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Kennedy Center Honors 2012 - Natalia Makarova honored


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I can't find anything explicit about online streaming on the cbs.com site.

Sara Mearns was in the audience, and she's been tweeting up a storm. My favorite is this:

And then the moment happened. Makarova came over to me and put her hands on my face like I was one of her own.
pic.twitter.com/ZzqUN8Zj

The photo is great. (In an earlier Tweet, she said Makarova told her not to get up, because Mearns would be too tall for her.)

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A short clip of Veronika Part performing the 32 fouettes from SL 'Black Swan pdd' was just shown on the CBS morning show's segment on last night's KC Honors. So it appears that the Makarova tribute performance was a montage of her greatest roles (Giselle, R&J, Swan Lake, etc.) performed by various dancers, explaining why so many current soloists were able to perform in such a short time, flitting in and out of ballets.

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Does anyone know if this is live streaming this year? I think it has in the past, and I know parts of segments have been cut for the CBS broadcast.

Live streaming is a new one on me, which may prove nothing except that I'm ignorant. Where would we see that?

But I think the show runs about two hours in the theater, not counting a twenty-minute intermission (I'm relying on memories of the 2005 Honors, which I attended) so they have plenty of material for the TV program. When I had edited the commercials out of my off-air recording of that, I had exactly 90 minutes left, to the second.

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According to this Washington Post article reviewing last night's festivities at the KC, the Makarova tribute portion included excerpts from Giselle and Romeo & Juliet. Hopefully, all of it will be shown on TV.

Me too, and I think that's likely. In 2005, if that's any guide, it was some of the remarks spoken in tribute to the honorees that got cut. For example, Maria Tallchief came out on Arthur Mitchell's arm and delivered what sounded like well-prepared remarks in appreciation of Suzanne Farrell's career; and then she apparently ad-libbed fulsome praise for the dancing we had just seen Farrell's dancers do. None of that got into the broadcast; and some of Jacques d'Amboise's interjections and asides that made his remarks so much fun were cut, too. But the dancing was included almost complete, except for a couple of quick cuts away for "reaction shots" of Farrell, and the documentary was, too.

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Does anyone know if this is live streaming this year? I think it has in the past, and I know parts of segments have been cut for the CBS broadcast.

Live streaming is a new one on me, which may prove nothing except that I'm ignorant. Where would we see that?

But I think the show runs about two hours in the theater, not counting a twenty-minute intermission (I'm relying on memories of the 2005 Honors, which I attended) so they have plenty of material for the TV program. When I had edited the commercials out of my off-air recording of that, I had exactly 90 minutes left, to the second.

Apparently the kennedy center does live streams of some events on their website, but this was not one of them (I checked yesterday evening)

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I remember the year Maria Tallchief was honored, Sylvia Pas de Deux was performed with Margaret Tracey and Angel Corella. People who attended said the whole piece was performed but on TV we only really saw the coda. So, I do not have faith that the ballet portion will be shown in full. It often gets sniped while "more popular" fare runs complete.

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I could have sworn that I watched at least part of last year's Kennedy Center Honors live by streaming video. I do know, for certain, though, that several songs from the Barbara Cook tribute last year were cut from the CBS broadcast. Let me add my voice to the chorus wishing that the entire Makarova tribute will be available, somewhere, for us to enjoy.

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the following is taken from a Kennedy Center press release about the recent KC Honors ceremony with regard to Makarova:

<<

Emmy Award-winning dancer and choreographer and 1999 Kennedy Center Honoree Judith Jamison, the Artistic Director for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, paid tribute to the Russian-born, Tony Award-winning and Emmy-nominated prima ballerina Natalia Makarova, who performed with Jamison in the American Ballet Theatre. Jamison began, “‘I responded to destiny.’ That’s what Natalia Makarova said in London just before her 30th birthday. She was touring with Russia’s fabulous Kirov Ballet. She knew she needed new choreography to fulfill her promise as a dancer, so she made the brave decision to make a new life in the West, wondering how she would survive without her home and her language. On that day, Natalia Makarova started a journey that would introduce her to America, where she would thrill audiences and enhance and enrich the American Ballet Theatre. Banners would hang from the balconies of the Metropolitan Opera House saying, ‘We Love You Natalia.’ As a colleague and a great admirer, I’m so delighted that we honor her tonight.”

