Your favorite ballet excerpt on video

[Mireille]

On the Russian Ballet Glorious Tradition tapes, there is an excerpt from Chopiniana (waltz) dated 1965 with Makarova and Onoshko wherein she dances in just the most dreamy fashion that I have ever seen, like she has all the time in the world and it will never end. She stretches the time so much, you feel she will never make it on time but she does or she catches up in an ever more dreamier way. I was completely mesmerized by her, I would watch it every day. Just dreamy.

What excerpt would you not live without?

[atm711]

On that same tape is my favorite: LaBayadere PDD with Nadezda Pavlova and Vyatcheslav Gordeev. She has a beautiful porcelain beauty, and an absolute gorgeous line.

[Giannina]

Mine would be Joffrey's "Monotones II". This is one of my favorite ballets, perhaps my all-time favorite. As far as I know this is the only filming available and I treasure it beyond words.

Of course there are other gems.

Giannina

[Giselle05]

Julio Bocca and Alessandra Ferri in the bedroom scene from Romeo and Juliet in the movie "Ballet", by Frederick Wiseman.

[Mashinka]

Komleva and Soloviev in the Auber Grand pas Classique.

[Fraildove]

I second Komleve amd Soloviev in Pas Classique!!! I have watched that so many times i wore a spot on the video!

[Hans]

The Fracci/Bruhn finale from La Sylphide on the Bell Telephone Hour.

(Even though it's probably fruitless, I still scruitinze the corps trying to figure out which one is Ms. Leigh.)

[Helene]

Mine is Bart Cook in "Melancholic" in the Four Temperaments "Dance in America" video.

Honorable mentions (in no particular order) to:

Suzanne Farrell in the first Chaconne pas de deux ("Dance in America")

Jillana and Conrad Ludlow in one of the Part One Liebeslieder Walzer pas de deux (from the Balanchine biography)

Vladimir Vasiliev in the slow-mo jumps in Spartacus

Diana Adams and Arthur Mitchell in the Agon pas de deux kinescope*

Allegra Kent and Conrad Ludlow in the second movement of Symphony in C (the version in color) (Edited to change "excerpt from the Balanchine biography" to "excerpt from Dancing for Mr. B")*

Violette Verdy and Edward Villella in La Source*

Darci Kistler in the "Balanchine Celebration" Theme and Variations pas de deux. She was one of the few dancers that afternoon/evening that I thought was dancing for Mr. B., and every time I see that tape, I'm reminded of this sense.

Ib Andersen's Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream*

*Not released commercially.

Edited July 9, 2005 by Helene

[jayo]

Mine would be Joffrey's "Monotones II".  This is one of my favorite ballets, perhaps my all-time favorite.  As far as I know this is the only filming available and I treasure it beyond words.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where can I obtain a copy of this film? I saw the Joffrey perform this sooo many years ago and thought it was the most beautiful ballet I'd ever seen - I didn't realize it existed on film.

If you can point me to a source I would be very grateful!!!

jayo

[bart]

Strange, but I was just about to add that video of The Four Temperaments to this list. Though I would have added Sanguinic with Merrill Ashley and Daniel Duell. That's probably because I re-visited the DVD only a few days ago.

(My "favorite excerpts" tend to be selected from my "most recent" excerpts.)

One stunning set of images from The Elusive Muse: a very young Suzanne Farrell doing barre at SAB, and later in the video, Farrell in her 50's doing just two tendus on the porch of her cabin in the Adirondecks. The intense focus on the movement. As though the familiarity of it -- and the perfection of execution -- were a comfort, almost a spiritual experience. All the fouettes in the world don't equal that, IMO.

Also -- comparing other parts of those two videos -- Suzanne Farrell performing Tzigane in the 1970s -- then Farrell teaching Tzigane to dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet in the 1980s.

And one more: the old film of Farrell dancing Dulcinea's third-act (I think) solo in the 1965 Don Quixote. For the first time I really understood how great and unique a performer she is. S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G.

[carbro]

The DonQ pdd in Baryshnikov at Wolf Trap. Because the Kitri is Gelsey. And despite her illness and resultant weakness, her unique artistry shines through. I often mourn the dearth of video she left.

