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1978 . . . and Today


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Regardless of the limitations, I'm glad we have video of some Tetley and Tudor, especially the Tudor with Sallie Wilson, because the alternative is relying entirely on memory, where the works weren't notated.  And enough works have been lost that way.

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I don't want to decry video -- I've got a lot, and love it all.  But I want even more -- I want some kind of accurate record of a dance, so that when someone in the future wants to know who this Tudor guy was and why we should care, there will be something substantive there to work with.

 

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A video often shows only a single perspective, though a few camera positions would obviously be possible (and I think necessary to show all the nuances of a performance). But I suppose the only thing that would be truly 'accurate' would be to use 3D motion sensors to capture a dancer's movements in toto - that might be helpful to store the information for future reference. So far, there isn't a way to do that during a public performance without ruining the appearance of the dancers.

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I always find that video – and film but differently – leaves out the poetry of the performance and adds another poetry, one of interesting but distracting visual artifacts.

 

The choice of a slightly telephoto or slightly wide lens (like that of an iPhone or, more extemely, that of Google Street View) gives the dancer a smaller or larger amount of space to move through. If the camera is on a crane, the point of view shifts quickly from that of an audience member in the balcony to that which someone in the orchestra would see. The video editor's cuts break the natural "breathing" and concentration of a dancer's phrasing. 

 

Looking at all the previous recorded versions, at best you end up with a kind of synthetic "best available practices" version, a ballet without an inner voice – and one with all the accumulated errors. Better perhaps to learn the choreography blindly from someone who has danced it well before.

 

(I remember Kyra Nichols here in San Francisco talking about how she had to "strip away" all the accumulated details and ornamentation from the roles she inherited from Suzanne Farrell and start over again. Videos compound that problem of getting down to the purity of the role.)

Edited by Quiggin
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The Dance Film Association has grappled with these issues for many years, in their workshops and sometimes in print as well -- there are all kinds of changes that we experience when we watch something on a screen that was originally made for a stage.  If I remember correctly, there was some excellent writing about the Dance in America series (and especially the work done in Nashville by editor Girish Bhargava) in Ballet Review that outlines these distinctions.

 

Fundamentally, there's a big difference between a fixed camera documentation of a work, and a multi-camera, edited version of a work.  And they are both different than the work itself.  

 

I like your comment about "best available practices" -- this applies not only to the dancing, but to the film/video as well, which makes the search for the work itself even more fraught!

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3 hours ago, Quiggin said:

(I remember Kyra Nichols here in San Francisco talking about how she had to "strip away" all the accumulated details and ornamentation from the roles she inherited from Suzanne Farrell and start over again. Videos compound that problem of getting down to the purity of the role.)

 

For archival purposes, a 'pure' performance sounds like a good idea, but it's hard to think how these performances could be arrived at since every dancer tends to interpret the movements a little differently. At best, we get a pretty good record of a particular dancer's performance.

These days, professional dancers are using video fairly constantly to help them remember new choreography, and analyze what was working, or not - so I suppose video taken at the time of ballet creation is about as 'pure' as we are likely to see. But video of later revival rehearsals would carry with them all the "accumulated detail and ornamentation" you mention.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWi1x-cHDjg/?taken-by=lapetitefrench_

 

2 hours ago, sandik said:

Fundamentally, there's a big difference between a fixed camera documentation of a work, and a multi-camera, edited version of a work.  And they are both different than the work itself.  

 

 

Maddening, and fascinating, both together.  ;)

Fixed cameras (aimed towards the front of the stage) don't give a good sense of the overall geometry of a piece - I realized that when for the first time I saw the overhead shots used in the infamous German TV films of NYCB. Being able to watch, say, Concerto Barocco from an overhead position was eye-opening for me. But to have that footage entwined with other camera angles was mostly disorienting, and infuriating.

Edited by pherank
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19 minutes ago, pherank said:

 

Maddening, and fascinating, both together.  ;)

Fixed cameras (aimed towards the front of the stage) don't give a good sense of the overall geometry of a piece - I realized that when for the first time I saw the overhead shots used in the infamous German TV films of NYCB. Being able to watch, say, Concerto Barocco from an overhead position was eye-opening for me. But to have that footage entwined with other camera angles was mostly disorienting, and infuriating.

 

And for me, it made it into an altogether different ballet.

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Back to Massine for a minute: The Rome Opera Ballet will be performing revivals of Massine's Parade and Pulcinella Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Pompeii. So, at least someone is remembering Parade on its 100th anniversary.

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I bought a stash of Dance Magazines from 1974 and 1975 on e-Bay. They are a wealth of useless information when it comes to knowing what companies were actually dancing 40+ years ago. San Francisco Ballet's repertory for its 1974 tour to Hawaii and its 1975 season in San Francisco was projected to include:

 

Lew Christensen's Airs de Ballet (1971), Beauty and the Beast (1958) and Filling Station (1938)

 

Michael Smuin's Harp Concerto (1973), Pulcinella Variations (1968) and Schubertiade (1970)

 

George Balanchine's Serenade and The Four Temperaments

 

Well, we all know who won that three-way battle!

