Jump to content

Recommended Posts

In case anyone isn't aware, the repeat of "Madam and The Dying Swan", about Ninette de Valois, and featuring Marianela Nunez dancing, is on Sky Arts 1 on Monday 9th at 8pm. That's Sky Arts 1 and not 2.

 

It's followed by a 10-minute showing from Act 4 of Derek Deane's Swan Lake performed in Greenwich, with backstage interviews - though I wonder how much they can show and interview in 10 minutes!

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 392
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Stuck indoors with a nasty bug I thought I'd catch up on my TV recordings of the recent Bolshoi productions on Sky.  But I am very surprised at the very poor quality of the recordings.   I read that they were re-mastered for release on DVD but the lighting is dismal.  Spartacus is particularly hard to watch since it seems to have been danced in semi-darkness.  Has anyone else noticed this?  I hope it doesn't mean my recorder is packing up.

 

Linda

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Just doing my weekly flip through the Sky Arts 2 schedule to see if there is anything worth recording and I was delighted to find that (NEW to Sky Arts 2) tomorrow will see the initial broadcast of AFTERNOON OF A FAUN, which is a documentary about/around the life to Tanaquil Le Clerc.  This film was much hailed when it was first presented in a wide variety of film festivals.  Also I notice that Sky Arts 2 are also showing the dance-fiction film THE COMPANY later in the week.  I'm not certain if Sky Arts have broadcast this before.  (There is, of course, other dance - Petit's Carmen, etc., - but those definitely those items have been previously broadcast. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am half way through watching AFTERNOON OF A FAUN. I only started watching it to fast forward to the ballet clips and miss out the talking bits, but I got hooked listening to Tanaquil's extremely moving story. I can't help thinking that her life story would make an amazing ballet (with ready made dance bits) - a lot better than some things that get turned into ballets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Today:

9 am - 11.15 am: Nureyev and Friends (gala, I presume)

11.15 am: Nuages

 

Sunday 5th:

6 am - 7 am: Balletboyz: A Chance to Dance

3.05 - 4 pm: Petit's Carmen

 

Wednesday 8th:

10.05 - 10.35 am: Firebird (no idea whose)

10.45 - 11.45 am: Balletboyz: A Chance to Dance

 

That appears to be it for the week, folks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Some pre-Christmas offerings.  Details as to production and company may be limited.

 

Saturday 19th December:

7 am - Balletboyz: A Chance to Dance

8.45 am - Les Patineurs

 

Monday 21st December:

9.35 am - Swan Lake

3.30 on - Les Patineurs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is a listing of Dance on Sky Arts until 5 Jan 2016

 

25 Dec 8.05 - 9.55am. The Nutcracker Royal Ballet 2012 with Roberta Marquez and Steven McRae

26 Dec 6.00 - 7.00 am Merce Cunningham: A Legacy of Dance

7.00 - 8.00 am BalletBoyz: A Chance to Dance Season 1 Episode 4

28 Dec 8.00 - 9.45 am The Nutcracker (as 25 Dec)

1.40 - 3.25 pm Matthew Bourne's The Car Man

29 Dec 6.35 - 6.45 am ENB Black Swan pas de deux

6.45 - 8.00 am Dance on Screen - Dancers and choreographers, including Piñata Bausch and Matthew Bourne, discuss how television has television has preserved the spirit of extraordinary stage performances as well as some of the greatest choreography of the last century.

