Fred and Ginger, from CarolineAlice
Showing posts with label dance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dance. Show all posts
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
the little mermaid — featuring the San Francisco Ballet
Article first published as DVD Review: The Little Mermaid - featuring the San Francisco Ballet on Blogcritics.
The ballet The Little Mermaid
, featuring the San Francisco Ballet premieres tonight on PBS' Great Performances, as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival, on December 16, 2011 at 9 p.m. A DVD of the filmed performance has just been released in conjunction with the broadcast. It runs 154 minutes, with German and French subtitles available.
Hamburg Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer John Neumeier choreographed the ballet, as well as designed the sets, costumes, and lighting for The Little Mermaid. In his introduction he gives the audience some background about author Hans Christian Andersen, who had a history of falling in love with the wrong women, and possibly men as well. His writing of the original story of The Little Mermaid may have been spurred on by his unrequited love for the recently married Edvard Collin.
The two-act ballet opens in silence with The Poet (Lloyd Riggins, an alter ego for Andersen) on shipboard, the guest at a wedding. The music, by Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach, begins as The Poet picks up conch shell and is transported beneath the ocean where the mermaid and wedding party all exist in his dreamscape. The ballet explores themes of unconditional love and redemption, as it follows Andersen's story of a mermaid (played by San Francisco Ballet prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan), who for the love of a man (The Prince, played by Tiit Helimets), becomes human, only to watch him fall in love with another (The Princess, played by Sarah Van Patten).
The Poet is always on hand to support his creation and watch her suffer, but he seems powerless to influence the course of her story, which is an interesting metaphor for the artist. Although technically ballet, the vigorous dance numbers, especially with sailors on board ship, evoke modern dance and even classic Broadway theater.
The DVD of the ballet was filmed at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House. The set design at times suggests turn-of-the century art deco cruise posters by Cassandre (when the dancers are on land) and an abstract nightclub (due to the startling lighting effects) beneath the sea.
Neumeier has interpreted the mermaid's tail in extra-long pants legs, which seem awkward at first, but actually do work, as the fabric can be twisted by dancers to take the shape of a tail, or just trail along behind the Little Mermaid, like a fin.
The Sea Witch (Davit Karapetyan) helps the Little Mermaid become human, depicted here as physically tortuous. She is even briefly confined to a wheelchair, as she hasn't quite figured out how to use her legs, giving the Princess, first seen as a Madeline-like school girl, an opportunity to wow the Prince.
This interpretation of The Little Mermaid follows Andersen's tragic fairytale more closely than the Disney sanitized version. Yuan Yuan Tan's make-up gives her skin a cold, blue tinge, even above land, as if she can never completely warm up to her new role as a human.
The second act features more bold and graphic sets, costumes, and colors than the first, as the action moves inside, becomes claustrophobic. The Little Mermaid grapples in her box-like room, before having to attend the wedding of the Prince to the Princess, a heartbroken bridesmaid in a blood-red gown.
Just as the Little Mermaid is about to lose all hope, the wonderfully malevolent Sea Witch offers her another bargain: if she kills the Prince she can go back to her old life beneath the sea. Her pas-de-deux with the Prince is especially poignant, as he continues to react to her in an amused, brotherly way. He will never love her as she loves him. But she can't kill him, either. She loves him too much.
Once she accepts her rejection it's back to the box room, as she ends her days trapped in her new guise, new world, so much smaller than the huge beautiful blue ocean she used to swim in. The Poet can't leave her alone to her fate and joins her. They mirror each other in their pas-de-deux, transported to the stars. It's a bit of an abstract ending, but it is also visually arresting and beautiful to watch.
The DVD and Blu-ray include behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew, including Neumeier discussing how he was influenced by Japanese costumes to create the mermaid's "fins." Viewers will feel rewarded by the chance to view the ballet The Little Mermaid in the more intimate setting of their homes, and have the opportunity to see the dancers' faces and emotions during the course of the piece.
The ballet The Little Mermaid
, featuring the San Francisco Ballet premieres tonight on PBS' Great Performances, as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival, on December 16, 2011 at 9 p.m. A DVD of the filmed performance has just been released in conjunction with the broadcast. It runs 154 minutes, with German and French subtitles available.Yuan Yuan Tan as the Little Mermaid, with Lloyd Riggins as The Poet
Hamburg Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer John Neumeier choreographed the ballet, as well as designed the sets, costumes, and lighting for The Little Mermaid. In his introduction he gives the audience some background about author Hans Christian Andersen, who had a history of falling in love with the wrong women, and possibly men as well. His writing of the original story of The Little Mermaid may have been spurred on by his unrequited love for the recently married Edvard Collin.
The two-act ballet opens in silence with The Poet (Lloyd Riggins, an alter ego for Andersen) on shipboard, the guest at a wedding. The music, by Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach, begins as The Poet picks up conch shell and is transported beneath the ocean where the mermaid and wedding party all exist in his dreamscape. The ballet explores themes of unconditional love and redemption, as it follows Andersen's story of a mermaid (played by San Francisco Ballet prima ballerina Yuan Yuan Tan), who for the love of a man (The Prince, played by Tiit Helimets), becomes human, only to watch him fall in love with another (The Princess, played by Sarah Van Patten).
The Poet is always on hand to support his creation and watch her suffer, but he seems powerless to influence the course of her story, which is an interesting metaphor for the artist. Although technically ballet, the vigorous dance numbers, especially with sailors on board ship, evoke modern dance and even classic Broadway theater.
The Little Mermaid with The Prince, Tiit Helimets
The DVD of the ballet was filmed at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House. The set design at times suggests turn-of-the century art deco cruise posters by Cassandre (when the dancers are on land) and an abstract nightclub (due to the startling lighting effects) beneath the sea.
