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Ballet and dance on BBC Radio 4 (and occasionally elsewhere)


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A nice item, but really conveyed nothing of why she was and still is so special in her actual dancing. I know her age is remarkable, and I'm sure her personality is remarkable; but it's the dancing that matters. But good to have ballet on a mainstream news programme at any rate.

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3 hours ago, bridiem said:

A nice item, but really conveyed nothing of why she was and still is so special in her actual dancing. I know her age is remarkable, and I'm sure her personality is remarkable; but it's the dancing that matters. But good to have ballet on a mainstream news programme at any rate.

Absolutely agree bridiem - with both points!

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6 minutes ago, taxi4ballet said:

Why do they persist in putting things about ballet on the radio? It is one of the most visual of the performing arts - I just don't get it.

 

Well if there's something balletic that's regarded as newsworthy, I wouldn't want radio to ignore it even if it's easier to cover it on television. (i.e. it should be on both, not one or the other.) It's perfectly possible to have interviews etc on radio that cover a story in a way that informs and/or piques interest. In fact my complaint would rather be that TV news programmes hardly ever cover ballet (though I have to admit I don't watch all that much in the way of TV news nowadays, so maybe I'm missing things).

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I agree with that, although I do feel that the BBC would field accusations of a lack of ballet coverage by using radio programmes as evidence that they do include ballet in their schedules. It's not good enough, really.

 

You can listen to someone singing or playing an instrument, but you can't listen to them dancing, can you?

 

The same goes with radio programmes about art. Unless you are already thoroughly familiar with the artist's work, you could listen to a whole programme and be practically none the wiser.

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On 18/01/2019 at 18:35, taxi4ballet said:

I agree with that, although I do feel that the BBC would field accusations of a lack of ballet coverage by using radio programmes as evidence that they do include ballet in their schedules. It's not good enough, really.

 

You can listen to someone singing or playing an instrument, but you can't listen to them dancing, can you?

 

The same goes with radio programmes about art. Unless you are already thoroughly familiar with the artist's work, you could listen to a whole programme and be practically none the wiser.

 

I would love to see more focus on ballet and dance in both TV and radio schedules. Radio often succeeds in generating a sense of greater iinsight in arts features and discussions (for me), but like bridiem above, I rarely see TV these days. Sadly Radio 4 gives inadequate coverage to reviews of dance performance compared to its frequent discussions of film, theatre, art exhibitions etc.

 

I loved the rehearsal room soundscape conjured in the BBC R4 feature on Marianela Nunez!

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  • alison changed the title to Ballet and dance on BBC Radio 4 (and occasionally elsewhere)
10 hours ago, JoJo said:

There will be a feature on Radio 5 Live throughout the morning on Weds 29th May discussing the mental heath of young people in the ballet world - both during training and as a professional.

 

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20 hours ago, JohnS said:

Just to add ‘Nutcracker’ is Radio 3’s Building a Library tomorrow (Saturday 21 December 9:30 am).

Thank you JohnS , I really enjoyed listneing to this and I would not have thought of it without your recomendation.

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Radio 4 - The Cultural Frontline

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre: From the streets to the stage

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csynby

 

From selling slippers on the streets of Taipei as a child to running a world class dance company, we meet the new artistic director of Cloud Gate. Choreographer Cheng Tsung-lung tells us how he transformed his childhood experiences into a sensory explosion of sound, neon light and spectacular movement on stage in the latest production 13 Tongues. Two dancers on a mission to replace caricature with character. Georgina Pazcoguin and Phil Chan of the campaign group Final Bow for Yellowface tell us why they’re working to eliminate offensive stereotypes of East Asians on our stages. It’s been called Georgia's first LGBTQ+ film, has been critically acclaimed but has also attracted controversy. The actor and dancer Levan Gelbakhiani shares the story of making the new drama “And then We Danced.”

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A Dancer Dies Twice

A documentary about first deaths and last dances, about what happens when an instrument as finely tuned as a dancer's body begins to change.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01mwxkv

 

"A dancer dies twice", the legendary choreographer Martha Graham said, "once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful."

This is a documentary about first deaths and last dances, about what happens when an instrument as finely tuned as a dancer's body begins to change.

From the music which prompts a twitch of muscle memory to the comedown which follows a burst of performance adrenaline, we hear stories of the last dances and what comes next from Gabriella Schmidt, Isabel Mortimer from Dancers' Career Development, and former principal ballerinas Natasha Oughtred and Wendy Whelan.

We eavesdrop on the training of young dancers at the Royal Ballet School as they shape muscle and bone into elegant lines, diving into the visceral excitement of pounding pointe shoes and powerful leaping bodies. And we visit Sage Dance Company and the Company of Elders as they work with dancers who move with grace and beauty in defiance of their changing bodies.

From the first anxious glance in the mirror to the last touch - how does the language of our bodies change as we age?

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Carlos Acosta speaking to Mariella Frostrup from The Times Radio.

Carlos talks about what to expect from Lazuli Sky, getting back in the studio, his career in ballet and his vision for the Company post-lockdown.

Click here to listen to the interview (starts at 1:06:55) : http://bit.ly/CA-TT

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio/show/20201013-1571/2020-10-13?fbclid=IwAR0Hds2CYwOErn0DJrdH5p2gAY09-bRTQofoBscc4FuQCtFREyJZGcdOAKg

Edited by Janite
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