8.00 - 9.45 am Matthew Bourne's The Car Man (as 28 Dec)

30 Dec 12.30 - 2.00 am Kama Sutra: BalletBoyz

8.00 - 10.00 am Stomp: Live

2 Jan 6.00 - 7.05 am Amelia - Modern dance performance created Edouard Lock

7.05 - 8.00 am BalletBoyz: A Chance to Dance Season 1 Episode 5

5 Jan 6.35 - 8.00 am Nacho Duato: Danse la Danse

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Listings for 9 - 15 January

 

Saturday 9 January

7.00 - 8.00 BalletBoyz: A Chance to Dance Season 1 Episode 6

 

Sunday 10 January

7.30 - 8.00 South Bank Originals: Mikhail Baryshnikov

 

Monday 11 January

14.00 - 16.15 Bolshoi Unseen: Spartacus (1970 with Vladimir Vasiliyev & Ekaterina Maximova)

16.15 - 16.30 Nuages - Paris Opera Ballet (ch. Jiri Kylian)

 

Tuesday 12 January

6.35 - 6.50 Sadler's Wells on Screen: Solo - Sylvie Guillem

6.50 - 7.10 Sadler's Wells on Screen: Shift - Russell Maliphant

7.10 - 7.25 Sadler's Wells on Screen: Two - Sylvie Guillem

7.25 - 8.00 Sadler's Wells on Screen: Push - Sylvie Guillem & Russell Maliphant

8.00 - 10.20 Bolshoi Unseen: Spartacus

14.00 - 16.00 Bolshoi Unseen: Don Quixote (1978 with Nadezhda Pavlova & Vyacheslav Gordeev)

16.00 - 17.00 The Bolshoi: Dancing for Russia (Deborah Bull)

 

Wednesday 13 January

8.00 - 10.00 Bolshoi Unseen: Don Quixote

14.00 - 16.20 Bolshoi Unseen: Swan Lake (1976 with Maya Plisetskaya and Alexander Bogatyrev

16.20 - 17.00 Roland Petit's L'Arlesienne (Paris Opera Ballet)

 

Thursday 14 January

8.00 - 10.20 Bolshoi Unseen: Swan Lake

13.50 - 15.45 Giselle (1991 Bolshoi Ballet with Nina Ananiashvili & Victor Barykin)

 

Friday 15 January

8.00 - 9.55 Giselle

13.30 - 15.15 Bolshoi Unseen: The Nutcracker

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That appears to be looking better.  

 

Not entirely certain I agree, Alison.  Certainly it will be refreshing for new Sky viewers ... but for us old timers there was not one dance programme on Sky Arts over the Xmas period .. and now creeping into the middle of the new year - that had not already been broadcast a goodly number of times already.  Sky said that part of the reason they merged SA1 and SA2 was so they could better invest in new product.  Past Sky associations seem now to have faded into the constricts of time be they with the Royal Ballet or Metropolitan Opera.  (Putting aside the continuing onslaught Andre Reiu of course :) )  To be fair I'm not sure what kind of omen the schedule noted above may well prove to be.   

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm trying to remember the last new ballet performance I saw on SkyArts. This is not counting the docs like Ballet 422 about NYCB which I found quite interesting and the Bolshoi 'rediscovered' performances that were repeated over Christmas. I think it was the Acosta/Osipova Giselle which I think was nearly 2 (or possibly 3) years ago. It certainly appeared surprisingly quickly after the cinema broadcast. I remember being quite surprised as to how quick it was on tv and was convinced right up to the start of the programme that the tv scedulers had got it wrong and they were going to broadcast a previous version. This broadcast shows it is possible to show cinema broadcasts on tv in a short space of time after the broadcast. So why don't they (or better still the BBC) do it more often?