 

(Guests for 1975 were supposed to Include Paolo Bortoluzzi, Cynthia Gregory, Rudolf Nureyev and Peter Schaufuss.)

Edited by miliosr
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On ‎8‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 6:31 PM, miliosr said:

I bought a stash of Dance Magazines from 1974 and 1975 on e-Bay. They are a wealth of useless information when it comes to knowing what companies were actually dancing 40+ years ago. San Francisco Ballet's repertory for its 1974 tour to Hawaii and its 1975 season in San Francisco was projected to include:

 

Lew Christensen's Airs de Ballet (1971), Beauty and the Beast (1958) and Filling Station (1938)

 

Michael Smuin's Harp Concerto (1973), Pulcinella Variations (1968) and Schubertiade (1970)

 

George Balanchine's Serenade and The Four Temperaments

 

Well, we all know who won that three-way battle!

 

(Guests for 1975 were supposed to Include Paolo Bortoluzzi, Cynthia Gregory, Rudolf Nureyev and Peter Schaufuss.)

A subsequent issue of Dance Magazine contained an ad for San Francisco Ballet's 1975 season which gave a more complete listing of expected repertory:

 

Lew Christensen: Airs de Ballet (1971), Beauty and the Beast (1958), Don Juan (1973), Fantasma (1961) and Variations de Ballet (1960)

Lew Christensen-Michael Smuin: Cinderella (1973)

Michael Smuin: The Eternal Idol (1969/73), Harp Concerto (1973), Mother Blues (1974), Pulcinella Variations (1968/74), Schubertiade (1970) and Shinju (1975)

George Balanchine: The Four Temperaments, Serenade, La Sonnambula and Symphony in C

 

John Cranko's Opus One was supposed to be performed but a little research reveals that a pas from Cranko's Taming of the Shrew was substituted.

 

And of the initially reported guest stars, it looks like only Cynthia Gregory showed (along with Judith Jamison [!] and the Panovs.]

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Thanks for the 'snapshots', Millosr. Did Nureyev ever make it back to SF to perform?

I found this report from 1967:

 

The great Haight ballet bust of 1967

http://www.sfchronicle.com/thetake/article/The-great-Haight-ballet-bust-of-1967-7230386.php

 

Quote

Well past 2 a.m., they got up to leave, and Brandt told Nureyev that he hadn’t gotten a chance to see the star perform. “Nureyev grabbed a straw beach hat from the counter, stuck an artificial rose in his mouth and began leaping up and down the stairs that lead to the Trafalgar room,” the story quoted Brandt as saying. “While Nureyev was executing his famous jetes, his gypsy-bright companions were flying around the tiny foyer, doing entrechats. They danced out, and Brandt followed, locking the door so they wouldn’t come back in.”

Edited by pherank
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13 hours ago, pherank said:

Thanks for the 'snapshots', Millosr. Did Nureyev ever make it back to SF to perform?

According to the brief Dance Magazine news report, only Cynthia Gregory showed (of the four guests announced.) Which, in my opinion, was how it should have been. Gregory got her start with San Francisco Ballet so it was appropriate that she be asked back as a guest. The other three -- Nureyev, Bortoluzzi and Schaufuss -- had no connection to the company and I don't know what they would have added to the announced repertory. (I suppose Nureyev and Bortoluzzi could have danced Bejart's Songs of a Wayfarer or Limon's The Moor's Pavane, both of which they had danced together around this time. But neither of those works were announced.)

 

As to whether Nureyev ever made it back to the San Francisco Ballet, I cannot say.

Edited by miliosr
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Besides being able to eat and/or drink in the auditorium, what I've noticed this year more than most and certainly different from 1978 are:

  • Prominence of advertisements to parents that there are spaces in the house to which they can bring children when they are crying or squirmy, but still see the performance via video.  Many houses had them for a long time, but you used to have to check the fine print, or the house etiquette page.  (Or learn about it from an usher or another parent.)  Case in point, Texas Ballet Theater, from the link above:

Have an antsy little one? TBT values our families and is committed to offering
a welcoming, positive experience at our performances. Give your youngsters the
space to wiggle and giggle or just take a break. And to make sure you don’t miss
a step, watch the action live via windows or a television.

 

Should you wish to take advantage of this quiet space, you can find it here:
Winspear – In the broadcast Booth on the 3rd level
Bass Performance Hall – On the west side of the 5th floor

  • Performances for kids on the autism spectrum.  Example:  Houston Ballet has two performances in the 2017-18 season:

https://www.houstonballet.org/about/ece/autism-friendly-performances/

 

 

 

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Another entry in an ongoing series . . .

San Francisco Ballet repertory - summer 1977

July 14-17

Maurice Bejart  Firebird

John Butler  Three

Lew Christensen  Divertissement d'Auber

Michael Smuin  Songs of Mahler

July 21-24

Lew Christensen  Stravinsky Pas de Deux

Michael Smuin  Medea

Jerome Robbins  Moves

Tomm Ruud  Mobile

Jerome Weiss  Peter and the Wolf

July 28-31

Lew Christensen  Il Distratto

Robert Gladstein  Gershwin

John McFall  Beethoven Quartets

Michael Smuin  Scherzo

 

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