DVDs – Page 4

DVD Review: The Bolshoi Ballet’s Giselle

October 29, 2012 by Ashley David

by Emily Kate Long

Filmed in 2011, this Giselle is Yuri Grigorovich’s version after choreography by Coralli, Perrot, and Petipa. Simon Virsaladze’s set and costume designs are gloriously light and airy, and the staging in both acts is full but polished.

Svetlana Lunkina’s Giselle is playful and modest in Act 1. Her sweetness is well complemented by Dimitry Gudanov’s casual confidence as Albrecht. Lunkina is closeup-ready; every expression is genuine and effective down to the ends of her eyelashes. It’s easy to fall in love with her, and easy to mourn her madness and heartbreak. This Giselle’s believably tragic and deeply personal mad scene is, unfortunately, somewhat cheapened by the villagers’ over-the-top reactions of distress at the close of the act.

The Giselle that appears in Act 2 is, appropriately, the emotionally spent young woman whose world collapsed around her in Act 1. Her innocence has been darkened, her joy dampened. Lunkina is completely at the mercy of a cruel and somber Myrtha (Maria Allash) until her true love and forgiveness of Albrecht break Myrtha’s spell and to save him at sunrise. The dancing of the wilis is pure magic—the suspension of one woman from a rocking mechanism to drop lilies on Albrecht is pure distraction.

The huge scale of a Bolshoi production is something that simply doesn’t exist in the West. For most of us, video is the only way we’ll ever see something so enormous. Watching that magnificence, as well as seeing Lunkina close up, is absolutely a treat, but here video simultaneously detracts where it enhances. The humanity of her Giselle, so wonderfully highlighted in close-ups, seems out of context amid the exaggerated grandness traditional on the Bolshoi stage.

The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in Giselle. 109 minutes. Pathe Live, Bel Aire Media, and the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre, 2012.

Assistant Editor Emily Kate Long began her dance education in South Bend, Indiana, with Kimmary Williams and Jacob Rice, and graduated in 2007 from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s Schenley Program. She has spent summers studying at Ballet Chicago, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Miami City Ballet, and Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive/Vail Valley Dance Intensive, where she served as Program Assistant. Ms Long attended Milwaukee Ballet School’s Summer Intensive on scholarship before being invited to join Milwaukee Ballet II in 2007.

Ms Long has been a member of Ballet Quad Cities since 2009. She has danced featured roles in Deanna Carter’s Ash to Glass and Dracula, participated in the company’s 2010 tour to New York City, and most recently performed principal roles in Courtney Lyon’s Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Cinderella. She is also on the faculty of Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance, where she teaches ballet, pointe, and repertoire classes.

DVD Review: Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Triangle Of The Squinches; Scheherazade; Dust And Light

October 3, 2012 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Triangle Of The Squinches; Scheherazade; Dust And Light

This DVD is the first I’ve seen of Alonzo King’s work. I dearly wish I could have seen these dances live; in this case, film detracts from the real thing. The number of cuts and close-ups at inappropriate moments is distracting—these are extraordinarily beautiful dancers doing beautiful movements, and it’s a shame to be denied the ability to watch all of them and study the spatial and dynamic relationships among bodies in the whole space.

Triangle of the Squinches features music by Mickey Hart and imposing sets by architect Christopher Haas. The ensemble sections are busy, made busier by the closeness of the cameras. My favorite moments in this piece are the simple ones: a man nearly falls and is caught and supported by another; a woman walks along the set, as if the wall is the floor, suspended by two men; later, the same woman runs slow-motion with the help of her partner. Dancers occasionally stop and watch one another as if something larger than themselves is passing among them.

Scheherazade is set to a re-working of the Rimsky-Korsakov score by Zakir Hussain. It is costumed simply but spectacularly, and overall is more impressionistic than narrative. A highlight is a moving pas de deux for Laurel Keen and David Harvey, but even here the break is too great between what is dancing and what is relationship.

