sandik Posted June 2, 2018 Share Posted June 2, 2018 Documentary featuring Tiler Peck (who fills multiple roles in performance and production) is opening at the Seattle International Film Festival this Monday. Pointe Magazine has the trailer here -- Michelle Dorrance and Bill Irwin! Link to comment
sandik Posted June 4, 2018 Author Share Posted June 4, 2018 And today (Monday) Marcie Sillman of KUOW had a Facebook live interview with Peck and the director -- I can't find a direct link to it, but people who are better at navigating Facebook might be able to do it... Link to comment
sandik Posted June 11, 2018 Author Share Posted June 11, 2018 (edited) Thanks for finding this and posting it. I saw the film last week, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Lots of rehearsal footage, for those of us who love that part, and for Peck fans, lots and lots of her -- running rehearsal, making choices with all sorts of people in the process, and a lot of just plain running back and forth -- she was the boss of all she surveyed, pretty much, and wearing that many hats was a big challenge. Sillman asks her if she's thought about an artistic directorship job after she's done performing, and Peck was very positive about the idea. Edited June 11, 2018 by sandik Link to comment
yukionna4869 Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 The documentary is now streaming on Hulu. I enjoyed it very much. Lots of clips of Tiler. I particularly enjoyed watching her work on the Wheeldon Carousel Pas de Deux and The Man I Love (I believe) with Zachary Catazaro. Link to comment
sappho Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 I also enjoyed it. A few thoughts: - Michelle Dorrance is a brilliant dancer, but what the doc really highlights is her ability to energize and collaborate with others. Such a radiant presence. - It was refreshing to see Tiler rushed/stressed/multitasking/cranky, after years of often-patronizing press accounts of her million-watt smile, charm, sunny demeanor, etc. - My initial reaction to her comments in the NYT article about the documentary was that she seemed very young. I felt the same way after watching, but this time because her parents and grandmother feature heavily in the documentary as a sort of full-time support network. (Not sure how accurately that reflects her day-to-day situation, but it's clear that she's very close to her family.) - The doc didn't really give any insight into how she selected her program. Unfortunate, but I suppose I can go back and look at interviews from the time. - Tiler's dog is so cute. Link to comment
sandik Posted July 21, 2018 Author Share Posted July 21, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, sappho said: - Michelle Dorrance is a brilliant dancer, but what the doc really highlights is her ability to energize and collaborate with others. Such a radiant presence. Absolutely! One of the reasons I love films like this is the chance to see how individuals come together to make a dance. Some of the most astonishing moments I've seen have been in rehearsal when someone is able to help someone else make something they wouldn't ever have managed alone. (tangentially, if you ever get the chance to watch Crystal Pite in rehearsal -- grab it! She's astonishing) Edited July 21, 2018 by sandik Link to comment
vipa Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 I just watched this and really enjoyed it. Tiler Peck has at least the beginnings of what it takes to be a company director. She can coach, collaborate with others, knows stage craft and can get dressed up, smile and schmooze. I wouldn't put her in charge of a major company tomorrow, but I think she has the makings of a director. Some of the rehearsal footage was great, particularly the one with Catazaro in Carousel when things could have gone terribly wrong. Michelle Dorrance is fabulous throughout. The videos of Tiler Peck as a child absolutely show her amazing talent. I also enjoyed her work with Bill Irwin. All in all an enjoyable film that made me sign up for a free month of Hulu! If anyone has recommendations of what else to watch there let me know. Link to comment
nanushka Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 12 hours ago, vipa said: All in all an enjoyable film that made me sign up for a free month of Hulu! If anyone has recommendations of what else to watch there let me know. The Justin Peck documentary Ballet 422 is also available there. Link to comment
Emma Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 Polina was on Hulu as of last month. Link to comment
Emma Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 I enjoyed the documentary and am so glad it exists. I echo the thoughts of previous posters regarding Tiler's increasing maturity and Michelle Dorrance's light. But I so wish the producers could have gotten permission from the Balanchine Trust to show some Balanchine! To think that Tiler's performances of Who Cares?, Stars & Stripes, etc. could have preserved for the public, and yet... Link to comment
