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Suzanne Farrell on Kennedy Center honors list.


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Well...... I don’t know about the “long last” part. Maria Tallchief was seventy or seventy-one. I can think of others even older who waited a long, long time. Farrell seems well ahead of schedule. And Julie Harris is about the age Tallchief is now, I think.

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Suzanne Farrell AND Tina Turner! I think I've died and gone to heaven! :)

Thanks for posting this Farrell Fan. Doesn't The Kennedy Center Honors usually air on TV in Jan. or Feb.? Can't remember. I wonder if they will have a ballerina dancing some of her Balanchine roles, and who that might be. It's interesting to speculate.

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The Announcement

Farrell Profile

Well...... I don’t know about the “long last” part. 

If your name is FarrellFan (but not only if), it is indeed "at long last." :D
Doesn't The Kennedy Center Honors usually air on TV in Jan. or Feb.?

Actually, it's the week between Christmas and New Year's -- frequently on the 26th, in fact, because I've often missed it :) due to my dad's birthday. :party-smiley-017: 89 years old this year, and he still hasn't gotten a KC honor!
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I am really excited about Suzanne Farrell being honored!! Well-deserve!! Happy about Julie Harris, Tina Turner and Robert Redford as well. But Tony Bennett? I know he has million of fans and everything, but is he really Kennedy Center Honor material? I personally don't think so.

But back to Farrell! I'm wondering what ballet excerpt will be perform for her during the telecast? For me it should be the Diamond Pas de Deux. In my mind that is the purest example of Farrell's genius! But seeing how her company ever danced that and I'm sure her company will represent her at the tribute, most like we will see excerpts from Balanchine's Don Quixote. Opinions!

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Starting in 1978, the Dance honors went to the following:

George Balanchine

Martha Graham

Agnes deMille

Jerome Robbins

Gene Kelly

Katherine Dunham

Merce Cunningham

Antony Tudor

Alwin Nikolais

Alvin Ailey

Alexandra Danilova

Nicholas Bros.

Paul Taylor

Arthur Mitchell

Jacques D'Amboise

Maria Tallchief

Edward Villella

Mikhail Baryishnikov

Chita Rivera

Judging from some on this list, I don't think it's too soon for Farrell. :crying:

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Farrell was honored this past weekend. This morning's Washington Post includes long articles on both Saturday's reception at the State Dept and last night's 'Honors' program at the Kennedy Center Opera House. However, neither article mentions which ballet (if any) was performed as part of Farrell's tribute...other than state that Jacques D'Amboise demonstrated what it was like to partner Farrell.

Was any ballet excerpt performed? By whom - which company (Farrell's own?). This program will be telecast on December 27. I'd love to know if we'll be seeing any ballet in prime-time, on a major broadcaster. Surely we'll be seeing more than D'Amboise's clowning on the stage, right? :lightbulb:

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Farrell was honored this past weekend.  This morning's Washington Post includes long articles on both Saturday's reception at the State Dept and last night's 'Honors' program at the Kennedy Center Opera House. However, neither article mentions which ballet (if any) was performed as part of Farrell's tribute...other than state that Jacques D'Amboise demonstrated what it was like to partner Farrell.

Was any ballet excerpt performed?  By whom - which company (Farrell's own?). This program will be telecast on December 27.  I'd love to know if we'll be seeing any ballet in prime-time, on a major broadcaster.  Surely we'll be seeing more than D'Amboise's clowning on the stage, right?  :lightbulb:

According to today's Washington Times: "Miss Farrell's company, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, wrapped her portion of the gala with a stunning performance of Divertimento No. 15 in B-Flat Major."

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Guess it's all a matter of personal preference, but I think Tony Bennett's inclusion is as appropriate as Astaire & Rogers (for example) but Tina Turner??? I enjoy her, but...... I just don't see Rock n' Roll getting all trussed up in Black Tie.

Julie Harris is surely deserving, and, having just turned 80, is more than overdue for the honor. There is an exhibit about Sarah Bernhart in NYC, and one of the items is a handkerchief that has been passed from Ms. Bernhart to Helen Hayes, to Julie Harris, to Susan Strasbourg and now to Cherry Jones. So there are other ways to acknowledge greatness within the performing arts community.

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According to today's Washington Times: "Miss Farrell's company, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, wrapped her portion of the gala with a stunning performance of Divertimento No. 15 in B-Flat Major."

Wonderful news, there. Thanks, Bill. I suppose we'll only get one movement of this on the CBS broadcast, but I'll take it. Er, tape it!