Dust and Light is another marvelously costumed dance—simple but impeccably well-fit leotards and dresses for the women and shorts for the men in soft, luminous shades. The music is by Corelli and Poulenc, and the atmosphere of the piece is dreamy and sublime.

There are truly lovely moments in all three pieces, but even more that are missed because of the general absence of external focus of the dancers while dancing. I appreciate the cerebral nature of King’s work and the originality of shapes, but I feel as if I’ve just been in a room with a lot of people thinking out loud at once and have no idea what was actually said. The dancers deliberately watch one another when they are not dancing, but as soon as the movement starts, the focus goes inward. I desperately want to go with them and watch them take one another along. Something so thoughtful and intelligent shouldn’t give the impression that it may not be shared.

Here’s a sample of the DVD:

Ms Long has been a member of Ballet Quad Cities since 2009. She has danced featured roles in Deanna Carter’s Ash to Glass and Dracula, participated in the company’s 2010 tour to New York City, and most recently performed principal roles in Courtney Lyon’s Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and Cinderella. She is also on the faculty of Ballet Quad Cities School of Dance, where she teaches ballet, pointe, and repertoire classes.

DVD Review: Bolshoi: A Renaissance

September 19, 2012 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

What an impressive renovation! The rescue and restoration of the legendary Bolshoi Theatre is the centerpiece of this interesting film, which has a running time of 54 minutes. You can watch it in French if you can track it, or opt for English subtitles. Either way, it’s worth the time…

Directed by Denis Sneguirev, a combination of documentary footage, photographs, interviews and animation brings the story of this project to life for the viewer. Rather than present things by using a step-by-step approach–chronicling each phase of the restoration, the director chooses to highlight moments and use the voices of those involved with the project to personalize the breadth and depth of its importance. For example, we hear from the head of security, who walks through the space pointing out the fact that everything from the door handles to the mirrors is historic here—items that were touched by and gazed into by dignitaries from many, many years ago. It really does make one stop and think…

The theatre itself is interesting (did you know it was designed in the shape of a violin’s body?), but the film also does the artists themselves justice. Footage of icons from the dance world (think Ulanova, Plisetkaya) helps tie the space itself in with the fabric of Russian culture–something that is already inseparable there.

A section of the film that was especially interesting dealt with the acoustics of the theatre. Great care was taken to make sure these details weren’t lost during the renovation. For example, the experts wanted to make sure that the floor transferred vibration so that the audience felt the music in their bodies as well as heard it. Amazing.

Bolshoi: A Renaissance, BelAir Classiques

DVD Review: Ballet and Orchestra of the Lyon National Opera in Maguy Marin’s Cinderella

September 12, 2012 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

There’s the saying that if you want to hide something, you put it in plain sight. By dressing her dancers as dolls—wigs, masks, and full-body stuffed suits—Maguy Marin places the un-reality of the fairy-tale as such in plain sight. It is not about a girl and a boy feeling specific things in response to specific events governed by the norms of a specific time and place. Joy in response to love, sadness because of loss, fear of despair and isolation—none of these things are character- or situation-specific to Cinderella. They are simply human, and this staging of Cinderella brings them front and center.

Visually, the work is wonderfully strange with plenty of irony and, sometimes, downright silliness. The Sisters and Stepmother are pitifully rude, comic at times and sinister at others. Their torment of Cinderella is violent—thank goodness for the padded costume! Some of the same partnering elements are used later and more gently among Cinderella and the Good Fairies, effectively contrasting the Sisters’ roughness with the Fairies’ care.

Most touching in this work is Cinderella’s awakening solo in Act Three. After attempting to console herself with a broomstick version of her beloved prince, she collapses to the floor in utter despair. Who hasn’t felt so hopelessly wretched upon losing the things most dear to us: love and affirmation?

Marin incorporates play in a very literal way—the Gavotte contains plenty of flat-on-the-back falls for Cinderella as the Good Fairies encourage her to dance, and the ball scene includes guests sliding down the stairs and games of hopscotch and jump-rope. The pas de deux between Cinderella and the Prince features a shy game of paddy-cake and the “airplane,” with her supported off the ground on his feet. All this happens without seeming contrived; the exuberance and joy build naturally. After all, we are dealing with the language of young children, which is widely understood without any words at all.

