at what's been going on with her career, except for Poland, not a hell of a lot. I'm quite sure she's still listing herself as a "chanteuse". If she wants to keep her fans around, if she wants to keep getting endorsement deals, something like this couldn't hurt her.

This isn't rocket scientist material. If we had sent a packet by regular mail (which we wont), all she has to do is throw it out if she wants to or if sent by e-mail, all she has to do is hit the little trash can symbol and if she does, we wont be pointing our cruise missiles in France's direction.

Edit:

When I paid a visit to the dance studio a while back, I got some pictures autographed for a few of our new members. Another guy I got a picture for was Robert Rhein who has put together a 1,000 Alizee videos on Youtube. So if you're against this idea, I guess I shouldn't consider you as someone to get an autographed picture for if I go there again?

Well as I said, I'm not opposed to it, the cynical side of me is just being a bit doubtful of how to go about it. You, and most people here know a lot more about her than myself so I'd trust you to handle the situation well as it has been done in the past with the gifts for Maggy and the wedding.
I'm not sure what you're trying to imply with the Robert Rhein situation, if this does go ahead I'd be happy to submit a couple of questions. Don't take my previous comment the wrong way please.

What I was trying to "imply" with the Robert Rhein situation is I've known him for a number of years and because of what he's done for Alizee, I wanted to get him an autographed cd of one of her albums. That's the same type of thing I've tried to do over the years with her albums and her fans.

I understand. Perhaps I misinterpreted what that last sentence of your reply was saying and took it a bit too personally, my mistake. I think I've let this conversation get to my head a bit too much... The lengths you've gone to get fans signed albums and pictures is much appreciated :)

The logistics behind the interview project was the most difficult. Getting a set of questions together was easy in comparison. We had some serious career questions, but we also threw in a bunch of light-hearted questions that she might not have ever been asked before, like what is her favorite book or movie. There were some picture questions as well, asking Alizee to explain what is going on in the picture. It would be one question per sheet of paper, both in English and French, and when applicable, a picture.

As Scruffy mentioned, the method of delivering the questions to Alizee would be by mail. Admittedly, we didn't have much hope that Alizee would answer them and return a video of her back to us somehow. We were putting too much of a burden on her. We felt like we somehow had to do more to make it compelling to her and that she didn't have to do anything but answer some questions.

We felt that maybe if we made the interview a family affair, it would increase our chances of her wanting to do the interview. We put in questions for Greg along with questions for both of them about the dance studio and future plans. Greg seems pretty aggressive in promoting their business, so the potential is that he might have looked at the interview as an opportunity.

We liked the idea of somehow getting Jo involved to take a video of them answering the questions. He actually became the focus for a while. If we could somehow get him on board and coordinate the interview with him, all Alizee and Greg would have to do is agree to do it, and the setup would be in Jo's hands. Scruffy has a contact in Germany (I believe it was Germany) who was friends with Jo. Perhaps we could leverage him to get introduced to Jo. When Scruffy contacted him, he was having some long term medical issues, so we didn't press it any further.

Then I remembered seeing this, and had a light bulb moment: :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/189i...ew?usp=sharing

This live chat format had an awesome potential. The laptop camera was close to them. Greg can read Alizee her questions. Alizee can read Greg his questions. If there is a picture involved, they turn the page towards the camera.

Then the pregnancy came along and pretty much the idea was scrapped, at least temporarily.

Edit:

Now that Nathalie knows who we are and is good friends with Alizee and Greg, maybe she could give us some good advice as to the best way to approach Alizee on this. Maybe the next time Alizee visits the store, Nathalie would bring the subject up while they are chatting and get some feedback as to whether Alizee would even do this or not. The locals helped us with the baby gift, so maybe they could help us with this project.

I have not read that particular book but it looks interesting. I do happen to have some experience, from several different perspectives, with the phenomenon of social climbing.

It is most definitely true that social climbers will adjust their habits, hang-outs and priorities to fit the particular venue they are attempting to enter or to get close to a particular individual. It is often becoming party of a celebrity’s inner circle that is the goal, but it can also be a private person--a very wealthy or influential business person, for example, or a member of a private club they wish to join or someone on the board of directors of a company they wish to do business with. That is a mixture of social climbing with business. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish between the two.

