Margaux Gauthier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dumasfille) wrote2026-04-30 02:19 am
dumasfille) wrote2026-04-30 02:19 am
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MARGAUX GAUTHIER
named after a dead prostitute
Main character from a Danish collection of one-sentence flash fics. TRANSLATED PITCH.
BACKGROUND
Margaux was fourteen when her father, a literature professor at the Sorbonne, specializing in Dumas fils' writings, died. She had been enrolled with the French National Ballet's prestigious ballet school for two years at that point, spent most of her days away from home, wasted so much time, and in the wake of her loss she decided that she would simply have to excel at her art form, for his sake, who had supported her so steadfastly, despite all her set-backs, her technical struggles, her height that only seemed to keep growing her taller, her ambition that didn't win her many friends, but the end goal became the overruling motivation: she had to get into the main company. She had to. Now that she'd lost everything else.
At age eighteen, she could finally try out for the company auditions. She had become a greatly evocative dancer with a good technique, strong adagio, struggling with the faster choreography, and she tried out with the ferociousness of a caged animal - only to be turned down. Good basics, they said, but the current body of dancers in the company wouldn't fit such a tall dancer, they simply did not have the men to partner her, and although she talked herself into a second, unheard of audition, the answer remained the same. No.
For half a year, Margaux lived in her mother's house in a depressive slump, until her paternal grandmother, a great former ballerina herself, talked her into considering honing her skills elsewhere and maybe, in the future, try out for the French National Ballet again. Margaux got a grip of herself, she took daily class with a teacher she knew through the school and made ready to get back into the saddle.
Her first attempt brought her to Copenhagen, Denmark, where the National Ballet of Denmark held try-outs for temporary positions with the corps. She went for it - and got in. The residing Artistic Director, Nicolas Dam, told her they had men enough that were tall and fitting for her, both in the corps and among the soloists, maybe they were just taller in Scandinavia, so despite protests from her mother, Margaux uprooted her whole life and made the move.
She never found her feet in Copenhagen. The Danish attitude to success and achievement, betterment, improvement, ambition irritated her and it was cold there, but in time her temporary position became a permanent one, she mastered the rep (minus the Bournonville; the fast footwork never became her friend) and she even made soloist. She made soloist, but she didn't make friends. The environment in the company was divided between the Danish dancers and people who assimilated - and the foreigners who didn't, most of whom never stayed for long. But Margaux stayed, and Margaux refused to bend to the Danish rules.
She would get meaty roles, but always second to the Danish dancers. She would work hard, but it was never enough, because she wasn't Danish enough. However, when Nicolas set about to stage his own, new choreography, the full-length The Lady of the Camellias, he made Margaux the second-cast Marguerite, the lead, her first real leading character.
It created an uproar, with the Association of Danish Dancers making a formal complaint to the Opera director about her casting, a dispute only settled when Nicolas agreed to cast the young Danish corps girl, a prodigy, Emma Gregersen as a new third cast lead. Margaux hates Emma, because Emma represents everything she loathes about being in Denmark - but as they learn the steps of Marguerite Gautier together, side by side, she is forced to realize that maybe Emma has no desire to be all that. Maybe they are both much more than the company politics. Maybe they are more than dancing.
At age eighteen, she could finally try out for the company auditions. She had become a greatly evocative dancer with a good technique, strong adagio, struggling with the faster choreography, and she tried out with the ferociousness of a caged animal - only to be turned down. Good basics, they said, but the current body of dancers in the company wouldn't fit such a tall dancer, they simply did not have the men to partner her, and although she talked herself into a second, unheard of audition, the answer remained the same. No.
For half a year, Margaux lived in her mother's house in a depressive slump, until her paternal grandmother, a great former ballerina herself, talked her into considering honing her skills elsewhere and maybe, in the future, try out for the French National Ballet again. Margaux got a grip of herself, she took daily class with a teacher she knew through the school and made ready to get back into the saddle.
Her first attempt brought her to Copenhagen, Denmark, where the National Ballet of Denmark held try-outs for temporary positions with the corps. She went for it - and got in. The residing Artistic Director, Nicolas Dam, told her they had men enough that were tall and fitting for her, both in the corps and among the soloists, maybe they were just taller in Scandinavia, so despite protests from her mother, Margaux uprooted her whole life and made the move.
She never found her feet in Copenhagen. The Danish attitude to success and achievement, betterment, improvement, ambition irritated her and it was cold there, but in time her temporary position became a permanent one, she mastered the rep (minus the Bournonville; the fast footwork never became her friend) and she even made soloist. She made soloist, but she didn't make friends. The environment in the company was divided between the Danish dancers and people who assimilated - and the foreigners who didn't, most of whom never stayed for long. But Margaux stayed, and Margaux refused to bend to the Danish rules.
She would get meaty roles, but always second to the Danish dancers. She would work hard, but it was never enough, because she wasn't Danish enough. However, when Nicolas set about to stage his own, new choreography, the full-length The Lady of the Camellias, he made Margaux the second-cast Marguerite, the lead, her first real leading character.
It created an uproar, with the Association of Danish Dancers making a formal complaint to the Opera director about her casting, a dispute only settled when Nicolas agreed to cast the young Danish corps girl, a prodigy, Emma Gregersen as a new third cast lead. Margaux hates Emma, because Emma represents everything she loathes about being in Denmark - but as they learn the steps of Marguerite Gautier together, side by side, she is forced to realize that maybe Emma has no desire to be all that. Maybe they are both much more than the company politics. Maybe they are more than dancing.
PERSONALITY
Arrogant, proud, lonely, the sad mix of confidence and starved for affirmation, work work work, hasn't touched a book since her school days minus one title, likes fashion, glitter and makeup, stereotypical bunhead, first impression: tall girl, dramatic, subtly sarcastic, deals with her situation by clubbing, shopping and instagramming about both + dancer life, is either all classical music or madonna, there is no in between...