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Kirkland/Barysnikov Chopin Dances


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Perhaps others have seen this? I didn't even know it existed. That is, I'm aware in a general kind of way that there are Kirkland videos which people can access in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as well as a few things that have made their way on to youtube--some of the best known far from her best performances (though still quite wonderful)--but I had no idea one could find an Other Dances on youtube [rg corrects me below--this is a related Robbins work].  Video quality is not great, but not terrible. As for the dancers--they are great. Since I didn't know about this and tumbled over it quite by chance I thought I would share it here:

 

 

Edited by Drew
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I saw her dance it three times -- 2X the same week in D.C. and once quite a bit later in NY, probably even a full season later.  The NY performance was entirely different, exquisite but hardly projected at all and more languorous perhaps. (I hate to say it, but probably impacted by health/drug problems she was having...) I remember a fluidity in the D.C. performances--a quicksilver quality that made audiences all but gasp. The movement just seemed to flow through her...Anyway, this isn't quite like what little I remember of any those performances, but I am certainly very happy to have found it. Time chips away at the memories but she is still my all time favorite ballerina.

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for the record the video linked here is not a recording of OTHER DANCES, it's more or less a version of what Robbins first arranged for Baryshnikov to dance on his 1979 White House program, where it was called: THREE CHOPIN DANCES (see NYPL cat.listing below):

 

Three Chopin dances :    Chor: Jerome Robbins; mus: Frédéric Chopin; cos: Santo Loquasto. First dance (opening pas de deux, mazurka op. 17, no 4) from Other dances first performed at the Met, New York, May 9, 1976; second dance (solo) from Dances at a gathering, first performed at the New York State Theater, May 8, 1969; third dance (solo and pas de deux) premiered at the White House, Washington D.C., Feb 25, 1979.

 

The further reworked version on the recording posted here (a video that was "around" in private videotape collections in the years after the period when Baryshnikov and Kirkland toured together) , the sections seen here are in order, 2 from DANCES AT A GATHERING, that is the duet for Kirkland and Baryshnikov - which is essentially the "pink" (McBride) pas de deux from DaaG, followed by the DaaG solo originally made for Villella  "in brown," and 2 from OTHER DANCES (Makarova's solo) and the duet conclusion.

 

NYPL's cat. listings for Other Dances and for Dances at a Gathering are given below:

 

Other dances:    The 1st and last pieces performed as duets; the others performed as solos. Chor.: Jerome Robbins; mus.: Frédéric Chopin (Mazurka, op. 17, no. 4; mazurka, op. 41, no. 3; waltz, op. 64, no. 3; mazurka, op. 63, no. 2; mazurka, op. 33, no. 2); cos: Santo Loquasto; lighting: Gilbert V. Hemsley, Jr. First perf: New York, Metropolitan Opera House, May 9, 1976, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova.

 

Dances at a gathering:    Chor: Jerome Robbins; mus: Frédéric Chopin (Mazurka, op. 63, no. 3; Waltz, op. 69, no. 2; Mazurkas, op. 33, no. 3, op. 6, no. 4, op. 7, no. 5 & 4, op. 24, no. 2, op. 6, no. 2; Waltzes, op. 42, op. 34, no. 2; Mazurka, op. 56, no. 2; Etude, op. 25, no. 4; Waltzes, op. 34, no. 1, op. 70, no. 2; Etudes, op. 25, no. 5, op. 10, no. 2; Scherzo, op. 20, no. 1; Nocturne, op. 15, no. 1); cos: Joe Eula; lighting: Thomas Skelton. First perf (preview): New York, New York State Theater, Annual Spring Gala, May 8, 1969; New York City Ballet. First public perf: May 22, 1969.

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Thank you rg...that also clarifies things for me. In particular, I couldn't figure out what had happened to the solo that made such an impression in D.C. Sorry for the mistake. Still glad to have found the video.

Edited by Drew
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Thanks, Drew and rg. Speaking of Other Dances, it was the first thing I saw Baryshnikov dance, with Patricia McBride in Chicago in '79. I see it's still listed on NYCB's site, but does anyone remember the last time they actually danced it? I wonder why they don't do it more often.

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On 12/7/2016 at 5:21 AM, kfw said:

Thanks, Drew and rg. Speaking of Other Dances, it was the first thing I saw Baryshnikov dance, with Patricia McBride in Chicago in '79. I see it's still listed on NYCB's site, but does anyone remember the last time they actually danced it? I wonder why they don't do it more often.

Small world! I was in that audience -- Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, April 19, 1979. The rest of the program: Ballo, Agon, Vienna Waltzes. There was only one other performance of Other Dances during that 2-week engagement, the Sunday (mat), April 22. I also saw them do Coppelia at the Kennedy Center that October, but he was injured a few days later (cancelling Dances at a Gathering) and I think that was the end of his performing career with NYCB. Of course, they might have done OD at a gala or special event later.