Neumeier has interpreted the mermaid's tail in extra-long pants legs, which seem awkward at first, but actually do work, as the fabric can be twisted by dancers to take the shape of a tail, or just trail along behind the Little Mermaid, like a fin.
The Sea Witch (Davit Karapetyan) helps the Little Mermaid become human, depicted here as physically tortuous. She is even briefly confined to a wheelchair, as she hasn't quite figured out how to use her legs, giving the Princess, first seen as a Madeline-like school girl, an opportunity to wow the Prince.
This interpretation of The Little Mermaid follows Andersen's tragic fairytale more closely than the Disney sanitized version. Yuan Yuan Tan's make-up gives her skin a cold, blue tinge, even above land, as if she can never completely warm up to her new role as a human.
The Sea Witch, Davit Karapetyan
The second act features more bold and graphic sets, costumes, and colors than the first, as the action moves inside, becomes claustrophobic. The Little Mermaid grapples in her box-like room, before having to attend the wedding of the Prince to the Princess, a heartbroken bridesmaid in a blood-red gown.
Just as the Little Mermaid is about to lose all hope, the wonderfully malevolent Sea Witch offers her another bargain: if she kills the Prince she can go back to her old life beneath the sea. Her pas-de-deux with the Prince is especially poignant, as he continues to react to her in an amused, brotherly way. He will never love her as she loves him. But she can't kill him, either. She loves him too much.
Once she accepts her rejection it's back to the box room, as she ends her days trapped in her new guise, new world, so much smaller than the huge beautiful blue ocean she used to swim in. The Poet can't leave her alone to her fate and joins her. They mirror each other in their pas-de-deux, transported to the stars. It's a bit of an abstract ending, but it is also visually arresting and beautiful to watch.
The DVD and Blu-ray include behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew, including Neumeier discussing how he was influenced by Japanese costumes to create the mermaid's "fins." Viewers will feel rewarded by the chance to view the ballet The Little Mermaid in the more intimate setting of their homes, and have the opportunity to see the dancers' faces and emotions during the course of the piece.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
all that jazz
Live like you'll die tomorrow, work like you don't need the money, and dance like nobody's watching.
I just rewatched All That Jazz
, which is from top to finish a brilliant tour-de-force and self-fulfilling prophecy. The man had talent and major balls to stage his own life in this over-the-top fantasy. Roy Scheider was amazing and hateful and wonderful as Fosse's alter ego. What a movie.
In today's world, everything seems like some sort of long audition.
It's showtime, folks!
I love the film Cabaret, but seeing Alan Cumming with Natasha Richardson in the 1998 revival on Broadway was phenomenal, too. Although choreographed by Rob Marshall, Fosse's influence was everywhere. As it is on so much dance to this day.
Don't dance for the audience; dance for yourself.
Michael Jackson loved him, too. And obviously took lessons:
I would never discriminate against someone's talent because they showed the poor taste to like me.
Fosse was more than a great dancer and choreographer, he was also a great director. Cabaret
(1972), Star 80
(1983), Liza with a Z: A Concert for Television
(a 1972 TV special which I still have fond memories of seeing), Lenny
(1974) and the aforementioned All That Jazz (1979).
Quotes from imdb
I just rewatched All That Jazz
, which is from top to finish a brilliant tour-de-force and self-fulfilling prophecy. The man had talent and major balls to stage his own life in this over-the-top fantasy. Roy Scheider was amazing and hateful and wonderful as Fosse's alter ego. What a movie.In today's world, everything seems like some sort of long audition.
Quintessential Fosse, "Big Spender" from Sweet Charity
(1969). The film is just OK - Shirley MacLaine, for me, is too cutesy to be a convincing dime a dance girl (cough, cough, prostitute). I guess it was the Pretty Woman of its time, except that no one bought it, as it flopped. But the musical numbers and Chita Rivera are of course, just great.
(1969). The film is just OK - Shirley MacLaine, for me, is too cutesy to be a convincing dime a dance girl (cough, cough, prostitute). I guess it was the Pretty Woman of its time, except that no one bought it, as it flopped. But the musical numbers and Chita Rivera are of course, just great.It's showtime, folks!
I love the film Cabaret, but seeing Alan Cumming with Natasha Richardson in the 1998 revival on Broadway was phenomenal, too. Although choreographed by Rob Marshall, Fosse's influence was everywhere. As it is on so much dance to this day.
Don't dance for the audience; dance for yourself.
Michael Jackson loved him, too. And obviously took lessons:
"His baldness was the reason that he wore hats, and was doubtless why he put hats on his dancers." He used gloves in his performances because he did not like his hands. — Wikipedia
I would never discriminate against someone's talent because they showed the poor taste to like me.
Fosse was more than a great dancer and choreographer, he was also a great director. Cabaret
(1972), Star 80 (1983), Liza with a Z: A Concert for Television (a 1972 TV special which I still have fond memories of seeing), Lenny (1974) and the aforementioned All That Jazz (1979). Quotes from imdb
Sunday, October 10, 2010
positive hugh
Thanks to Pajiba (and the inimitable Hugh), I will be dancing and singing all day ...
Happy 10/10/10!
Happy 10/10/10!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
life on the fringe
Caught some dance at the D.C. Capital Fringe Festival today. We laughed, we enjoyed, we even heard some of the other performances through the wall behind us! The kid got huge props for remaining pretty fidget-free - she actually got caught up in the performances, especially our favorite, Chris Dohse in Rudder. A little bit Francis Bacon, a little bit Alice in Wonderland, 100% Chris.
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