Taping of performances

[Giselle05]

Okay, I have always wondered about this, and I hope someone will have some insight into this.

I often sit in the theatre during the performance and think to myself, God, why on earth isn't this being recorded?!?! I'm a big ABT-goer, and over the years I've seen more than many performances that I'd give anything to watch over and over again on tape. Then I started thinking, I'm sure it is being recorded. If I was a dancer, I'd get someone to tape at least some of my performances. Are live performances often video-taped, though we don't know it, for archival purposes, or for the dancers? I'm sure it can't be that all ABT has on tape from recent years is Le Corsaire, Swan Lake, and the ABT Now tape.

My second question is, if in fact performances are recorded, what would stop them from being released to the public, commercially, or at least to be viewed in the library?

[Helene]

Many companies tape live performances for archival and teaching purposes, but few are of broadcast quality. Francia Russell had said in many post-performance Q&A's that PNB's current equipment is on its last legs.

Unfortunately, contractual issues and royalties would prohibit distribution, even if there was multiple-camera quality output that could be edited professionally.

[doug]

At the end of each season, PNB usually sends a selection of archival tapes of the immediate past season to the Dance Collection at the New York Public Library, where they can be viewed by the public.

[Helene]

That's terrific news -- definitely something to add to the list on my next visit to NYC.

[Giselle05]

That's so interesting, thanks. I wish ABT would do that- at least with benchmarks, like anniversaries, farewells, last performances, etc. Gosh, I'm so desperate that I'd write to request a tape!

Where do the cameramen sit? Silly question, but I'm really curious, I never see them. :-)

[Leigh Witchel]

Giselle - the following parties need to be part of an agreement to make commercial recording possible.

The dancers

The musicians

The choreographer (or representative of the estate)

The composer (or representative of the estate)

The theater

The stagehands

This may give you an idea how complicated the permissions for a commercial taping are and why they happen infrequently.

[jllaney]

In general, ABT does something similar with the New york Public Library for Performing Arts with recordings of more recent productions that are not commercially available but are recorded for the sake of posterity. Corella and Herrera in Copelia, Marcelo Gomes in T&V and Raymonda, Cornejo in the recent Fokine celebration to name but a small few that are available and not to mention the Balanchine collection(lectures, performances and so on).

Rows and rows of ballet, opera and music. Well worth a visit.

[bart]

I didn't know this about the NY Public Library. I wonder if someone can answer the following questions:

Which branch? And, in what form are the videos available -- are you handed a casette? or is there a central feed controlled by a librarian?

If the latter, wouldn't it be possible for NY Public Library to set up a regional network of major libraries with performing arts specialties, so that people wouldn't have to travel to NYC? You could order the video in -- for example -- San Francisco; someone in NYC would set up and the feed via internet. These videos are a great national resource and should be more accessible to those who live elsewhere in the US.

[Juliet]

Try this link:

http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html

The website for NY Public Library is very informative. The NY Library for the Performing Arts is located at Lincoln Center, to the right rear of the Metropolitan Opera House. It is open to the public. You might want to check the website for more information on borrowing, access, etc. Some public library systems do lend AV materials through interlibrary loan.

[Giselle05]

Thanks for all your responses. I actually frequent the NYPL for Perf. Arts very often but didn't know of those ABT recordings.

I wonder if perhaps a dancer could answer, more along the lines of, do you often have someone record performances for your own sake, do you have permission, etc. Meaning, take a principal dancer with ABT- surely they'd be curious to know how they appear from the stage and would love to watch the performance from the audience's perspective! I just want reassuring that more performances are indeed being taped, its the paranoia in me. :-/ Maybe someday, somewhere, they'll be available for viewing...

bart, that's a good thought- I know the San Francisco Library has a great collection as well. At the NYPL, you see the librarian, who goes over your "order", files it in the computer, and assigns you a station. There are rows of booths with TVs and headphones, and the librarian plays it at your assigned station. Multiple videos can be "ordered" at a time and you can switch back and forth.

[doug]

PNB tapes every single performance and I assume most other large companies do, too. We have a house camera in the center of the dress circle ledge. All tapes are kept in a fire-safe room in our studios. The dancers can watch them (and regularly do watch them) in our production office.

[Anna NYC]

>PNB tapes every single performance, and I assume most other large

>companies do, too. The dancers can watch them (and regularly do watch

>them) in our production office.

Ditto NYCB. Every performance is filmed, and dancers of the company have special permission to view the footage both at company rehearsals and (privately) at the Dance Collection of the Lincoln Center Public Library. Most often these daily films are not available to the general public, but there are plenty of other films definitely worth seeing at that library. They have a tremendous collection. Many, many dancers who are, or have been, a part of NYCB can be seen in some filming somewhere there.