Jamison continued, “Natalia is a rare story of life coming full circle. Twenty years after she made her painful decision to leave her native land, she returned to a changing Leningrad and to her beloved Kirov Theater, where she had studied and had become a star. There, at the Kirov, she gave her farewell performance, dancing on the stage where it had all begun for her – then taking curtain calls to thunderous cheers and cascades of flowers. Natalia, your passion and your artistry are loved around the world. On behalf of dancers everywhere, I salute you!” Jamison then introduced a beautiful dance tribute to Makarova, beginning with young dancer Grace Ann Pierce, from the American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, dancing to the Chopin Prelude in A Major, Op. 28 No. 7. This was followed by New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck, performing to Waltz, Op. 64, No. 3. Then, Royal Ballet of London principal dancer Alina Cojocaru and Angel Corella, the Artistic Director and principal dancer of the Barcelona Ballet, presented a pas de deux from the ballet “Giselle.” Then, American Ballet Theatre principal dancers David Hallberg and Julie Kent continued the tribute with a moving rendition of the balcony pas de deux from the ballet, “Romeo and Juliet.” Finally, the dancing concluded with an awe-inspiring rendition of “Black Swan,” performed by American Ballet Theatre principal dancers Marcelo Gomes and Veronika Part.

>>

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Apparently the kennedy center does live streams of some events on their website, but this was not one of them (I checked yesterday evening)

The free, daily Millennium Stage performances are usually streamed live, and most of these are then archived on their website. Maybe that's what you're thinking of, but that's all I've heard of.

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I'm SO looking forward to viewing this long over-due tribute to Makarova. She has my sincere congratulations, warm wishes, and gratitude for all she has given. I am also glad for the posts and reports viewable here because I'm rather pessimistic regarding the commercial networks in the US, and have visions of an hour-long tribute to Led Zeppelin and 5 seconds of ballet. Please notify us somehow how we may view the pertinent sections if the worst happens.

Is there anyone at CBS (producers or editors) we can lobby to keep the ballet segments and make cuts elsewhere?

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In the past, each honoree gets about the same exposure on the TV show, IIRC; the only show I ever attended in the theater, the 2005 one including Suzanne Farrell, was about that way there too, although the tone of the different segments was different in the theater: Some honorees got a genuine "roast" from an old friend or two onstage, and these got toned down or "sanitized" some for the broadcast; but with Farrell, there was very little fooling around. She was treated with warm, (ebullient, in the case of her old partner) respect from the stage by Jacques d'Amboise, Maria Tallchief and Arthur Mitchell.

There's no other way to see the material as far as I know. I assume what gets cut out of the broadcast may lie in storage somewhere, and I have a hunch it's late in the game to influence the editing now. I think that gets done soon after the event, possibly with the exception of putting in the commercials - there's usually about two sponsors, I think, upmarket automobiles and pharmaceuticals, which may provide a clue as to who CBS thinks watches this show - and then CBS holds it until a day when most people aren't watching TV much, so that they're not losing much ad income by putting it on.

That said, I should add these last thoughts are not based on good inside information or anything - don't I wish! - but just on a few clues I think I've picked up over the years about the dearth of broadcasts with "cultural" content in America. (I'd like to see some good journalism on the general question of what determines what gets broadcast and how and when.)

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CBS has posted video clips from previous years of the Broadcast:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/kennedy_center_honors/video/

Perhaps they will be more adventurous this time around and include the full broadcast and more (with ads, of course, but that's okay). That seems to be the trend on other networks, such as Comedy Central and TNT. If not, we can certainly send e-mail urging them to do that! They've got the footage and may as well make the most of it on-line.

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Trying to be optimistic here, but I've lately noticed CBS offers The Late Show - the episode with Makarova on it, anyway - without ads. Looking at some of the other links to complete shows, they generally indicate 43 minutes' running time - that's a television "hour" without the commercial content, which is now a third of the time. (I suppose I'm revealing my age by considering this fact even worth mentioning.)

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I am very excited. I was a bit worried when I heard that the show, as a whole, would be choreographed by Rob Ashford--who I think has done some good things, but in the past has done a bad job at the Honours, as if everything he did was a hommage to Michael Bennett's Hullabaloo days (such as the men in this otherwise--music wise--great would be great Barbara Cook hommage

)
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Just finish watching the broadcast. Marvelous...simply wonderful. Obviously there was some editing when it came to the dancing but it wasn't so distracting in which you couldn't enjoy the beauty as well as the obvious joy the dancers had at honoring Natalia. A beautiful tribute to a great artist!!

