Balanchine Rubies

[kiki]

Does anyone know if there is a video of Balanchine's Rubies available anywhere? I would love to find a copy of it!

[Jack Reed]

You and me both, kiki! Rubies, with the original cast, was the ballet that got me hooked on Balanchine, ballet, and theatrical dance in general. It's remained a favorite of mine since that fateful day in 1968...

Anyway, I think the sad truth is, if you mean commercially available, no. As far as I know, only the pas de deux was broadcast, once in 1978, performed by Patricia McBride and Robert Weiss in "Choreography by Balanchine" Part 2 in PBS's Dance in America series, but not in the Nonesuch commercial reissue of that program on VHS and DVD; and again in 1979, performed by Heather Watts and Mikhail Baryshnikov in the PBS program "Baryshnikov at the White House," none of which to my knowledge has ever been released commercially. And there's a fragment of Rubies, shot from a position halfway to the side, of Miami City Ballet performing it, I think, in a documentary or promotional item about MCB or about Edward Villella, if I remember correctly.

So if you can find somebody with a videotape collection in good condition going this far back, that's still all you can get. Sorry if I'm the messenger with the bad news.

[lampwick]

SO many people complain about this, since it seems to be a favorite Jewels section (I'm an Emeralds girl personally )

They should record this with Damian Woetzel, Alexandra Ansanelli, and Tess Reichlin. It's a great cast.

[dirac]

I'm desperate enough to see it with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, at this stage.

Fortunately, it's been in the San Francisco Ballet rep a long time as a stand-alone piece and now as part of Jewels, so I'm not wholly deprived.

[Jack Reed]

When Balanchine gave it alone at NYCB, it was called Capriccio, from the title of the music, Stravinsky's Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra. Does SFB adhere to this practice?

[BalletNut]

I don't think so, at least not since I started following the company.

I'd like to see Jewels filmed in its entirety, myself...which means, of course, that Rubies would be captured for posterity. And made commercially available.

[kfw]

The video Man Who Dances has a short excerpt of Villella dancing in it and then rehearsing it with Patricia McBride.

[Jack Reed]

Now I think Man Who Dances is one of the videos I remember, and that there was another promoting MCB. But, yes, Jewels, and a number of other ballets, would be good to have recorded.

(I remember reading that Balanchine was ambivalent about the idea, fearing that people would think the recorded one was the only "right" one. To me, this is a reason to record several performances. Well, I can dream, can't I?)