The whole idea is to become close to a particular person, or part of a social sphere, that one does not automatically have access to. This happens a lot in some societies where "family background" is more important to certain members of the society than money or fame or talent. In that case, social climbers who wish to be accepted will marry into a particular family or attempt to join a college fraternity or sorority whose members are people they wish to be accepted by, or join a church or club or charitable committee that their target group or person is part of or sponsors.

Most celebrities are well aware of social climbers and, while many ultimately accept some as friends, they also never forget that, but for their position or bloodline or wealth or fame, that person would not be interested in them. Using Diane, the Princess of Wales as an example again: one of her great tragedies was not knowing who she could trust--who was really a friend who cared about her, and who just wanted to bask in her reflected glory, so to speak. This is why members of the royal family rely on close friends from childhood and often do not have, as true confidants, many others they meet in later years.

But that is not to say celebrities don't get something in return--often this is exactly what they have been seeking (though not desiring it to the exclusion of other types of relationships, of course). Many of them--especially the more philanthropic-minded-- enjoy the ability to influence people...to help them...to make a difference in their lives. Many of them genuinely and honestly appreciate their fans and admirers and understand that, but for those fans, they would not have achieved their successful positions.

People who rise to fame later in life often wisely cling to their early, legitimate friends and--though developing many other friendships and relationships through life--never completely let their guards down with anyone who didn't “know them when," as the saying goes.

This is one reason so many celebrities and other public figures (such as powerful politicians or leaders of industry or the children of the very rich) often seem to be so clueless about the world. They are surrounded by sycophants who tell them only what they want to hear and, after awhile, the bubble they live in becomes all they know and the usual checks and balances of normal life and relationships don't exist.

It happens to people who are wealthy, as well--even if they are not at all famous. They can be bitterly disappointed to realize, if they lose their wealth, that many of the people they considered friends were just hangers-on.

I think that is why many celebrities, like Alizeé, wisely cling to their privacy. They might truly value their fans--might truly enjoy mingling with them and associating with them and, sometimes, becoming genuine friends with some of them. I would actually be surprised if Alizeé has not made friends with fans along the way. But they also know how easy it can be to get carried out of a world of normalcy into that fake world. So, they protect their private lives from too many social climbers and too many yes-men.

You wouldn't hand her a list. You would have a conversation and ask a few questions. However, I doubt she would give a private lesson to an older man.

Edit:


One of my questions would be, Is she familiar with Robert Rhein, and what's her impression of him? She would probably find that question a little too probing and wouldn't answer it. Still, it would be interesting to try.

Edit:

What a marvelous little video.

A lot of your posts leave me kind of breathless. You seem to put a lot of thought and a lot of your learning and experience into them. I have to take so much time fathoming one point and yet there are others still to follow. You bring so much more to this forum than stuff like what is her favorite color.
To be sure, all points you make are subject to debate, but I want to remind members in here that the same forum decorum here that applies to Alizee, should apply to all members and that is probably more so for a female member.
If you want to disagree with her, do so in a respectful way. There's a way to make a point and a way to not make a point.

Thank you for such kind words, Scruffydog! I so very much appreciate all the posts from forum members on topics that I am not knowledgeable about. I enjoy being able to contribute to discussions in this forum when I feel I might have some information or personal experience regarding the subject. This forum has some really interesting, intelligent and knowledgeable members and I am so pleased to be part of it!

Now, with regard to “private lessons”, I think the chances of you actually getting “close” to Alizée, let alone actually “dance” with her, are going to be pretty low, to actually “non-existent”… ;)

My reason for thinking this are as thus, nobody apart from ske_leton, has actually reported/commented upon such a thing actually taking place, and I’m not sure if that was a “private lesson” or a “workshop”... :(

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/k5...hredDofPXqCduA

“Le nouveau prince de la danse est né #realisesanstrucage Merci à Alizée et Greg pour ce kiff et ce super stage ! Très bonne idée la salsa, j’ai vraiment beaucoup aimé danser avec ma magnifique partenaire @boni1515 que je remercie mille fois pour les photos de ce moment memorable PS : aucun pied de mes partenaires n’a été maltraité durant le stage” roughly translates as “The new prince of dance is born#realisesanstrucage
Thanks to Alizée and Greg for this kiff and this great internship! Very good idea salsa, I really liked to dance with my beautiful partner @ boni1515 that I thank a thousand times for the photos of this memorable moment PS: no foot of my partners was mistreated during the course”.

