Vestris ;biography in dance?

[whetherwax]

I've just seen Barashynikov on u yube do this ballet. Wow. Can anyone tell me who choreographed it and its history?

Have there been other biographical ballets?

(Come to think of it, Hookham the gunrunning ballerina would be a good one?)

[rg]

the credits for VESTRIS are as follows:

Vestris : Chor: Leonid IAkobson; mus: Gennadi Banchikov. First perf: Moscow, International Dance Competition, 1969; solo by Mikhail Barishnikov.//First U.S. perf: Washington, D.C., Kennedy Center, May 20, 1975; presented by American Ballet Theatre, with Mikhail Baryshnikov as Auguste Vestris; lighting: Nananne Porcher.

as indicated above it was choreographed by Jacobson(IAkobson) for Baryshnikov's participation in the International Dance Comp. in Moscow, '69.

[whetherwax]

Thanks rg. It seems so very much a Barashynikov piece I dont suppose anyone else would be game to try it.

[rg]

the following entries from the NYPL for the Perf. Arts at Lincoln Center note that Baryshnikov is recorded dancing VESTRIS on two videos, both now commercially available: BARYSHNIKOV AT WOLF TRAP FARM and WORLD'S YOUNG BALLET.

(also indicated below is the fact that Baryshnikov restaged his solo at least once for another dancer, in this case Johann Renvall for a special program called France/Danse.)

see below:

World's young ballet [videorecording] / Popular Science Film Studios. 1969.(70 min.) : sd. b&w

Motion picture produced in the U.S.S.R. by Popular Science Film Studios. Distributed by Macmillan Audio Brandon Films.

Chief consultant, Olga Lepeshinskaya.

Dance contents: Black swan pas de deux, danced sequentially by three couples (Loipa Araújo and Azari Plisetzki, Maria Aradi and Imre Dózsa, Francesca Zumbo and Patrice Bart) -- Alexander Bogatirev in a solo from Paquita -- Lubov Kunakova in a Russian variation (chor: Marat Gaziev) -- Mikhail Baryshnikov in Solor's solo from La bayadère -- Hideo Fukagawa in a solo from Paquita -- Annemarie Dybdal and Peter Schaufuss in the Flower festival at Genzano pas de deux -- Malika Sabirova in variations from Don Quixote and Le corsaire -- Yukiko Yasuda and Jun Ishii in the coda from the Don Quixote pas de deux -- Ludmila Semenyaka and Nikolai Kovmir in the pas de deux from Giselle, Act II, and Us (chor: Genrikh Mayorov) -- Aradi and Dózsa in Spartacus (chor: László Seregi) -- Jorge Esquivel and Araújo in Webern Op. 5 (chor: Maurice Béjart). Hannelore Bey and Roland Havlik in La mer (chor: Tom Schilling) -- Baryshnikov in Vestris (chor: Jakobson) -- Natalia Bolshakova and Vadim Guliaev in Reflection (chor: Kasyan Goleizovsky; mus: Massenet) -- Helgi Tomasson in a classical variation (chor: Anton Dolin) -- Zumbo and Bart in Bhakti (chor: Béjart) -- Nina Sorokina and Yuri Vladimirov in Peace and war (chor: Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Lubovich Vasil'ev) and Esmeralda.

:Documentary on the first International Ballet Competition, Moscow, held on June 11-23, 1969. Includes numerous brief excerpts from the competitors' performances, as well as brief historical footage of a solo by Anna Pavlova. Galina Ulanova, Alicia Alonso, Olga Lepeshinskaya, Leonid Jakobson, and others also appear among the judges and/or coaches.

:Titles in Russian with English narration.

France-Danse benefit 1989.

Description: 2 cassettes. 70 min. : sd. color NTSC. ; 3/4 in. (U-matic)

Notes :Videotaped for the Jerome Robbins Archive by Johannes Holub, with the assistance of funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Recorded in performance during France-Danse, a benefit for the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library and La Maison Française of New York University, on February 22, 1989, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.

:Producer: Anne Bass. Artistic coordinators: Robert Fizdale and Arthur Gold. Technical coordinator: Albert Hudes. Production director: John J.S. Sheehan. Lighting: Phil Monat.

:Mistress of ceremonies: Rosamond Bernier.

CONTENTS. - Reel 1: French dances of the eighteenth century, perf. by the New York Baroque Dance Company with Concert Royal: Menuet et tambourin de Castor et Pollux (chor: Catherine Turocy; mus: Jean Philippe Rameau); Passacaille d'Armide (chor: Guillaume Louis Pécourt, reconstructed by Turocy; mus: Jean Baptiste Lully), perf. by Turocy with James Richman, harpsichord; The peasant in a basket (chor: Turocy), perf. by Ted McKnight; Tambourin pour les matelots from Hippolyte et Aricie (chor: Turocy; mus: Rameau). - Vestris. Chor: Leonid Jacobson, staged by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mme. Leonid Jacobson; mus: Gennady Banchikov. Perf. by Johan Renvall with James Richman, harpsichord, and the Vamii Quartet.

Mikhail Baryshnikov [videorecording]* / WNET/13 ; director, Stan Lathan ; producer, Ruth Leon ; executive producer, David Prowitt. U.S. : WNET/13, 1976. (60 min.) : sd., col. Host: Beverly Sills.

Danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov, with Gelsey Kirkland, Marianna Tcherkassky, and Martine Van Hamel.

Music performed by Filene Center Orchestra, conducted by Akira Endo.

Coppélia: Act III pas de deux / choreography, Enrique Martínez after Arthur Saint-Léon ; music, Léo Delibes ; danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland.

Le spectre de la rose / choreography, Michel Fokine, staged by André Eglevsky ; music, Karl Maria von Weber ; decor and girl's costume, Léon Bakst ; rose costume, Stanley Simmons ; danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Marianna Tcherkassky.

Vestris / choreography, Leonid IAkobson ; music, G. Banshchikov ; danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Push comes to shove: Prelude and first movement / choreography, Twyla Tharp ; music, Joseph Lamb and Joseph Haydn ; costumes, Santo Loquasto ; danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Marianna Tcherkassky, and Martine Van Hamel.

Don Quixote: pas de deux / choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, Léon Minkus ; danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland.

Recorded at the Filene Center, Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, Vienna, Virginia. Telecast on the series In performance at Wolf Trap, by WNET/13, New York on December 30, 1976.

*NB: the commercial version does not include the narration by Sills nor the footage of PUSH COMES TO SHOVE.