Dance on "Christmas" TV and Radio 2016

[alison]

Well, owing to the listings publishers having cheated a bit and done a "pre-Christmas and Christmas" double edition of the TV listings instead of the usual Christmas and New Year version, I'm only still halfway through the Radio Times, but here, as far as I can see, is what's on dance-wise on UK TV and radio this Christmas for the week before Christmas.  I'll have to add in the rest later.

 

Terrestrial

(BBC1, Saturday 17th December, 6.40 pm: Strictly Come Dancing Final)

BBC2, Saturday 17th Dec, 11.50pm: Balletboyz The Making of Young Men 

BBC2, Saturday 17th Dec (technically Sunday), 12.20am: Balletboyz: Young Men.

 

BBC1, Tuesday 20th December, 10.45 pm: Darcey Bussell: Looking for Margot (signed repeat Friday 23rd, 1.30 am on BBC2)

BBC4, Friday 23rd December, 8.00 pm: Darcey Bussell: My Life on the BBC (repeated at 1.45 am the next morning)

 

(I thought I'd spotted a rerun of the Balletboyz' Young Men plus a documentary, but can't find that now.  Perhaps it's next week)

 

BBC2, Saturday 24th December, 8.10 am: Hans Christian Andersen - apparently features a ballet including Eric Bruhn and Roland Petit!

BBC, Christmas Day, 4.00 pm: Dancing the Nutcracker: Inside the Royal Ballet

Channel 5, Christmas Day, 9.50 am: On The Town

BBC2, Boxing Day, 5.20 pm: West Side Stories: the Making of a Classic - documentary

BBC4, Boxing Day (technically December 27th), 1.00 am: Darcey Bussell: My Life on the BBC

BBC4, Boxing Day (technically December 27th), 2.00 am: Darcey Bussell's Looking for Audrey

Channel 5, Boxing Day, 2.20 pm: West Side Story (and repeated on 29th December at 11.05 am)

BBC4, 27th December, 7.00 pm: The Ballet Master: Sir Peter Wright at 90

 

Sky Arts

(Taken from the uninformative Radio Times listings, so details may be vague)

Saturday 17th December, 1.30 pm: Swan Lake

Sunday 18th December, 1.30 pm: The Nutcracker (probably repeated at 3.40 am the next morning)

Monday 19th December, 9 pm: Billy Elliot the Musical Live

Wednesday 21st December, 6.30 am: Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake

          9.00 am: Bolero

Friday 23rd December, 4.10 pm: Peter Wright's The Nutcracker

 

Saturday 24th December, 10.10 am: The Nutcracker

Christmas Day (or technically Boxing Day), 2.00 am: The Nutcracker

Boxing Day, 9.00 pm: Billy Elliott the Musical Live

Boxing Day (technically December 27th), 3.30 am: Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake

 

Radio (BBC Radio 3)

Saturday 17th December, 3 pm: Sound of Cinema covers film music inspired by the ballet 

Sunday 18th December, 12 noon: The RB's Edward Watson is the guest on Private Passions

Friday 23rd December, 3.10 pm: a performance of Verdi/Mackerras' The Lady and the Fool

Edited December 18, 2016 by alison
Added second week

[Jacqueline]

Thanks for the info Alison. I would have expected Darcey to get a better time slot for Margot and in general. Hasn't she been on Christmas Day in recent years?

[Mary]

Thanks so much Alison for saving me this chore.

 

Not much, is it.

[Two Pigeons]

Darcey was on Front Row talking about her programme on Fonteyn last night. It did rather reinforce my view that it is unlikely to cover anything new but she did stress that they have some rare rehearsal footage.

 

At least they didn't repeat the statement in the Radio Times that Fonteyn was the first great British ballerina. As Markova been completely airbrushed from history? I am sure Clement Crisp for one would not agree.

[Two Pigeons]

Sorry, just checked the article. It doesn't say 'great' but 'proper' ballerina. Still makes my hackles rise a little.

[Jacqueline]

Sorry, just checked the article. It doesn't say 'great' but 'proper' ballerina. Still makes my hackles rise a little.

Mine too! Proper sounds even worse than great somehow.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Jacqueline

[Two Pigeons]

You are quite right Jacqueline. It does indeed. Was Markova an improper ballerina?

[bridiem]

Thanks for the info Alison. I would have expected Darcey to get a better time slot for Margot and in general. Hasn't she been on Christmas Day in recent years?