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Sorry to be disagreeable, but I thought the televising of the dancing was another opportunity missed. Much too complicated. Good glimpses and bad, shuffled together - like cards in a deck - as though they couldn't tell the difference. The "reaction shots" ascballerina complains of are part of the problem - they're thrown in mechanically when Makarova's not reacting, she's watching intently. Same thing with Farrell in 2005, IIRC.

These shows, like the incessantly busy camera-work on the dance-craze shows, look like they're made by people uninterested in the dancing; to that extent, don't they induce lack of interest in the viewer? Or reinforce the idea that ballet is arcane? If people just had a chance to see it, maybe some would go for it.

(Part of the excitement people have for the dance-craze shows is artificially induced by introduction of a contest, of competition; and from what I can see of the dancing, it's expressively limited and boring, compared to ballet, and might just as well be partly masked by fancy camera work.)

It's ironic, historically, if the producer is the son of the director who famously heard that gracefully-phrased ultimatum from one of our greatest (native-born) dancers: "Either the camera dances, or I do." Of course, Fred Astaire's dances were made for the camera.

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I just finished watching it, and the only parts I liked were the clips of Makarova dancing in the bio-tribute. The seven seconds of her in "Giselle" trumped anything Cojocaru and Corella did. I think more than half of that was the atrocious camera work -- all over the place -- but there was no scent to any of the dancing except for Kent and Hallberg in the "Romeo and Juliet" Balcony Pas de Deux, where drama is built in and the Macmillan is enhanced by being edited down to an excerpt, although I'm still wondering what was so profound about Kent's arm from her elbow up that merited a long camera shot. The dancers are wonderful dancers, but cut and sliced like that, apart from Kent and Hallberg, they didn't bring across any personal, recognizable quality, and Part was mis-cast. Just loved the "except for the people here to see the ballerina" joke. NOT. It's so annoying that many of the people who bothered to watch the show long enough to see Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and David Letterman age well will think this is representative of ballet.

I'm not sure any of the other honorees got that much better across-the-board performance-wise -- Bonnie Raitt is the best exemplar of blues, really? -- but the music excerpts were coherent at least, and it looked like they aimed towards the 11-minute mark for "Stairway to Heaven." According to the closing credits, Damien Woetzel was co-producer of the Makarova segment. I don't know what that means -- Casting control? Excerpt choices? Helped develop the bio-segment? Presumably, not camera editing.

Growing up I didn't watch many old movies and missed most of what was considered handsome leading man material -- I thought they lived in soap operas -- so when the young Dustin Hoffman came along in "The Graduate," I thought he was gorgeous. I didn't realize there was a mold to break.

Did Balanchine really jump in line to choreograph for Makarova after she defected? I must have missed that chapter.

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The camera work was awful. I thought the same thing as Helene - why are they focusing on Julie Kent's hand when there are two gorgeous dancers on stage? Why are they cutting to Makarova's expression when Part is doing her fouettes? I thought the most spontaneous and exciting dance performance was from Tiler Peck. She was the only person out there who looked completely free and danced with abandon. .I also thought that opening the segment with the student was quite charming.

The most cringe inducing moments came in the tribute to Dustin Hoffman. Neither Naomi Watts nor Liev Schreiber have much connection to Dustin Hoffman. Couldn't they get some more of his important co-stars (Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise) to say something. Why was Laura Osnes singing a song from My Fair Lady???

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Still ranting after a night's sleep - not only must you have good shots which show what's happening, they must be in an effective sequence for the viewer to get much from it. We see a lot on screen - film and TV - and being experienced, we can take it different ways, but we're good at "entering in" to what we're shown if we get the chance. Nothing builds here because of the clueless confusion on screen, though in a couple of places they did - apparently by accident - get just a little consistent. One of those was where Peck's dancing was visible, and I agree with abatt about her - she was like - Tiler Peck, in spite of everything.

I do wish more of the dancing had been shown (instead of being interfered with). There would have been more to respond to, whether on the level abatt and I and others here are, or a more newcomer level - Gee, look at that! - but I'm afraid this sort of thing is more likely to provoke, "That's ballet? Ech." (Or is it, Meh.)

I noticed that the ballet segment was relegated to its old position of second on the menu, so its deadening effect would be over early, and the show would have a chance to recover and "build" through the later numbers. In 2005, Farrell's dancers were second from the end, and the number - the last movement of Divertimento No. 15 - was fast and lively, as though someone thought it might contribute to, rather than weigh on, the energy of the show. Too bad the lighting made it harder to see than the other numbers, but that's the state of comprehension, or lack of it, of ballet today.

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