29 replies to this topic

[bart]

From Miami City Ballet, on Facebook.

Quote

Mark  your calendar! Set your DVR! Plan your viewing party! PBS will air  GREAT PERFORMANCES "Miami City Ballet Dances Balanchine & Tharp" on  Friday, Oct. 28 at 9 p.m.!

The program consists of:
-- Square Dance (Balanchine)
--  The Golden Section (Tharp)
--  Western Symphony (Balanchine

[Jack Reed]

But, if past experience is any guide, remember to "check local listings", as PBS is not the same kind of network ABC, CBS, or NBC are.  That said, thanks for the news, bart!

[Dale]

PBS has a little preview of Square Dance up:

http://www.pbs.org/a...mi-city-ballet/

[bart]

Thanks, Dale.  For those who have read about MCB but not seen the company, that's Jeanette Delgado in the lead, dancing with Renan Cerdeiro.

[Mme. Hermine]

i'll certainly watch but -

dance on television?

what a concept.  

[Jack Reed]

I hesitate to ask you to concentrate on a subject that makes you want to bash your head like that, but could you elaborate just a little about what your problem is with that?  (I suppose an extensive discussion might really belong in another forum.)

[Mme. Hermine]

frustration, cher jack, that such incidences should be so few and far between, that's all.

[bart]

Mme. Hermine, I agree.  Though it is not as rare as dance on RADIO-- at least not yet.  

We have to keep pressuring public television to continue (and even expand)  these  opportunities for the largest possible audience to have access to top quality ballet.

PS:  I would have added a winking emoticon to that '"radio" comment but couldn't seem to find one on my phone.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Dale, on 07 September 2011 - 01:44 PM, said:

PBS has a little preview of Square Dance up:

http://www.pbs.org/a...mi-city-ballet/

bart, on 07 September 2011 - 04:37 PM, said:

Thanks, Dale.  For those who have read about MCB but not seen the company, that's Jeanette Delgado in the lead, dancing with Renan Cerdeiro.

YES...my Miami Prima...!! (CAN'T wait for her Giselle.  Now THAT will be a challenge for her,,,

[puppytreats]

I thought Agnes de Mile choreographed "Square Dance."  Did Balanchine have another version?

[Mel Johnson]

I believe that you are thinking of the "Hoedown" from "Rodeo".  "Square Dance" has most prominently been a title of Balanchine's.

[bart]

And, it has Vivaldi and Corelli instead of Copeland.    When I first saw this in the 50s, they were still doing it with a square dance caller, rather in the style of Annie Get Your Gun.  Very faux-folksy, even to my adolescent ears.  Thank goodness, this was changed to the current version, which you can see a bit of in the clip.  

Based on the casting of Delgado, I think we can look forward to an exceptionally fast, clear, classical, and joyous performance.  Cerdeiro is a different kind of dancer, with a more gangly, slightly loping, but equally classical quality.  The contrast should make for an interesting partnership.

[Quiggin]

Alexandra Danilova says interestingly, in her matter of fact, mischievous tone, that she doubts that deMille would have made "Rodeo" had she not seen Eugene Loring's "Billy the Kid" – which might make a interesting point of comparison.

San Francisco in 2005 tried to do the "Square Dance" with the caller, but Helgi Tomasson said it didn't work – the musicians couldn't hear each other was his reason. At the same time Joffrey did the original version which John Rockwell, then the NY Times critic, thought was much livelier. Doesn't the caller announce the steps - call for a pas de chat?

My only hesitation about the Miami perview is that it looks as though the busy sets are upstaging the choreography and dancers' honest work. Balanchine's later efforts were to take all that out, reduce it to its essences, and now an art director has cozily reupholstered it.

[Mel Johnson]

The original "Square Dance" calls were very particularly tied to the original cast dancers - the ballerina is "Pat" (for Patricia Wilde) and the danseur is "Nick" (for Nicholas Magallanes).  I don't particularly remember calls about pas de chat, but it sounds familiar.  There was a call for gargouilliade, where the caller said, "Now keep yer eyes on Pat!  Her feet go whickety-whack."

[sandik]

PNB has done both versions recently, at the Vail festival.  Unfortunately for me, they've not done the older version with the caller at home in Seattle, so I haven't seen it live.