 

I think the Nutcracker documentary is on Christmas Day, so that's quite enough prime ballet!!

[alison]

I suppose there might be something else at New Year. Or not ...

[Odyssey]

There's als the Peter Wright documentary interview on 27th December BBC4 7pm

[Geoff]

There's als the Peter Wright documentary interview on 27th December BBC4 7pm

Already posted elsewhere but in case people missed the link there is a bit more information here:-

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/52/sir-peter-wright-at-90

Edited December 14, 2016 by Geoff

[alison]

I know.  As I said, I was only doing the pre-Christmas programmes for the time being.

[Josephine]

Monica Mason will be discussing The Sleeping Beauty on Radio 3's In Tune tomorrow, Fri 16 December http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084vwdl

[RMM1]

 

Terrestrial

(BBC1, Saturday 17th December, 6.40 pm: Strictly Come Dancing Final)

BBC1, Tuesday 20th December, 10.45 pm: Darcey Bussell: Looking for Margot (signed repeat Friday 23rd, 1.30 am on BBC2)

BBC4, Friday 23rd December, 8.00 pm: Darcey Bussell: My Life on the BBC (repeated at 1.45 am the next morning)

 

(I thought I'd spotted a rerun of the Balletboyz' Young Men plus a documentary, but can't find that now.  Perhaps it's next week)

 

 

Balletboyz The Making of Young Men on BBC2 Saturday 17th Dec at 11.50pm followed by Balletboyz: Young Men at 12.20am.

[alison]

Just in time!  Thanks, RMM1 - I'll add it to the original post.

[Jacqueline]

For Alison, as you may already know, there is a documentary about Bruce Springsteen on December 27th, Channel 4 at 10.35pm. Sounds good.

I was looking through the general tv listings as well as things of particular interest yesterday. Then I got an email reminding me that my tv licence is due for renewal, only 145 quid! I knew there was something to look forward to!

Edited to correct date. It is December 29th, not 27th!

Edited December 18, 2016 by Jacqueline

[alison]

Thanks, Jacqueline, yes, I had spotted it.  (The Desert Island Discs programme was very interesting, by the way)

[alison]

And now, Christmas Eve onwards (I've stretched the definition of "dance" a bit more than usual):

 

Terrestrial:

BBC2, Saturday 24th December, 8.10 am: Hans Christian Andersen - apparently features a ballet including Eric Bruhn and Roland Petit!

BBC, Christmas Day, 4.00 pm: Dancing the Nutcracker: Inside the Royal Ballet

Channel 5, Christmas Day, 9.50 am: On The Town

BBC2, Boxing Day, 5.20 pm: West Side Stories: the Making of a Classic - documentary

BBC4, Boxing Day (technically December 27th), 1.00 am: Darcey Bussell: My Life on the BBC

BBC4, Boxing Day (technically December 27th), 2.00 am: Darcey Bussell's Looking for Audrey

Channel 5, Boxing Day, 2.20 pm: West Side Story (and repeated on 29th December at 11.05 am)

BBC4, 27th December, 7.00 pm: The Ballet Master: Sir Peter Wright at 90

 

Sky Arts:

Saturday 24th December, 10.10 am: The Nutcracker

Christmas Day (or technically Boxing Day), 2.00 am: The Nutcracker

Boxing Day, 9.00 pm: Billy Elliott the Musical Live

Boxing Day (technically December 27th), 3.30 am: Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake

 

 

I've also inserted this into the original post.

[Jacqueline]

There is a programme tonight at 9pm on ITV, with Paul O'Grady travelling around Germany exploring the backgrounds to favourite fairy tales, including Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. It is billed as being unsuitable for children.

I have a big book of Grimm's Stories which was originally my mother's when she was a child. It is a beautifully if in parts, rather graphically illustrated book, published in the 30s. Some of the tales were astonishingly gory, with the ugly sisters chopping off their toes so their feet would fit Cinderella's slipper and other delights.

The tales came from various sources, myths and such like and many have been long forgotten, but some of them are really frightening. Not the happy ever after we might usually tell children, but more - and the moral of the story is... after which you would be expected to sleep tight and have happy dreams!

Anyway, the programme may be worth a look, if you like that sort of thing!

[alison]

I remember one in which the mean stepmother was imprisoned in a wooden barrel, sharp nails were hammered into the side of the barrel, and she was rolled downhill into the river in it :ugh:

 

Think I should go and set the recorder before I go out ...