If someone actually got to dance with Alizée, it would most probably be “plastered” all over the “web”, the “temptation” for most of her fans to “boast” about such a “wonder” would be just too much… :p ;)

So, if ske_leton, “the Chosen One”, who in my estimation is as close to being an “embedded journalist” in the Alizée “camp”, as you are ever going to see, just gets to pose for a couple of pics with “herself”, then I’d regard the chances of anyone else actually getting to “dance” with her, as being pretty “slim”, to maybe NFW… :dontknow: :sstruck:

Hmm…

Look at it from a “security” viewpoint, if it was known that Alizée was actually going to personally “dance” with you, if you booked a “private lesson”, then the studio would be absolutely “stuffed”, 24/7/365, with “stalkers”, “creeps”, “lech’s”, and “weirdos”, etc, from “all over the globe”, just waiting to “smear themselves” all over “herself”… :mad: :(

I seriously, really don’t think they’d let anything like that happen, do you!? It really wouldn’t be good for her “image”, at all…

Hmmph…

I’ve got enough “problems” actually contemplating my “0% chance” of meeting her, so actually getting to dance with her would be pretty much “incomprehensible” to me, and then the concept of getting to actually have a “waltz” with her… “huuuuh, y’wot now”!? :o :)))

<Brain just “Bsod’d” :o :confused: :)))>

Now, the list of “questions for Alizée” project, I seriously thought that it had “died”, long, long ago. The last thing that I think I can remember seeing was that nobody could come to a “consensus” about how many questions that it would be “appropriate” to ask, or, how to “deliver” said questions.

I personally thought at the time, that 3 was “appropriate”, 5 was “ok”, and that 10 was probably “pushing it”… ;)

If you look at the most recent tv interviews, that she has taken part in, they last, overall, anywhere from 5 to maybe 15 minutes “tops”, with her “actual participation time” in the “segment” being limited to a minute or two, with there being maybe, on average, 3 or 4 “easy”, rather “succinct” questions “posed” to her, within that time. Nothing “hard”, “controversial”, or “probing”…

She also, probably, gets nicely “compensated”, for her, “inconvenience”…

So, from what I can gather, it was decided somewhere that the “appropriate” number of questions for this project was going to be 50, and that if it was going to be printed on paper, pictures included, it sounds to me like it was probably going to be about as “thick” as the “local” version of the “Ajaccio telephone directory”... ;)

So this was going to be somehow presented to the “little lady”, herself, Alizée, who is that “busy” with her “business”, and “family”, that on average, she can manage to post maybe a couple of Instagram shots, every couple of days, and she was supposed to do “what”, with it…

<Reads “proposal” again>

Oh right, I see…

So she is “supposed to”, if I am right:
Get someone to “film” her, and maybe Greg;
Read all of these “questions”, and “formulate” appropriate answers, which could take quite a while;
(So, if she does all 50, we are maybe talking 50 minutes, to maybe 1hour, or even more. If she answers fewer, then still some considerable length of time);
Be “filmed” by “someone”, (the opinion was that this was going to be Jo, her father, who it was supposed was going to be “up for this”, for some reason), answering these questions, for an hour or so;
Get someone to “compile”, “format” and “edit” the result of this “interview”, which could take several hours, easily…
Then, somehow, get it back to “whomever”, in order to do whatever they are going to use it for…

So, overall you would be expecting everyone on Alizée’s “side of things” to be putting in something like anything from 3 to 6 hours of labour, foooor… what!?

Y’all know that I respect all of you guys immensely, but, is this not just being a wee bit rather, emmm, “audacious”… :o ;)

Maybe… “presumptuous”… ;)

Shepherd’s suggestion, to me, has an immense amount of “merit”, due to the fact that it is “succinct”, and “respectful”. It doesn’t ask too much, nor expect too much either…

In this situation, IMHO, “less is better”, and has far more chance of success, the smaller it is. The chances of her agreeing to a “1hr Freebie Blockbuster Special”, in which she has to do all the “heavy lifting”, for no real reason, and no major compensation, is 0… :o :)))

A paper “proposal” for such an undertaking would probably be “shredded hamster bedding”, about 30 seconds after she read it, if she read it at all…

But what the hell do I know, who knows, she might "go for it"… :confused: :dontknow:

It goes without saying, that, as always, I wish you guys nothing but luck, and immense success, in your undertaking... :hatsoff: :bow: