Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements on Sunday, May 31, 2020 only

[fiddleback]

Ballet Arizona will stream Balanchine’s Symphony in Three Movements on Sunday, May 31, 2020. 24 hours only, starting at 9AM PDT.

Symphony in Three Movements was presented in May of 2018, the first of three Balanchine pieces. Also on the program were Prodigal Son and La Sonnambula.

This video is pretty much a fixed ‘balcony view’ of the performance. This is the price we pay in order to see these archival videos which were almost certainly never intended to be shown to the public.

Choreography by George Balanchine
Staged by Ib Andersen
Music by Igor Stravinsky
Original Lighting Design by Mark Stanley
Lighting Recreated by Michael Korsch
Costume Design by Karinska

Cast:
I.
Jillian Barrell, Helio Lima
Mimi Tompkins, Randy Pacheco
Rochelle Anvik, Ethan Price

Colleen Buckley, Amber Lewis, Kaelyn Magee, Allison Remmers, Chelsea Teel

Connor Cohen, Eric Hipolito Jr., Annier Navarro, Alberto Penalver, Ricardo Santos

Christine Arendt, Alli Chester, Ava Cobb, Sarah Diniz, Annika Erickson, Gillian George, Ana Leticia Godoy, Aubrey Kazimi, Marina Lee, Lauren Kness, Katherine Loxtercamp, Riley McGregor, Jelena Mitrovic, Katherine Moser, Jessica Phillips, Camille Sevrain, Ana Maria Spear, Sasha Vincett

II.

 Jillian Barrell, Helio Lima

III.

Entire Cast

Note: Many, if not most, of the corps were members of the Studio Company.

Edited May 31, 2020 by fiddleback
Added production info

[California]

Watching it now for the second time. One of my top ten Balanchine ballets. I'm pretty sure this is the first complete recording available. Lots of snippets here and there, but not the complete thing.

I did watch some archival tape at NYPL Dance Collection to see original casts in the early 70s. I think they all wore white leotards (or was it all black?). The pink-white-black contrast didn't come in until later. 

[fiddleback]

Ballet Arizona will be hosting a live ‘post-show chat’ to discuss their video of George Balanchine's Symphony in 3 Movements on Monday, June 1st at 4:30pm MST. Ballet Arizona dancers Alison Remmers and Rochelle Anvik will answer questions about what it is like to prepare, rehearse, and perform Balanchine masterpieces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn8UwMH4eJ
(Note: the youtube photo for this event shows a very misleading scene from Swan Lake…)

[Jack Reed]

10 hours ago, fiddleback said:

 

 

This video is pretty much a fixed ‘balcony view’ of the performance. This is the price we pay in order to see these archival videos which were almost certainly never intended to be shown to the public.

 

Actually, if I may disagree, the video doesn't look to me like the camera was that high, and whenever I've been in the theater, I've seen one or two cameras set up on tripods at the back of the center of the main floor.  The main criticism I'd make is that the image of the stage is too loosely framed, so that there's a lot of wasted black area around it, compared, for example, to the still image of the last "totem pole" pose posted here, which is just about ideal.  The effect is to make the ballet less immediate, to make the dance "remote," as someone said about the Square Dance video, though, again from familiarity with the theater, which is pretty level, I wouldn't want the camera moved closer to the stage; aside from blocking some spectators' view, it would go even lower relative to stage level.  A little zoom in would have helped.  But the height is very much to my liking. 

I think this video is very good - the camera doesn't move - the movement is left to the dancers!  The camera shows their space and they move in it.  The camera controls our point of view, and dance videos where I'm bounced around the theater give me fits.  (I will say the the advantage of a video you can see more than once is that you have a chance to reassemble the event in your mind; but that shouldn't be necessary.)

I'm glad we have this.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Jack Reed

[Jack Reed]

10 hours ago, California said:

Watching it now for the second time. One of my top ten Balanchine ballets. I'm pretty sure this is the first complete recording available. Lots of snippets here and there, but not the complete thing.

I did watch some archival tape at NYPL Dance Collection to see original casts in the early 70s. I think they all wore white leotards (or was it all black?). The pink-white-black contrast didn't come in until later. 

One of my top Balanchine ballets, too!  (But I can't get the number down that small!)

I missed the 1972 Stravinsky Festival itself, but when I did start to gorge on "Symphony Three," as we called it, in 1973, part of the fun was to see what colors the three solo girls, especially Sara Leland, in the most prominent role, had on at each performance.  It varied among pink, pale orange, scarlet, and so on; but the large corps of 16 girls who start the ballet always wore white, and the smaller group of 5 demi-solo couples were always in black and white - the girls in black leotards, the boys in white tee shirts - as in the final image here.

(It occurs to me that Alexander Calder, whose work was much admired by Stravinsky, liked color schemes like these, too.)