[trog]

Some of the tales were astonishingly gory, with the ugly sisters chopping off their toes so their feet would fit Cinderella's slipper and other delights.

 

Ballet Cymru include this in in their version of Cinderella.

[alison]

So does Scottish Ballet's.

[zxDaveM]

have to say the the Sky telly guide's descriptions on Sky Arts' offerings have been shockingly poor.

The Australian Swan Lake described as 'recently from the London Coliseum' (in fact, was from Sydney Opera House 2008)

'The Royal Ballet celebrate Peter Wright's 90th' (in fact its The Australian Ballet again, using the BRB production)

 

Find I'm recording duplicates, just in case some of the descriptions do prove to be correct... I'm not optimistic!

[Amelia]

Quote:

"BBC2, Saturday 24th December, 8.10 am: Hans Christian Andersen - apparently features a ballet including Eric Bruhn and Roland Petit!."

 

Not only them but also Zizi Jeanmaire in the leading role dances there a lot.

I know it is an early start for Saturday and Xmas Eve but it is worth of watching.

[Bruce Wall]

Quote:

"BBC2, Saturday 24th December, 8.10 am: Hans Christian Andersen - apparently features a ballet including Eric Bruhn and Roland Petit!."

 

Not only them but also Zizi Jeanmaire in the leading role dances there a lot.

I know it is an early start for Saturday and Xmas Eve but it is worth of watching.

 

I thank you for this reminder, Amelia.  

 

I watched HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON just now with tears - happy ones - in my eyes for two private reasons.  

 

One is simply because my dear father looked the spitting image of Danny Kaye, replete with that golden crown of hair and those insolent smiles that Kaye employs when singing 'The Ugly Duckling' to that young lad with his shaved head due to illness.  When I was six years old my parents took me for my first visit to America.  It was brief.  I was on a school holiday and my father was on some kind of business.  I vividly remember being taken to Lincoln Center - long before I ever dreamed I would actually work there - and saw - not opera or ballet - but the revival of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun with the woman for whom it was written, Ethel Merman.  I also remember - and more to the point here - being in a place called 'Macon, Georgia'.  What we were doing there I can't remember but it must have been something to do with my father.  In any event, what I DO remember - apart from learning what 'grits' were - was the receptionist at the hotel who was ENTIRELY CONVINCED that my father WAS Danny Kaye - even though he sounded nothing like him.  She was CERTAIN the name he used booking in (and I suppose accent) were simply a subterfuge.  Indeed I remember myself later overhearing her telling other customers that 'Danny Kaye' WAS staying in her hotel.  I remember my father's delighted laugh when I told him - not that he hadn't often been told of the similarity of appearance.  He had. Some years later I would see Danny Kaye in a musical called 'Two's Company' in which he played Noah.  I found myself there too with tears silently rolling down my face.  I remember at the interval a woman asking me if I was 'alright'.  I told her that my father had dropped dead at a cricket match when I was nine years old - and that he DID look every inch like Danny Kaye.  He was only 42.  I told her it was SO heartening for me to see what he might have looked like had he lived.  It will sound strange ... but it was/is a happy memory.  It was/is cathartic.  I so adored him.  Everyone did.  I have a picture of him in my kitchen as the Captain of his Cambridge rowing team.  He's being held aloft by his team members on the occasion of some victory.  The joy that I myself remember him so often extolling radiates from within that frame.  Indeed I type this wearing his wedding ring which I have worn for over half a century.  It was given to me by my mother when she returned from identifying his body.  She told that nine year old (i.e., me) that even then he was 'smiling'.  Bless you, Amelia, for helping me remember.  Watching this film was - in a wonderful way - an Xmas gift.  

 

The other - more pertinent memory - was of Zizi Jeanmarie.  I never saw her dance in ballet in Marsaille or elsewhere - as you may well have Amelia - and as I am sure FLOSS must have done - as she has seen so many balletic heroes - but I DID see her on Broadway in Can Can ... and her radiance there - as evidenced in this film - was unmistakable.  (Indeed, I went several times - as I knew I would never have another chance to snatch a glimpse of that same.) There is no question but that she embodied a more innocent age ... but even then those legs of steel flashed with enormous wit.  How thrilling to be able to see them wrapped in the devoted hands of her own loving husband, Roland Petit.  

 

What a wonderful age some of us have been able to touch.

