dance and the Olympics

[sandik]

Does anyone here know anything about dance events tied to the summer Olympics?

[Alexandra]

I don't -- hope someone else does. The opening ceremonies should be dancey, though, from the few practice clips they've shown in news/sports previews.

[cygneblanc]

There are some cultural events linked with the olympic games in a festival. Ballet is included.

http://cities.sulekha.com/china/beijing/ch...omingevents.htm

[carbro]

From cygneblanc's link above :

Royal Danish Ballet Presents: La Sylphide and the third act of Napoli --2008-08-09 20:00:00

Classic Ballet La Sylphide & Napoli by China National Ballet -- 2008-08-09 20:00:00

Ballet Red Detachment of Women by China National Ballet -- 2008-08-22 20:00:00

Is this a major chunk of heaven, or what???

(Yes, I notice that the Sylphide/Napoli are scheduled for the same time.)

My guess is that US viewers will get hardly any of this. My most optimistic expectation is that we'll get about 30 seconds of Red Detachment as a slice of Chinese culture and none of the Bournonville. Prove me completely wrong, NBC.

[cygneblanc]

There is also former POB's principal Marie-Claude Pietragalla's new creation about Marco Polo, but I wonder how it should called

[sandik]

I don't -- hope someone else does. The opening ceremonies should be dancey, though, from the few practice clips they've shown in news/sports previews.

My partner saw footage of the orchestral rehearsal (and that tug on your heart Olympic theme) -- they almost filled Tianamen Square, which is enough to make you cry right there.

[sandik]

My guess is that US viewers will get hardly any of this. My most optimistic expectation is that we'll get about 30 seconds of Red Detachment as a slice of Chinese culture and none of the Bournonville. Prove me completely wrong, NBC.

If you're in a place where you get Canadian television, try following their coverage -- they often show a broader range of events.

[carbro]

I dozed off during the opening ceremonies -- the first hour and a half or so -- but thanks to Huffington Post for this little video from Dutch tv . You can find it here, scrolling past the slideshow to the image of Chinese men in white and red short-sleeved robes. Even the small video has a hypnotic effect.

There are also raw and amateur videos of the fireworks, none of which I found satisfying.

[Helene]

msnbc.com has live streams of many events, including those that will be "chacked" from the network broadcasts:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/

[Amy Reusch]

Thanks for the new word! (For the clueless, like me, here's a wikidictionary link: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chack )

I thought the screen painting dancers were very succesful, but the traditional chinese dancers where hard to get much of a feeling for because of the attention deficit disorder like camerawork. I think the pre-ceremony secrecy may have gotten in the way of directing the broadcast. I was rather impressed by the dancing of the color guard as well.

Unfortunately, it appears one can only watch the live stream if one is a cable subscriber.