Edited June 1, 2020 by Jack Reed

[Dale]

I've been very impressed with the company and the stagings. I feel the intention is there with each of the three Balanchine ballets they've shown. 

[cobweb]

Wow this was a terrific performance, BEAUTIFULLY REHEARSED!! Thanks Jack Reed for posting the reminder, I would have missed this otherwise. So glad I caught it. 

[pherank]

On 5/31/2020 at 8:14 PM, Jack Reed said:

Actually, if I may disagree, the video doesn't look to me like the camera was that high, and whenever I've been in the theater, I've seen one or two cameras set up on tripods at the back of the center of the main floor.  The main criticism I'd make is that the image of the stage is too loosely framed, so that there's a lot of wasted black area around it, compared, for example, to the still image of the last "totem pole" pose posted here, which is just about ideal.  The effect is to make the ballet less immediate, to make the dance "remote," as someone said about the Square Dance video, though, again from familiarity with the theater, which is pretty level, I wouldn't want the camera moved closer to the stage; aside from blocking some spectators' view, it would go even lower relative to stage level.  A little zoom in would have helped.  But the height is very much to my liking. 

I think this video is very good - the camera doesn't move - the movement is left to the dancers!  The camera shows their space and they move in it.  The camera controls our point of view, and dance videos where I'm bounced around the theater give me fits.  (I will say the the advantage of a video you can see more than once is that you have a chance to reassemble the event in your mind; but that shouldn't be necessary.)

I'm glad we have this.

Me too - a good performance.

The camera position actually does move about some, which is a little odd, and unnecessary, if the idea was to provide a full stage view from the best possible position and distance. So I have to think the video team wasn't really familiar with this particular ballet. There was no plan for providing closeups of the PDD dancers, or smaller groupings, so I'm sure they weren't thinking about public release, only providing the company with an archival film. Still, closeups are helpful to any dancer trying to learn these roles in the future (as long as the closeups show the entire body).

[nanushka]

On 5/31/2020 at 12:46 PM, California said:

 I'm pretty sure this is the first complete recording available. Lots of snippets here and there, but not the complete thing.

There was once (and may still be) on YouTube a complete NYCB (2008?) recording with Wendy Whelan, Albert Evans, Sterling Hyltin, Adam Hendrickson, Savannah Lowery and Adrian Danchig-Waring. An exciting performance, but not high quality video (apparently pirated).

I too really enjoyed this Ballet Arizona performance and am glad to have a higher-quality complete video.

[California]

3 minutes ago, nanushka said:

There was once (and may still be) on YouTube a complete NYCB (2008?) recording with Wendy Whelan, Albert Evans, Sterling Hyltin, Adam Hendrickson, Savannah Lowery and Adrian Danchig-Waring. An exciting performance, but not high quality video (apparently pirated).

I too really enjoyed this Ballet Arizona performance and am glad to have a higher-quality complete video.

I'll look for that one. Ballet Arizona took theirs off-line after 24 hours, as promised. And they blocked downloading with RealPlayer and Vimeo, so it was impossible to save.

This is the kind of ballet I would happily pay a fee to download. We pay fees to download certain films and music - why not make some performing arts  performances available?   I hope the vague mentions of digital downloads in NYCB comments considers this.  Ditto for the T&V on ABT's stream. So much to study in the movement and music. For anyone who is a serious writer or student of music/dance, you really need to be able to study details and not everybody is in NYC to study tapes at the NYPL. 

[cobweb]

On 5/31/2020 at 12:43 PM, fiddleback said:

Note: Many, if not most, of the corps were members of the Studio Company.

The corps looked great. I was impressed with the opening movement. 

[Helene]

They're a great company, and I'm glad they're getting recognition because people can see them.

[California]

15 minutes ago, Helene said:

They're a great company, and I'm glad they're getting recognition because people can see them.

Coincidentally, I was in Phoenix last fall for a professional conference and was SO disappointed they weren't performing while I was in town. If they do another all-Balanchine program of this caliber I might even consider flying back -- that is, when it feels safe to fly -- soon, I hope! A Bournonville festival might also get me to visit.

[pherank]

7 hours ago, California said:

I'll look for that one. Ballet Arizona took theirs off-line after 24 hours, as promised. And they blocked downloading with RealPlayer and Vimeo, so it was impossible to save.

YouTube hosted videos are generally downloadable, except for any initial live streams - those can't be downloaded as a complete file (being only a stream of data). IN some instances a YouTube log-in may be required, as in no anonymous 'guest' downloads allowed. If you find that YouTube is balking at allowing a download, simply wait a few hours and try again (and try closing and reopening the browser as well). Also, if for some reason no download button/link is provided, add-ons like Airy will handle the download for you (you need to have a valid YouTube log-in to get this to work).

[FPF]

I also really enjoyed this. Thanks to fiddleback for spreading the word.