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Thank you so much for this, Drew. So wonderful to have a little bit more Kirkland to watch.

 

I still hate that move where the woman "squares" her legs in the air, although she makes it look as good as anyone can. Robbins can be vulgar sometimes.

 

 

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5 hours ago, California said:

Small world! I was in that audience -- Chicago's Auditorium Theatre, April 19, 1979. The rest of the program: Ballo, Agon, Vienna Waltzes. There was only one other performance of Other Dances during that 2-week engagement, the Sunday (mat), April 22. I also saw them do Coppelia at the Kennedy Center that October, but he was injured a few days later (cancelling Dances at a Gathering) and I think that was the end of his performing career with NYCB. Of course, they might have done OD at a gala or special event later.

 

Hah, that's great! And you must still have your program too. I saw the two following performances as well that year, and was knocked out by just about everything (it was my first time seeing NYCB or any Balanchine). Most vividly, I remember Baryshinikov in The Prodigal Son.

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On 12/7/2016 at 4:21 AM, kfw said:

Thanks, Drew and rg. Speaking of Other Dances, it was the first thing I saw Baryshnikov dance, with Patricia McBride in Chicago in '79. I see it's still listed on NYCB's site, but does anyone remember the last time they actually danced it? I wonder why they don't do it more often.

 

NYCB performed it a few times in 2013-14:  Bouder/De Luz and Peck/Garcia were the pairings.  Bouder/De Luz have taken it on the road to galas a few times since then:  I wish I'd been able to catch them, as I imagine they were marvelous.

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7 hours ago, choriamb said:

 

NYCB performed it a few times in 2013-14:  Bouder/De Luz and Peck/Garcia were the pairings.  Bouder/De Luz have taken it on the road to galas a few times since then:  I wish I'd been able to catch them, as I imagine they were marvelous.

 

Thanks, choriamb. Peck was the dancer I pictured in the Makarova role.

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Wish I could have seen Makarova in Other Dances! (And yes, it would be lovely to see Peck.) But I did love Kirkland in it especially as she danced it in D.C. 

 

I remember two young women sitting right behind me at one of those performances. They were teenagers coming to the ballet  after seeing The Turning Point, and very excited to see Baryshnilov who was dancing on the program first in Other Dances and then in Push comes to Shove. And they were seemingly uninterested in anything else at the performance as they were waiting for Baryshnikov. As I mentioned above, at that performance, when Kirkland began her solo in Other Dances there was almost a collective sigh/gasp from the audience at the liquid rush of movement. When the ballet was over, the same two young women were looking her name up in the program (pronouncing Gelsey with a soft 'g')  asking who she was etc.  And when they saw she wouldn't be dancing in Push Comes to Shove, they were seriously disappointed--Baryshnikov notwithstanding. In my experience Kirkland's dancing often had that effect on people--ballet fans and newcomers to ballet.

Edited by Drew
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39 minutes ago, Drew said:

Wish I could have seen Makarova in Other Dances! 

 

In 1980, PBS broadcast Two Duets, which included Baryshnikov and Makarova doing Other Dances. Tobi Tobias interviews Robbins and they show Robbins rehearsing them. He mentions that they have been performing it with other partners, but doesn't say who that might be. You can watch it at the NYPL Dance Collection.

https://catalog.nypl.org/search~S99?/Xrobbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova&searchscope=99&SORT=DZ/Xrobbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova&searchscope=99&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBKEY=robbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova/1%2C15%2C15%2CB/frameset&FF=Xrobbins+other+dances+baryshnikov+makarova&searchscope=99&SORT=DZ&6%2C6%2C

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Thank you. Makarova is a dancer for whom, in the past, I found a big gap between video and my memories, bigger even than usual that is, so I rarely seek out her videos on the assumption that something didn't get translated. But I will give this a try.

 

Edited to add: I'm also a little more adapted to ballet video watching than I was when I first sought out Makarova.

Edited by Drew
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F.Y.I. scanned publicity photo for TWO DUETS, specifically for Other Dances, which was filmed on Broadway: the Minskoff? if mem. serves (Calcium Light Night was filmed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music) - as someone who was at the taping, I can still rem. the reaction of Robbins when he saw, for the first time, Makarova's then new hairstyle - if mem. serves he smiled at it through gritted teeth - presuming he'd be seeing her, as she danced his ballet for the cameras, in her familiar, "classic" "bun head" look. again, if mem. serves Makarova's reaction was mostly to giggle.

ODwNM&MB&JRwm.jpgODwNM&MB&JRxwm.jpg

 

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