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Ballet and Dance on BBC TV


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The 50 second clip on the BBC website is magical and very teasing. Many thanks , this series looks great.

 

Yes, one day there will be an amazing free online resource where we can simply click,  sort by a company/ballet/production/dancer and watch clips of everything with attached information and reviews..sort of ballet forum cubed in technicolour.

 

 

After all, not long ago, there was no youtube and no ballet forum, think of it.

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The 50 second clip on the BBC website is magical and very teasing. Many thanks , this series looks great.

 

Yes, one day there will be an amazing free online resource where we can simply click,  sort by a company/ballet/production/dancer and watch clips of everything with attached information and reviews..sort of ballet forum cubed in technicolour.

 

 

After all, not long ago, there was no youtube and no ballet forum, think of it.

to true looking forward to this

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I contacted the BBC a few years back asking about being able to view Margot Fonteyn`s 6 part series,The Magic Of Dance. It was so many years ago now that i really can only remember snippets of it. They got back to me saying they had at present,no plans to release it for public viewing on any format.There are odd snippets on You Tube,but not the full episodes. Such a shame,even if it wasn`t the greatest series ever .

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My wildest dream is that one day BBC will make its archive contents available online to at least TV licence holders....

 

Yes there are many gems in the archives including some wonderful documentaries containing rare footage. As an example, I came across an old video of an Omnibus featuring Irek Mukhamedov when he first joined the Royal Ballet . It contains some wonderful footage of him in rehearsal with Viviana Durante, Lesley Collier and Darcey Bussell. The Ballerina & Dancer series would be lovely to see too.

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Does anyone remember the programme which was about both Durante and Bussell when they were starting out on their careers at the RB?  I think that showed footage of both of them with Mukhamedov. 

 

I thought it might have been Omnibus, but it could have been the South Bank Show on ITV.  I can just see Melvyn Bragg's face introducing it.

 

Although that could be a left over nightmare from last night, of course.... ;)

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Who remembers a documentary about Dame Ninette De Valois taking a Graduate Class at the Royal Ballet School? Must have been early 1980`s.The commentator asked her if there was anyone there who she predicted was going to be top ballerina among the group? Then she asked Briony Brind to dance and said she was going to be ,whatever word she used . Briony Brind,after being picked to partner Nureyev in Swan Lake when still at the RBS had quite a following for some time. 

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This discussion promoted me to rummage through some of my old video tapes. I just found a lovely documentary about the establishment of BRB . It follows the relocation of the various departments from Sadler Wells and includes interviews with Dame Ninette and Sir Peter Wright amongst others. How visionary Dame Ninette was, and credit to the then Birmingham City Council for having the belief that a ballet company could bring so much to the City. One of the most delightful sequences is of Marion Tait and David Morse testing out beds in a Birmingham department store (much to the bemusement of the salesman), as they prepare to move to their new home - priceless!

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The Darcey Bussell programme is on BBC2 this Saturday, at 8.15, I think.  The "Dancing in the Blitz" programme is next Wednesday at 9 pm on BBC4, and Sleeping Beauty next Friday at 8 pm, preceded by a profile of Peter Darrell, which doesn't seem to have made it onto the list, presumably because it's not Royal Ballet-related.

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In case you missed it the first time around, Dancing in the Blitz is repeated on Monday 10th March, 1.20 am (i.e. Tuesday morning). I can't see any signs of the other programmes being repeated as yet.

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In case you missed it the first time around, Dancing in the Blitz is repeated on Monday 10th March, 1.20 am (i.e. Tuesday morning). I can't see any signs of the other programmes being repeated as yet.

 

Correction: Good Swan, Bad Swan is repeated on Tuesday 11th at 11.50 pm.  Since the Sleeping Beauty programme comes in between those, and there's no sign of it yet, I'd guess it's not being repeated and tomorrow is your only chance (apart from i-Player etc. etc.), so be warned!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Film “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinskywill be shown tonight on BBC-4 at 10.00.

Although the main intrigue of the plot is a rumoured affair between the main heroes in Paris but the music and ballet theme is unavoidable there, including the first, scandalous performance of ”The Rite of Spring”.

“The rhythmic dissonance of the score and the surprising choreography of the piece result in heckling and outrage among much of the audience.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Chanel_%26_Igor_Stravinsky

Edited: Link added.

Edited by Amelia
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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't see any signs of the other programmes being repeated as yet.

 

For those who missed it last time, Darcey's Ballerinas programme is going out again on BBC4 this coming Friday.  I think it was at 8 pm.  Hoping this is indicative of repeats for the others, too (or possibly even the whole of that Sleeping Beauty?).

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In case people miss the link posted on the Dance features forum, there is a very interesting and detailed interview with Tamara Rojo currently on BBC iPlayer as part of the HardTalk series. She is extremely eloquent about a wide range of topics. The interview left me thinking how fortunate the ENB are to have her.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b040hwh8/hardtalk-tamara-rojo-artistic-directorlead-principal-english-national-ballet

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While setting my recorder for the Boat Race and Formula 1 this coming weekend I noticed that the Darcy Bussell programme 'A Ballerina's Life' is being repeated again on Freeview Channel 301 (BBC RB 301) on Friday 4th April from 20.55 to 04.00. This programme is the one which first appeared immediately after her 'Ballerina Heroes' programme, without much advance notice. It is about 30 minutes long, so suitable for those who missed it before and for insomniacs as it will probably be repeated on a loop throughout the night.

 

She sits in front of the camera and talks about her life at the top, tears at ballet school, forgetting the steps and becoming youngest ever principal at RB. The microphone is suspended above her head so she is unable to wave it about. The chat is interspersed with stills and short film clips.

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