Tuesday 5 June 2007, 09:00 to Monday 25 June 2007, 22:00
National Film Theatre
A season of films at National Film Theatre
Making Television Dance is a triple celebration marking the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Western Theatre Ballet, half a century of visits to Britain by Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, and the work of pioneering television dance director, Margaret Dale.
The themes overlap as the programmes on Western Theatre Ballet and the Bolshoi include productions by Margaret Dale. Dale, who joined the BBC in 1954, became a key figure in the second generation of BBC producers of dance programmes and the first for whom much of her work has been preserved.
The season, organised in conjunction with the Society for Dance Research, celebrates both the dancers and choreographers whose careers flourished in the decade from 1956 and the new trends in dance. These include the full-evening narrative ballet gaining a hold on programming, acrobatic elements of Soviet ballet exciting audiences and the new Russian repertoire revealed to Western audiences. It was also a period in which dramatic dance works on contemporary and sometimes controversial themes were presented. All screenings will be in NFT1 and an exhibition on the work of Margaret Dale will be on display at the refurbished National Film Theatre.
Western Theatre Ballet, Tuesday 5 June, 18.30
Choreographer, Peter Darrell, and dramatist, John Hopkins, collaborated on the made-for-television masterpiece, Houseparty, set to Francis Poulenc’s 1924 score. A clever updating of Les Biches, Houseparty reveals the chic games people played in the 1960s with the camera and rhythmic editing providing much of the dance. The programme is completed by Walter Gore’s whimsical Street Games and 1960s amateur silent movies including extracts of Mods and Rockers.
Western Theatre Ballet: Street Games tx:04/05/1961 Houseparty tx:07/06/1961
Running time 100 mins approx
The Bolshoi comes to London, Monday 11 June, 18.00
Last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Bolshoi’s first visit to London. During each early season by the full company or groups of dancers (1956, 1960 and 1963) Margaret Dale recorded ballets and divertissements to enable television viewers to share the excitement generated by this company and its dancers. These three programmes preserve performances by Galina Ulanova, Raissa Struchkova, Maya Plisetskaya, Nicolai Fadeyechev and Vladimir Vasiliev.
Music at Ten: The Bolshoi Theatre Ballet tx: 21/10/1956
Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet tx: 24/07/1960 Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet tx: 03/10/1963
Running time 120 mins approx
Ballet rethought for the Screen, Tuesday 19 June, 18.20
Two popular ballets filmed by Margaret Dale in which she reconstructs the productions and their choreography for the screen. The light-hearted Coppélia (1957) was the first of Dale’s works rethought for television that launched her effective approach to television dance. Nine years later Dale encapsulated Johan Cranko’s then new, full-evening Onegin into a 37 minute programme, in some respects more faithful to Pushkin’s epic poem than the full ballet.
Coppélia tx:27/10/1957
Onegin tx: 06/11/1966
Coppélia cast included Nadia Nerina, Donald Britton, Robert Helpmann
Onegin cast included Marcia Haydée, Desmond Doyle and Lynn Seymour
Running time 100 mins approx
Celebrated Margaret Dale, Monday 25 June, 18.00
Serge Prokofiev’s last ballet composition, The Stone Flower, was a highlight of the Kirov’s first (1961) visit to London. Dale recorded the first act of this folk legend ballet as staged by Yuri Grigorovich with Yuri Soloviev as the ambitious gem carver. Stone Flower contrasts with the studio stagings of an extract of Giselle, danced by an international company only television could assemble, and Frederick Ashton’s Les Rendezvous danced by the Royal Ballet.
Leningrad State Kirov Ballet: The Stone Flower Act 1 tx06/08/1961
Giselle tx: 23/11/1958
Les Rendezvous tx: 22/04/1962
The Stone Flower Yuri Soloviev, Alla Sizova, Alla Osipenko
Giselle Nadia Nerina, Nicolai Fadeyechev, Lydia Sokolova
Running time 120 mins approx
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