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San Francisco Ballet - Apollon Musagète (Jacob's Pillow) 1956


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I just saw this video for the first time on the Jacob's Pillow site:

http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/san-francisco-ballet/apollon-musagete-apollo/

Only a portion of the ballet is shown, but it's still interesting. I assume Lew Christensen was doing a lot of the coaching.

"As the site of its East Coast debut, Jacob’s Pillow played a significant role in the development of the San Francisco Ballet. The three-week season included two ballets by George Balanchine (leading off with his Concerto Barocco) and six by company director Lew Christensen, garnering enthusiastic international press attention that led directly to a State Department tour of eleven countries in the Far East. Revered as America’s oldest classical company, the San Francisco Ballet began in 1933 as an adjunct to the San Francisco Opera and continues today under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. Among the well-known dancers who have risen through the company’s ranks is the Apollo seen here, Conrad Ludlow, who went on to an illustrious career as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet."

Recorded at Jacob’s Pillow
August 8, 1956

Soloists
Conrad Ludlow, Nancy Johnson, Christiane Bering, Sally Bailey

Choreography
George Balanchine (1928)

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LOVE it! So that's Nancy Johnson

Sally Bailey, Nancy Johnson, Conrad Ludlow [who's been coached to play it as a nervous wreck, probably by Lew Christensen....] in the galloping pd4
Johnson reminds me a little of Carolyn Brown.
all I know is that Nancy Johnson is terpsichore
I really like it, too -- it has a definite character, a mystery that's real, and their movements have moods behind them-- they hold out, and join in for their own reasons, it's like watching animals in a zoo, you see they have relationships....

Thank you for posting this.

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And such a relief when he finally rests his head...

He's so wild and low slung, like Caliban, or from the Nijinski side of the Diaghilev ledger. Looks a bit like young Lucian Freud at moments and she (Terpsichore?) like Bea Lillie with her alert chin. Good antidote to current blond versions. Now for a copy of Villella's interpretation.

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