Interesting stuff in Alizée related articles

[Aragorn97]

Hello, everyone!

I was reading some of Alizée's interviews and found a couple of interesting things.
I'm talking about two questions she was asked for this megazine:



Here is the translation of the first one:

Do you have other passions besides singing?
A: I've done dancing for 12 years. In the beginning, I wanted to be a dance teacher. I did
theater as well and also...I love football! I don't play it but my little brother does and I watch a
lot of matches on TV.

I don't know if this might sound obvious to some of you, but it seems quite revealing to me: she didn't just want to devote her life to dancing, she actually wanted to be a dance teacher! Obviously this is a 20-year-old interview and she also said "in the beginning", so a lot of things might have changed. But now I'm even more convinced that the dance studio was not a second best but a well-thought choice. Moreover I think Greg's parents were dance teachers as well and he said that he loved that job, so they should be pretty proud of themselves.

The second question is probably a little more intriguing:

Mylène Farmer's lyrics aren't always easy to understand. Has she written more reasonable
things for your album?
A: She does a lot of wordplay but actually, when you read for example the lyrics to Moi
Lolita, it's very easy to understand. She told me: "you'll see, the kids are going to understand
it like this and the adults, they'll understand in an different way." For her, each song has two
different meanings.

This means that she actually knew what she sang. We don't know if Mylene was completely clear, but I presume she made Alizée understand what the purpose of the lolita image was. And back then Alizée might have been naive, but I think also intelligent. I think she was mature enough to glean how things work in those environments. Moreover Mylene often asked her opinion on various topics, so I guess Alizée was conscious of what she was doing... I think she had a lot of fun by playing that role. At least at the beginning.


Um, did I choose the right section for this thread?

[Scruffydog777]

I think it's a very good place for your post. Yes she did mention years ago before Dals came along that she'd like to open a dance school. Of course with every job comes work, so nothing comes easy in life, but now she gets to share that idea with someone she loves. The dance school is a love of hers and it's also work. It's not Hollywood or Paris, but she's shown us time and time again she enjoys the simple things in life such as the beauty of Corsica and family much more than the glitz of those other places.

[Bamagirl]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Yes she did mention years ago before Dals came along that she'd like to open a dance school.

Whatever the future holds for her, career-wise, I think it’s wonderful that she is doing something she’s wanted to do for a long time. How many people can say that? So often in life people have dreams when they are young, and those dreams get put aside for a multitude of reasons. Life may go on successfully and happily, but those original plans just never happen. And so Alizée, after having the successes she has had, is actually living a life she’d hoped for early on. Perhaps she’ll eventually tire of the dance studio or decide to try something completely different or return to singing. But it will always feel good, to her, that she did get to experience doing something she’d always wanted. I think this is a great way to live a life so that, looking back, there are few regrets.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Bamagirl

Whatever the future holds for her, career-wise, I think it’s wonderful that she is doing something she’s wanted to do for a long time. How many people can say that? So often in life people have dreams when they are young, and those dreams get put aside for a multitude of reasons. Life may go on successfully and happily, but those original plans just never happen. And so Alizée, after having the successes she has had, is actually living a life she’d hoped for early on. Perhaps she’ll eventually tire of the dance studio or decide to try something completely different or return to singing. But it will always feel good, to her, that she did get to experience doing something she’d always wanted. I think this is a great way to live a life so that, looking back, there are few regrets.

To be sure, the things we want in life may not work out the way we want them to and with Alizee, maybe the dream life of managing a dance studio was more work than she imagined. We all dream of a life of sitting back in a cozy chair and eating Bon Bons, but we realize eventually that even for those who live the life of the privileged, life is not a box of chocolates.

She had the early success with Mylene Farmer. She suffered failure after failure after she left MF. To most singers, that would have been the end of it. They would have been delegated to the role of one hit artists or in Alizee's case, an artist whose success depended upon MF/LB.

But then Dals came along and the world was shown that she's not a one trick pony and to this day, fans around the world are waiting to view the next chapter in the story of Alizée.

[Bamagirl]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

To be sure, the things we want in life may not work out the way we want them to and with Alizee, maybe the dream life of managing a dance studio was more work than she imagined. We all dream of a life of sitting back in a cozy chair and eating Bon Bons. But we realize eventually that even for those who live the life of the priviiidged, life is not a box of chocolates.

