La Valse & Serenade on Film

[Melissa]

In the early '80s, I saw on the A&E network filmed performances of NYCB in La Valse and Serenade. Sara Leland starred as The Girl in White and the first ballerina in each ballet respectively, and Merrill Ashley was also in both casts. Does anyone know if these performances are available on video or can be seen at the Lincoln Center Library?

[Calliope]

You can search the library's holdings at:

http://catnyp.nypl.org/search~b1o1c1i1p1r1a1

[rg]

i believe the films you refer to are those made in germany, 1973: the infamous ones that balanchine was given no control over and which were maddeningly edited with countless changes of camera angle and range. i've just checked the n.y.p.library's holdings and don't think the dance collection has these two films. i think they show up more on european television than on ours, tho' a few of the series did appear on our t.v. on rare occasions. (in all 15 ballets were filmed for this project.) there are undoubtedly more copies in european off-the-air collections than in american ones, since there were more opportunities for taping them there.