Also striking about this version of Cinderella was the collision of old-fashioned and futuristic elements. The plaster-face doll masks reminded me immediately of dolls I used to play with at my grandmother’s house. The little girl through whose imagination we witness the story is dressed in vaguely Victorian clothing. Yet, the construction of the dollhouse is minimalist, the Fairy Godmother is an androgynous robot, and Cinderella travels to the Ball in a miniature car. The ballet concludes with a parade of Victorian pull-toys and a clear cellophane film descending as a scrim would. It seals the dolls in their house, as if reminding us that projections and interpretations are just that, real though they may seem. They exist both uniquely for each of us and commonly for all of us.

Ballet and Orchestra of the Lyon National Opera in Maguy Marin’s Cinderella. ArtHaus Musik GmbH, 2012. 87 Minutes.

Assistant Editor Emily Kate Long began her dance education in South Bend, Indiana, with Kimmary Williams and Jacob Rice and graduated in 2007 from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School’s Schenley Program. Ms Long attended Milwaukee Ballet School’s Summer Intensive on scholarship before being invited to join Milwaukee Ballet II in 2007. She also has spent summers studying at Saratoga Summer Dance Intensive, Miami City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, and Ballet Chicago.

Ms Long has been a member of Ballet Quad Cities since 2009. She has danced featured roles in Deanna Carter’s Ash to Glass and Dracula, participated in the company’s 2010 tour to New York City, and most recently performed the title role in Courtney Lyon’s Cinderella and the role of Clara in The Nutcracker. Prior to joining Ballet Quad Cities Ms Long performed with Milwaukee Ballet and MBII in Michael Pink’s The Nutcracker and Candide Overture, Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty and La Bayadére, Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Bournonville’s Flower Festival in Genzano and Napoli, and original contemporary and neoclassical works by Tom Teague, Denis Malinkine, Rolando Yanes, and Petr Zaharadnicek.

Never Stand Still – A Jacob’s Pillow Documentary

August 14, 2012 by 4dancers

by Catherine L. Tully

Never Stand Still is a documentary about Jacob’s Pillow, home of the longest-running international dance festival in the United States. Affectionately dubbed “The Pillow,” this national historic landmark has a complex and fascinating history which is illuminated quite well by Director Ron Honsa through a combination of historical photographs, videos and narrative. Interviews with dance luminaries such as Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, Judith Jamison and Paul Taylor punctuate the documentary with interesting anecdotes and observations from their own work, adding to the breadth and depth of the film.

Viewers are expertly guided through the history of the venue through rich narration provided by a well-known figure in the dance world–Bill T. Jones. Highlights include dancer Frederic Franklin remembering his early days on the property with Ted Shawn (modern dance pioneer and founder of Jacob’s Pillow) and Suzanne Farrell reminiscing about her time there.

The footage does a wonderful job of showcasing the natural surroundings at The Pillow–163 acres of green space in the Berkshires, dotted with rustic farmhouse buildings and an outdoor stage. The property really has a “vacation getaway” feel to it, and indeed it is known as an intimate venue that some in the dance world even refer to as a “sanctuary”.

The release of this film coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Festival, and it does much to convey the diverse heritage of the annual event. Inspiration and collaboration are highlighted through interviews with Tony Award-winner Bill Irwin and dancer Rasta Thomas, and a multitude of dance clips give viewers a sampling of the range of movement styles represented throughout the Festival each year.

Never Stand Still is a tribute to Jacob’s Pillow–a testament to our tradition and roots in movement. It succeeds in its attempt to convey the mood and emotion that can exist in a physical place where so much passion, talent and excitement have come together throughout the years. There is a reverence for this piece of land in the dance world; both for its history and for what it has become today–a place for dance that really has no equal.

Here’s an extended preview for those of you who are interested in getting a glimpse of what this film looks like:

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