4 replies to this topic

[sandik]

This is a special extra on the PBS website from the American Masters screening of the recent Joffrey documentary -- the video from 1967 is grainy black and white, one-camera and loads slowly, but for those who love this ballet, it's a rare treat!

[GianninaM]

Simply fabulous!  Death is menacing even in rehearsal garb.  Thank you so much for sharing it.

[sandik]

GianninaM, on 18 February 2013 - 01:19 AM, said:

Simply fabulous!  Death is menacing even in rehearsal garb.  Thank you so much for sharing it.

I'm pretty sure that's Max Zomosa as Death -- he was riveting.

[bart]

Yes, it's Maximiliano Zomosa. But all the Joffrey dancers were great, including those bizarre diplomats who start if off.  Thank you, sandik, for posting the link to the video.  

This brings back so many memories of that first City Center set of performances.  I was a student at the time.  The Vietnam War (with its obsession with military hardware and "body counts") was at its height.  Everything  -- I mean everything -- was affected by this war, especially if you were young..

This ballet had an effect on me more powerful and enduring than just about any dance work I've seen.   I think it was the bitterness of the satire at the beginning of the ballet --even more than the tragic events that develop when the war begins -- that was most shattering.  

I came back to see it two more times.  The emotional and visual memories have never really left me.

[sandik]

I agree -- Joffrey had his finger on the zeitgeist with this restaging.  It still makes me shiver.