She had the early success with Mylene Farmer. She suffered failure after failure after she left MF. To most singers, that would have been the end of it. They would have been delegated to the role of one hit artists or in Alizee's case, an artist whose success depended upon MF/LB.

But then Dals came along and the world was shown that she's not a one trick pony and to this day, fans around the world are waiting to view the next chapter in the story of Alizée.

I think you are so right...and I have a strong feeling she still has a lot to share with the world!

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

She had the early success with Mylene Farmer. She suffered failure after failure after she left MF. To most singers, that would have been the end of it. They would have been delegated to the role of one hit artists or in Alizee's case, an artist whose success depended upon MF/LB.

Call it destiny or call it luck, or maybe a bit of both, but without Alizee's professional and personal failures, she probably would not have achieved that early wish of being a dance teacher today.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by CleverCowboy

Call it destiny or call it luck, or maybe a bit of both, but without Alizee's professional and personal failures, she probably would not have achieved that early wish of being a dance teacher today.

After she moved back to Ajaccio, she was it seems in constant company with her good friend Pierre Antoine (Dancerman1). He opened up a dance school in Ajaccio. I wonder if they thought of opening one together. I'll have to check to see when he opened it up. If it was after the Dals offer came along, you could understand her not joining up with him or maybe she just hadn't given up on her singing career yet.

Edit:

Well apparently his dance studio is called Chez Mademoiselle Pierantoine. Maybe they had an argument over whether the studio should be called Chez Mademoiselle Pierantoine of Chez Monsieur Alizee?

I know when it opened is in are archives somewhere, but I can't find it.

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

After she moved back to Ajaccio, she was it seems in constant company with her good friend Pierre Antoine (Dancerman1). He opened up a dance school in Ajaccio. I wonder if they thought of opening one together. I'll have to check to see when he opened it up. If it was after the Dals offer came along, you could understand her not joining up with him or maybe she just hadn't given up on her singing career yet.

Edit:

Well apparently his dance studio is called Chez Mademoiselle Pierantoine. Maybe they had an argument over whether the studio should be called Chez Mademoiselle Pierantoine of Chez Monsieur Alizee?

I know when it opened is in are archives somewhere, but I can't find it.

I just looked up the number of dance schools in Ajaccio and there are a number of them. How many of them can a small to medium sized city like Ajaccio support?

Back when Alizee was hanging out with Pierre, I don't think she had the credentials and experience at that point to teach dancing. Appearing (and winning) in DALS gave her credibility, and her name recognition warranted that the studio would be called A&G, not G&A.

[Scruffydog777]

In my walks around Ajaccio, I saw several dance studios and I had wondered when she talked of opening up one how a place not that large could support so many schools. But when I visited the dance studio, I saw she's in an area with numerous high rise apartments around it so it seems she's in a good location, student availability wise.

[Shepherd]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

In my walks around Ajaccio, I saw several dance studios and I had wondered when she talked of opening up one how a place not that large could support so many schools. But when I visited the dance studio, I saw she's in an area with numerous high rise apartments around it so it seems she's in a good location, student availability wise.

Before Greg and Alizee opened their studio but were talking about it, I did a search on Google Maps for dance studios in Ajaccio and was astounded to find a dozen or so. I didn't believe Ajaccio was big enough to support that many, and thought G&A would be foolish to open another. Well, as we see they have been very successful. Since Scruffy raised the issue again today, I did another search and found the number of studios significantly reduced. I wonder if Gregg and Alizee drove the others out of business. Even so, I counted 8 studios still remaining today. I'm amazed that Ajaccio can support that many. The city has a population of 66,245. Dance students would make up a small percentage of those under the age of 20, I don't know how to calculate that number.

I live in San Antonio, Texas where the population is 1.5 million with 19 dance studios.

That breaks down to 1 studio for every 8,280 people in Ajaccio,
and 1 studio for every 79,000 people in San Antonio.

Evidently, there's a dramatic cultural difference. San Antonio is in the Bible Belt and there seems to be a church on every two or three blocks. Storefront churches that service congregations smaller than a couple hundred people are popular. San Antonio is also host to several of the largest televangelist ministries in America. The Baptists believe it's a sin to dance and they make up the majority of churches in San Antonio. Perhaps that explains the discrepancy between the two cities.