[Anthony_NYC]

A lot of entries in NYPL's catalog say "closed" or "permission required." I'm not sure about the former, but for the latter, it usually means you need permission from the company. That used to scare me off, but then I discovered that both NYCB and ABT are extemely accommodating about granting permission. Very easy. Incidentally, I believe NYPL for the Performing Arts also gets tapes of all performances that happen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It would be great to think that everything at the Joyce is also being filmed.

[sandik]

NYPL at Lincoln Center has two different areas with dance media. There is a section with tapes and DVDs that circulate with a regular library card, they are the kind of thing that you could purchase yourself from various distributors.

Upstairs in the research section is the meat of the libraries archival collection -- these are for the most part work that is not commerically available, and is most often used by dancers, choreographers, scholars and journalists. These do not circulate -- you hand a slip to the librarian, and are assigned a viewing carrel. Since their grand remodeling several years ago the actual tape/disc/whatever is handled behind the scenes, it used to be that you sat there in a booth while a library page cued up your tape for you. (it also used to be that you had to make an appointment in advance since they only had a handful of monitors -- it is so much better now).

Some of this material is available to whomever would like to watch it, but some is indeed "closed" or on limited access. Part of that has to do with copyright and fair use, but part is about the artist controlling their materials. Most "house tapes" (ongoing tapes of performances) require permission -- different companies have different policies about that, but there is a wealth of material that is available freely, especially old kinescopes of educational television programming. I always try to spend a couple of days there whenever I'm in New York, filling in whatever gaps make me the most cranky in my dance education, but it's never often enough.

[Giselle05]

I wonder if ABT tapes every single performances... what I'd do to have access to the rooms where the tapes are kept!

[Amy Reusch]

If the latter, wouldn't it be possible for NY Public Library to set up a regional network of major libraries with performing arts specialties, so that people wouldn't have to travel to NYC? You could order the video in -- for example -- San Francisco; someone in NYC would set up and the feed via internet. These videos are a great national resource and should be more accessible to those who live elsewhere in the US.

Interesting concept, but it sounds difficult to control to make sure there is no unauthorized access. If the control were lost, it would be more difficult for the NYPL to obtain the videos in the first place. And then again, why would the NY taxpayers subsidize the rest of the country? There would have to be some sort of exchange, I suppose... It seems a more something the Library of Congress ought to do.

It's been a while now, and my memory doesn't serve very well, but don't choreographers need to file a video with the Library of Congress in order to copyright their work?

[Giselle05]

I was browsing through the NYPL's Dance Collection Catalog and came upon the recently added ABT Fokine Celebration (June 20, 2005)- it is the only tape from ABT from this year, and in the "Notes", it says:

"Recording made possible by the cooperation of American Ballet Theatre, the Metropolitan Opera House, and the Jerome Robbins Archive of the Recorded Moving Image, Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Videotaped in performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, N.Y., on June 20, 2005; video documentation, Harmill Communications; director/camera, Jay Millard.

This recording is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Recorded with the assistance of New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts."

Meaning...ABT does not have the funds to tape every performance, like PNB and NYCB? I never imagined it required so many expenses...it's just a house camera! :-(

Editing to add: Ditto for the NYCB tapes..(made possible by cooperation, funding, etc.)...However, for the PNB tapes, it just says filmed in the Seattle Opera House on this and this day, gift of the Pacific Northwest Ballet..

[Amy Reusch]

Meaning...ABT does not have the funds to tape every performance, like PNB and NYCB? I never imagined it required so many expenses...it's just a house camera! :-(

Could you elaborate? I remember a time in the '90s when all ABT was allowed by the unions was an un-manned VHS camcorder in the back of the house. At about the same time, NYCB was using two IATSE members for it's archival shooting (I don't know where the equipment came from, but it was good equipment to judge by the recordings)... quite an expense. I once stopped by PNB's tech department on a visit to Seattle and saw their equipment... which looked like low-end broadcast [still significantly expensive]... they were doing the taping themselves ...possibly a different union situation dealing with a different local. The NY unions can be very tough. Sometimes the archival video recording rights are pawns in larger union contract negotiations.

I still think it's a shame... piracy issues notwithstanding, having inexpensive recordings readily available would grow the live audience and ultimately benefit all the unions involved.

[Mme. Hermine]

It may be that the only ones allowed in the library for public viewing are those that are filmed that way and that others are kept in house.