[Paul Parish]

And one more:  the old film of Farrell dancing Dulcinea's  third-act (I think) solo in the 1965 Don Quixote.  For the first time I really understood how great and unique a performer she is.  S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i'll second THAT -- and agree with everything everybody's said so far, including the Soloviev thing I only WISH I'd seen....

and I'd add Farrell in the Preghiera of Mozartiana, which was the first thing that made me see her gift; the more I watched that, the more I neede d to watch it, the complexity within such seeming simplicity just astounded me. And, it really IS a prayer. The uncertain balances correspond to fluctuations in faith and hope.

Also Sizova's FIRST variation in Sleeping Beauty.

And the Nicholas brothers in "Down Argentine Way."

[Giannina]

Jayo, Monotones II and 2 other Joffrey offerings were broadcast on TV and I taped it. As far as I know the taping was never offered commercially.

Giannina

[Helene]

I can't believe I forgot the broadcast performance of Mozartiana. It's impossible for me to choose from among Farrell's "Pregheria," Castelli's "Gigue," and Farrell and Andersen's Theme and Variations.

[jayo]

That's too bad. Maybe someday there will be a filmed version I can buy. Thanks for the info!

jayo

[Paul Parish]

The Allegra Kent thread ( http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...opic=20039&hl=) reminds me how badly I wish there were more kent on video -- in PARTICULAR, SYMPHONY IN C, and AGON.....

I find that even choppy clips of her in them hurry away my soul , and before eight counts have gone by in Symphony in C I've started to cry....

Carbro says it well, she's out of this world --

The one excerpt on video where you get to see what Kent does with a whole dance is in A Midsummer Night's Dream; there was a time in my life when I watched that every day, for at least a month.... the cabrioles, lighter than air, the demi-detournees in fourth, the way she takes the light -- it is so open, so ripe, and the phrasing is so impossibly long-breathed.... The final swoon is like a night-blooming flower closing in the morning.

[sandik]

I can't pick a favorite, but these are some that I watch when things get really difficult:

The Nicholas Brothers in "Down Argentine Way" (and Carmen Miranda too, but not as much)

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in "Swing Time" (especially the "Pick Yourself Up" number)

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland in "Theme and Variations"

"The Four Temperaments" (especially Choleric with Merrill Ashley)

"The Moor's Pavane" with the original cast (Pauline Koner is like a fox as she grabs the handkerchief)

Carlos Saura's "El Amor Brujo" (Blood Wedding and Carmen were great too, but this is my favorite of the three)

The "Moses Supposes" number with Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain"

[sylphide]

I don't know why but mine is the one where Ghislaine Fallou dances "Deux Pigeons " in The POB school's feature in "le Grand Echiquier"... There is just something about that young dancer being on the verge of stardom ... But with the Gods at will never able to allow her to make it to her full potential because of her later found illness...So much unrealised potential. Very touching

[violet]

Allegra Kent and Conrad Ludlow in Symphony in C

Also, I liked the snowflakes in the Bolshoi Ballet's The Nutcracker. Tutus and bourrees, that's how snowflakes should be.

[MakarovaFan]

Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in SWING TIME -- The "Never Gonna Dance" sequence.

Gabriella Komleva's Lament solo in the Kirov's LA BAYADERE

Gedminas Taranda's Abderakhman in the Bolshoi's RAYMONDA

Natalia Makarova's GISELLE

Vladimir Vasiliev's SPARTACUS

Suzanne Farrell in VIENNA WALTZES

Violette Verdy in EMERALDS

[Solor]

Farukh Rouzimitov and Tatiana Terekhova dancing the "Le Corsaire" pas de deux in the film "The Magic of the Kirov" -

It is the best performance I have ever seen of this pas, on film or otherwise......after I watched this film on TV when I was 11 I decided to take my 1st ballet class!

Tatiana Terekhova dancing the variation of Dulcinea in the Dream sequence from the film of the Kirov's "Don Quixote" - the best I have ever seen, as well as Makhalina's variation, with her wondrous extensions and perfect placing.

Larissa Lezhnina and her 2 clown suitors (not sure who they are) in the film "The Maryinsky Ballet" aka "Kirov Classics" dancing the pas de trois from "The Fairy Doll" (its really from Drigo's "Harlequinade") - It is some of the best beautiful, classically perfect dancing I have ever seen on film.