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I'm still high from the experience of attending the Kennedy Center Honors Gala last night and meeting the honoree I went there especially to honor and the one I think most of us here care the most about, but I thought I'd try to share a few impressions before the inevitable effect of high-caused sleeplessness makes my thoughts fade away into complete confusion:

Lead by Alexandra Ansanelli in the "first among equals" role, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet danced only the last movement of Divertimento No. 15, but they danced it beautifully, and in good, brisk tempos. What this will look like on TV in three weeks is anyone's guess.

Jacques d'Amboise was the main narrator for Farrell's segment, although Maria Tallchief and Arthur Mitchell made a brief appearance, during which Tallchief apparently ad-libbed praise for Farrell's dancers, whom Tallchief had seen that morning. d'Amboise was notable not only for his energetic motion across the stage (no jete', actually, contrary to Teresa Wiltz's article in this morning's Washington Post), but for his speaking entirely without notes. (Someone else may also have done this, but I didn't notice.) Of course he would be exceptional even among exceptional people: d'Amboise is a dancer.

As for the rest of the evening, Wiltz's article gives the flavor and substance very well. I particularly enjoyed Glenn Close's impersonation of Robert Redford, which I had a good view of, having been seated at her feet (as I was at d'Amboise's, when he used the lectern). And I was touched by Julie Harris's admission, quoted during the documentary about her, that she was shy except when playing a role onstage.

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While it's a little disappointing that (as far as we know) the only dancing on the stage during the Farrell tribute is the finale of Divert., I am sure the filmed portrait will include clips of Farrell in a range of roles. I look forward to them.

I've questioned the appropriateness of some past KC honorees, but I have absolutely no problem with the inclusion of Tina Turner. She is a prime example of an American art form at its best. I think this is the finest fivesome in a long time.

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I am sure the filmed portrait will include clips of Farrell in a range of roles.

I bet they all will come from Elusive Muse. The film tributes to Tallchief and Baryshnikov were disappointing in their laziness. Tallchief's came directly from the Balanchine Muse film, while the clips of Baryshnikov were all from his films - The Turning Point and Dancers. The Larry King show with Baryshnikov did a much better job, culling clips from TV specials and DIA.

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That was the only ballet dancing; the only other stepping I can remember at the moment was combined with singing in the more pop-oriented part of the program. But I think there is a strong intention to include all of that short movement in the broadcast.

As those who have seen previous broadcasts know, there is first a documentary feature before the live performing, and the ones I saw in the theatre this time (my first) looked a lot like those. Much of the material for Farrell was familiar from Dance in America; a bit of Tzigane, for example, and a b & w clip I think is from Elusive Muse.

More when I can.

Edited by Jack Reed
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Now that you mention it, Farrell Fan, I can't recall mention or sight, for that matter, of Peter Martins. Because the performance clips were alll things I had seen before - the b & w one I mentioned above was from Balanchine's Don Quixote, I think - I didn't try to note what they were, expecting that they will all show up in the broadcast.

For me, the Divertimento Finale was the high point, and d'Amboise's animated remarks as well as Tallchief's and Mitchell's comments were heart-warming. I hope and pray the editing of the ballet is clear and simple, so everyone can see it. It is, after all, excitingly fast already, and so maybe this time no one will think it needs to be made "interesting" by rapid switching among cameras scattered about or "up close and personal" by showing partial views of performers instead of letting us see them fully and effectively, and all that.

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There's been some discussion on another thread

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...st=45&p=172187&

about the choice of the Divertimento No. 15 Finale versus the predelictions of the television people for making it hard to see the dancing. We'll know in a couple of days what they did this time, but in the meantime I'd like to suggest that the Finale is a choice with considerable potential in that it is already fast-moving, if that is what it takes to hold an audience tuned in for the pop content: There is an active medium-sized corps, and couples appear and disappear quickly for brief duets. This can be shown in relatively short takes, broader for the corps, somewhat narrower for the principals, broader again for the corps. If the televising doesn't obscure, some members of a public which sees a lot of TV and knows how to place themselves in relation to the place they are being shown - in this case a dance space - may actually relate to what they see happening and like it, to everyone's benefit. While a pas de deux is easier to televise to our satisfaction, the core of it is adagio, and to the uninititated it might seem something of a let-down.

In other words, I think the choice of the Finale may make it possible to reconcile the desire to interest an audience who wants it fast and lively with a faithful rendering of the dancing. It all depends, IMO, on whether they aim at letting the audience see through the television medium to the dancing, or whether they use the dancing as material to make something else for the audience to look at.

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