vipa Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Thank you Nanuska and Emma for you suggestions. I'll check those out. Emma I agree that it would have been great to see, and have available, those performances of Balanchine. The Trust has a difficult balance in wanting the works to be seen and popularized, but not wanting videos to be so ubiquitous that people can "stage" and imitate them without the proper guidance. Another thought occurred to me about Ballet Now. Why did Peck dance so much on the programs? She said a number of times that she was in 6 different pieces. I don't attribute this to ego, rather to a novice's mistake. She could have imported another dancer to do Stars and Who Cares or Carousel. Link to comment
Olga Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 36 minutes ago, vipa said: . Another thought occurred to me about Ballet Now. Why did Peck dance so much on the programs? She said a number of times that she was in 6 different pieces. I don't attribute this to ego, rather to a novice's mistake. She could have imported another dancer to do Stars and Who Cares or Carousel. I had the same thought. Dancing less and having others dance more is akin to learning to delegate, and the mark of an executive rather than a worker. It was definitely a mistake, and amateurish. A mistake i confess I made in my own prodessional life, which may be why i found it so glaring. Personally, I think it’s a mistake more common to women than men. But it’s possible there were other reasons at play, such as availability or illness of other dancers. She did mention that in the planning stages she had to drop some ballets because dancers weren’t available. I thought the director was myopic in his focus. Even if the Trusts wouldn’t give them rights to film the actual ballets, there should have been more of a sense of the larger picture. The film is called Ballet Now, not Tiler Peck’s First Director Gig. Maybe it needed a different title. Link to comment
Emma Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Ballet Now was also the name of her programs at the LA Music Center. While her rehearsal schedule seemed insane, it did not seem unreasonable at first glance for her to dance in six different ballets over the course of three nights. But, I didn't realize it was a three night engagement until I looked it up after watching the documentary. Perhaps I missed that in the documentary. Link to comment
vipa Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 34 minutes ago, Emma said: Ballet Now was also the name of her programs at the LA Music Center. While her rehearsal schedule seemed insane, it did not seem unreasonable at first glance for her to dance in six different ballets over the course of three nights. But, I didn't realize it was a three night engagement until I looked it up after watching the documentary. Perhaps I missed that in the documentary. I agree Emma, that it was easy to lose sight of the fact it was a 3-night event, particularly after seeing the celebration when the curtain went down. Link to comment
sandik Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 The doc didn't make the details of the project as clear as it might when it came to repertory, casting and the length of the run. It's much more in the vein of the old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland "I've got a barn, let's put on a show" films. Which is not a dig -- I love those films, and the sense of theatrical excitement they create, but they're all about the sense of possible disaster. I heard the director speak at the screening I went to, and he was very clear that it was Peck's project -- his daughter is a big fan, and that sense of admiration and love was threaded through the commentary and, I think, through the film. Even though the project was not called "Tiler Peck and Friends," it had that sensibility to it -- she was part of the draw for the presenters. If she hadn't been performing on every evening, and in several of the works, I think they would have had a different challenge in promoting the show. She speaks about the possibility of running a company a couple of times that I remember in the film, and we certainly see her performing the various tasks that come with that job, but I think she's not ready to stop performing, and that's probably a necessary step if she's aiming to direct one of the big companies. Link to comment
nanushka Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 7 minutes ago, sandik said: She speaks about the possibility of running a company a couple of times that I remember in the film, and we certainly see her performing the various tasks that come with that job, but I think she's not ready to stop performing, and that's probably a necessary step if she's aiming to direct one of the big companies. That's exactly what she said in the recent NYT article when she was asked about the prospect. Link to comment
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