 

 A privilege indeed.  

Edited December 24, 2016 by Bruce Wall

[Amelia]

Thank you, Bruce Wall, for sharing your memories, which strangely jogged some memories of congenial events and feelings in me.

No, I haven’t seen Zizi Jeanmaire dancing on stage. My only encounter with her was when I was sitting right behind her chair at the opening night of Petit’s La Dame de Pique at the Bolshoi in 2001.

There is some consolation that six films were made with Zizi and YouTube also kindly allows to see her dance. Paste this, for example, on your browser:  “Zizi Jeanmaire & Roland Petit Ballet Pas de Deux - YouTube” and enjoy.

The wealth of  Western Ballet was outside my reach in Zizi’s times. The only luck we had when The Paris Opera Ballet came to Moscow in 1958 and The Royal Ballet in 1961. Then we had a chance to see Fonteyn, Beriosova, Nerina, very young Antoinette Sibley and Merle Park and Anya Linden, aka Lady Sainsbury now...  I still treasure the brochures. 

And here I would quote MAB:

“I can think of other ballerinas that faced difficulties in their lives, but haven't so far had documentaries made about them.  Svetlana Beriosova springs to mind.”

Could the film producers and TV programme makers show a little more imagination and venture beyond the trodden path? There are so many dancers who deserve to be remembered with a high quality tribute.  

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, Bruce Wall, and to all contributors and visitors to this forum.

Edited December 24, 2016 by Amelia

[alison]

I may well move the above posts to the discussion forum, but in the meantime:

 

I picked up a copy of yesterday's Evening Standard today, and while flicking through it I spotted a photo of Margot Fonteyn in Firebird garb.  It turns out that London Live (which I believe is channel 8 on Freeview) on Christmas Day has a programme of the Royal Ballet from 12.15 - 3 pm.  It says it's Ondine, The Firebird and Swan Lake Act II, so presumably just a re-showing of the DVD which is available, but it's certainly worth it.

 

I'm not sure how far across the country London Live coverage stretches, but you may be lucky.  Does it tend to cover the arts fairly regularly, or is the ballet and opera only a festive thing?  I've virtually totally managed to ignore its existence since it was launched, but have I been wrong to do so?

[alison]

Incidentally, the continuity announcers keep referring to this being a "Joy of Dance" season.  First I remember any mention of it - was there a press release or something?  That's what they usually do when they're bigging up a series of programmes.

[bridiem]

I may well move the above posts to the discussion forum, but in the meantime:

 

I picked up a copy of yesterday's Evening Standard today, and while flicking through it I spotted a photo of Margot Fonteyn in Firebird garb.  It turns out that London Live (which I believe is channel 8 on Freeview) on Christmas Day has a programme of the Royal Ballet from 12.15 - 3 pm.  It says it's Ondine, The Firebird and Swan Lake Act II, so presumably just a re-showing of the DVD which is available, but it's certainly worth it.

 

I'm not sure how far across the country London Live coverage stretches, but you may be lucky.  Does it tend to cover the arts fairly regularly, or is the ballet and opera only a festive thing?  I've virtually totally managed to ignore its existence since it was launched, but have I been wrong to do so?

 

I've never even noticed it before, and I live in London! Maybe I should keep an eye on it in future. Thanks for highlighting this programme, alison.

[LinMM]

I found your above post very moving Bruce Wall ....so sad that you did not get to spend longer with your father.

 

I always look out for and enjoy your posts so many thanks for those and all the best for 2017!!

[Jacqueline]

Can I just get the following in under the stretching definition of dance radar, to include something that isn't dance, but related, loosely, to last week's fairytales.

It's called Revolting Rhymes. Part one was on BBC1 at 6.30pm this evening. I found it by chance as I was channel hopping. Part two is on tomorrow, both are repeated on New Year's Day. It is an animation of the book by Roald Dahl and his spin on Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella.

It is full of visual jokes and very funny as well as quite sinister. The head wolf is voiced by Dominic West and has the most unnerving yellow eyes. All quite brilliantly imaginative.

[alison]

Not sure what's happened to my original posting about New Year, but:

 

New Year's Day, BBC2. 12.55 pm: Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty

I thought there was also a repeat of the Bussell/Fonteyn programme (I think it was) sometime next week, but I can't spot it now.

[RMM1]

New Years Eve, BBC1. 3.15 pm: Darcey Bussell: Looking for Margot.