About 5 or 6 years ago SkyArts showed all the ROH cinema broadcasts. Can't remember what year it was but it was the year of the Acosta/Rojo Bayadere. But there has been very little since. We originally bought Sky mainly for Artsworld as it was then and I'm sure there was better scheduling then than there is now. Apart from the above mentioned programmes I've found very little to watch on SkyArts lately. As they don't seem to do their own filming but mainly rely on buying in programmes you think there must be Arts programmes being shown somewhere in the world they could buy. Instead it is about 95% repeats which even for a Sky channel seems excessive.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The BBC has moaned numerous times about how Terribly Hard it is to fit ballet (and opera), where they only know the running time to within about 5 minutes - and to within a matter of seconds if it's recorded, of course - into their busy, busy schedules.  It's never stopped them from covering, say, men's Grand Slam tennis finals, where a match could last any of 3, 4 or 5 sets, or various other sporting events of indeterminate length.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm trying to remember the last new ballet performance I saw on SkyArts. This is not counting the docs like Ballet 422 about NYCB which I found quite interesting and the Bolshoi 'rediscovered' performances that were repeated over Christmas. I think it was the Acosta/Osipova Giselle which I think was nearly 2 (or possibly 3) years ago. It certainly appeared surprisingly quickly after the cinema broadcast. I remember being quite surprised as to how quick it was on tv and was convinced right up to the start of the programme that the tv scedulers had got it wrong and they were going to broadcast a previous version. This broadcast shows it is possible to show cinema broadcasts on tv in a short space of time after the broadcast. So why don't they (or better still the BBC) do it more often?About 5 or 6 years ago SkyArts showed all the ROH cinema broadcasts. Can't remember what year it was but it was the year of the Acosta/Rojo Bayadere. But there has been very little since. We originally bought Sky mainly for Artsworld as it was then and I'm sure there was better scheduling then than there is now. Apart from the above mentioned programmes I've found very little to watch on SkyArts lately. As they don't seem to do their own filming but mainly rely on buying in programmes you think there must be Arts programmes being shown somewhere in the world they could buy. Instead it is about 95% repeats which even for a Sky channel seems excessive.

I share these frustrations. Your observations about the broadcasting of Giselle very much reflected mine at the time.

My simplistic understanding of commercial channels for niche audiences is that they are able to survive because advertising can be targeted appropriately. Ballet and Opera enthusiasts may be a more fragmented lot that has been traditionally thought. Whatever the reason, it's evident that the focus of Sky Arts has moved towards a perceived popular mix of programming that as you rightly note is made up of endless repeats, nights devoted to vintage artists in popular music and the occasional international series ( which they tend to buy for just one season ). The live cinema screenings for all theatrical arts could be a channel in itself but I guess if all productions were shown, say, six months later, this might have a large impact on the cinema audience.

Edited by Odyssey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see the ROH website now has a thread of 'recent' SkyArts productions being shown in the next month or so starting with some of the 2009 cinema broadcasts! The most recent is the Osipova Giselle which is 'only' a couple of years old. In a way this highlights how dated the SkyArts recordings are and also implies we should be 'grateful', if not excited, by such largesse. I suppose if you have only just purchased SkyArts then it is exciting but those of us who've had it for years are starting to be irritated by the constant repeats and want to watch something new. Every week I scour the Radio Times for new recordings and every week I'm disappointed. Soon us ballet enthusiasts will start to vote with our feet (or wallet) and decide we've better things to spend our money on than a channel which doesn't deliver.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 I see the ROH website now has a thread of 'recent' SkyArts productions being shown in the next month or so starting with some of the 2009 cinema broadcasts!

 

Goodness.  Wasn't that about the time they did the Watson Mayerling, or is my brain playing tricks on me?  Or perhaps it was the Rojo/Acosta Manon?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I sent an email to Sky complaints registering my frustration about the endless repeats. I have just received the following reply

 

Thank you for your email about Classical Ballet on Sky Arts.

I can confirm that this is currently receiving our attention and a reply will be forwarded shortly.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to contact Sky.

 

I presume this is a fairly standard reply, but I will be interested to see if I get a further reply.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You'll probably get some meaningless blurb about concentrating quality of content, which will leave you none the wiser. And still being bombarded by Andre Rieu, 70's pop icons and repeats ad nauseum

 

I see tonight at 10-ish is a concert from Shania Twain from Las Vegas. Nothing against Ms Twain, but surely that would be better on a pop music channel...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am currently watching/downloading the current series of Bolshoi Unseen performances from the archives of Russian television recently uncovered. Not being familiar with the Bolshoi style I am finding it very useful in giving me some insight before their visit to the ROH in July/August.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...