"In a Rehearsal Room"

[Guest Lormine]

Does anyone know if a video exists of "In a Rehearsal Room" (1975?) with Cynthia Gregory and Ivan Nagy in a beautiful pas de deux choreographed by William Carter to the music of Pachelbel's Canon? I still remember this lovely work and would love to get a copy of this for my daughter who now dances.

Thanks!

[rg]

this film was shown on television during its first few years of its being made. i don't know of its being released commercially, however. balletalert videophiles whose collections go some way back may have off-the-air copies. i knew one fellow who got his Beta machine back in '77, who had it. alas he's now deceased and i don't know what happened to all his cassettes.

perhaps with the seeming popularity of DVD films like this may be released on disc.

or we can hope.

[Guest Lormine]

Thanks rg. I originally saw this film in the 70's as a 'short', presented before a feature film in a movie theatre in SF(remember when they used to show these before every movie?). What a treat it was, since it wasn't advertised; I was in college and dancing quite a bit.

I will continue to hope that someone, still living ;), will have a copy of this, or that it will again be released. I have 'googled' and 'amazoned' but only came up with two references to the film, none of which state that any copy is available.

[Mary J]

A book of photographs from that performance is available for some significant sum on Alibris.com. Just not the same as a video, though.

[the recycler]

I, too, have been trying to find a copy of "In a Rehearsal Room" (but my faulty memory thought it was "In a Rehearsal Hall"), so I'm happy to have just discovered this ballet website and gotten the correct name of this wonderful short film, and the names of the performers. (I even emailed Leonard Maltin, the movie critic, about the film but he hadn't heard of it.) Like Lormine, I also saw it in the early 70's in a movie theatre prior to the feature film, several times in fact, and just loved it. Since these prior comments are several years old, I wondered if anyone had any new information about how to obtain a copy of it?

[innopac]

I, too, have been trying to find a copy of "In a Rehearsal Room" (but my faulty memory thought it was "In a Rehearsal Hall"), so I'm happy to have just discovered this ballet website and gotten the correct name of this wonderful short film, and the names of the performers. (I even emailed Leonard Maltin, the movie critic, about the film but he hadn't heard of it.) Like Lormine, I also saw it in the early 70's in a movie theatre prior to the feature film, several times in fact, and just loved it. Since these prior comments are several years old, I wondered if anyone had any new information about how to obtain a copy of it?

Have you tried following up this lead at the Dance Film Archive? They mention a 16mm film available for rental. I don't know what their conditions of rental are.

[Moira]

I, too, have been trying to find a copy of "In a Rehearsal Room" (but my faulty memory thought it was "In a Rehearsal Hall"), so I'm happy to have just discovered this ballet website and gotten the correct name of this wonderful short film, and the names of the performers. (I even emailed Leonard Maltin, the movie critic, about the film but he hadn't heard of it.) Like Lormine, I also saw it in the early 70's in a movie theatre prior to the feature film, several times in fact, and just loved it. Since these prior comments are several years old, I wondered if anyone had any new information about how to obtain a copy of it?

Have you tried following up this lead at the Dance Film Archive? They mention a 16mm film available for rental. I don't know what their conditions of rental are.

I don't know if anyone is still following this thread as it looks a little old, but this video is actually posted on YouTube now:

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all...p;v=ry5m91KUVyo

[makuabrian]

The youtube of In a Rehearsal Room is not the complete original short film. Besides having credits, the film also had a striking lead in where both dancers were preparing separately, though somehow connecting, before the music begins, and, if I remember correctly, they part separately after the music is over. VERY compelling! An extraordinary piece! Let's keep searching. There MUST be some person or company that has the actual film who might be persuaded to release it as a DVD - perhaps as the signature piece in a compilation of similar projects.

[jbh23]

There is a 11-minute version of the film at http://youtu.be/rN1dCaK0eZY . Sound and picture quality are not great.

[diane]

Thank you! This was lovely.

-d-

[Happ]

I first saw this short at MOMA during an afternoon showing and immediately became a -groupie- for it. I followed it where it played all across the city and westchester at local libraries. I think it was in 1979 or '80. When I went, in a pouring rain to see it at the Chappaqua library and told the librarian how I followed it around, she said she had just finished -taking severl hits of it herself - before the showing.

I actually purchased my first VCR for the purpose of buying this film, but was stopped because of the hefty asking price...over $200.00. So I went to buy the book instead and found it had sold like hotcakes and was out of print.

$200 still seems like a lot of money to me for an 11 minute short, but if I could find it now, I am older and now have that kind of money. I would buy it.