Search - Choreography By Balanchine / Chaconne, Prodigal Son, Ballo Della Regina, Elegie, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux on DVD

FINALLY!...ONE OF THE MISSING BALLET JEWELS ON DVD

MUSIAKO | Mexico | 06/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A MUST HAVE for ballet dancers, dance teachers and coreographers. This dvd bring us back the presition in movements and beatifull lines of Mr. genius Balanchine's creations. kind of old videorecordings...but still the magic on it. there are some works missing on this dvd and the other one (tzigane/jewels...etc) like serenade, star and stripes...etc...we hope in the future comes out more balanchines dvds with all the great coreographies and great music that he always used."

Balanchine designed for TV by Balanchine

drkhimxz | Freehold, NJ, USA | 05/30/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The great virtue of this disc is that it was designed for television by Balanchine and is not a live performance designed for the stage and captured by video. The difference is immediately visible. Everything that is going on is right before your eyes, one does not face the phenomenon of either seeing close-up only a portion of the stage action or seeing the whole of the action as if one were in the uppermost region of the balconies (from which I saw this wonderful New York City Ballet company back in the mid-sixties at the New York State Theater). Balanchine here certainly draws on his Hollywood experience to solve the problem that Gene Kelly writes about in moving from stage to film in the early forties, how to convey the illusion of three-dimensional action on a two-dimensional screen.

As to the short ballets herein contained, what can one say. They are Balanchine. They are Patricia McBride. They are Baryshnikov. They are, in other words, top of the line choreography performed by top of the line dancers. Though thirty years old, the video and sound are first rate as you sit in a front row seat to enjoy a well-diversified program.

One need not be "into" ballet to like these pieces; one need only be susceptible to the charm of grace, the interweaving of expressive bodies into pleasurable patterns, and to music melded to dance to produce enlarged experiences of both."