LF Rec on DVD of Rite Of Spring Ballet

[JSngry]

Anybody got a good recommendation for a DVD of this actually being danced? Have reached a momentary saturation point of just hearing it, would now like to see what it was written to accompany.

[Chuck Nessa]

Wish I could help.

I did have the opportunity to see my child (Carla) dance in a performance of the Firebird when she was about 10. Her teacher was an elderly Russian woman in the Chicago area.

Sorry for the derail.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Chuck Nessa

[mikeweil]

AFAIK the original Nijinsky choreography was never recorded. I have a ballet history DVD somewhere with some excerpts of later replications, but I have to locate this first.

p.s. This should be a proper recreation:

Edited December 19, 2014 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

Wow, never recorded, ever? How does that happen/not happen?

I've heard suggestions that the "riot" at the premier was at least as much based in outrage at the choreography as at the music. Sure would like to see the whole thing in the context of the "full" work.

[Chuck Nessa]

Wow, never recorded, ever? How does that happen/not happen?

I've heard suggestions that the "riot" at the premier was at least as much based in outrage at the choreography as at the music. Sure would like to see the whole thing in the context of the "full" work.

I think the "riot" was much like the reaction to Coltrane with Miles.

[7/4]

look for it on utube.

[Larry Kart]

[Larry Kart]

Another, later Mariinsky Ballet attempt to re-create the Nijinsky original -- much inferior to the Joffrey version above says the person who posted that one, and so far I agree:

[Larry Kart]

Have now watched much of the Joffrey version and am stunned -- especially the last five minutes or so! Sad that it seems not to be on DVD while the Mariinsky performance is.

[JSngry]

whoa...

[JSngry]

How is choreography notated/scored/whatever..or is there any formal system for so doing?

This thing reminds me to remind myself to remember that the next time some glib buisiness seducer plays the line "hey, people hear with their eyes", it's a wonderfully grand truth that they are corrupting, not a clever lie that they are attempting to create into sustainment.

I mean, shit, there are spots when you can hear the footsteps...is there a more primal percussion instrument than the human body?

[JSngry]

The Joffrey performance looks to have been copped from Czech Public TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RykK0_ABgmQ

Czechoslovakian public tv channel OK3 (otevreny Kanal = open channel) airing a preview to ist saturday evening Programme in 1991.

OK3 was the third channel of Czechoslovak TV and on the air from May 1990 to the end of 1992. It followed up the channel for the soviet troops (soviet tv) during communism.

Not sure about what, if anything.

[Larry Kart]

How is choreography notated/scored/whatever..or is there any formal system for so doing?

This thing reminds me to remind myself to remember that the next time some glib buisiness seducer plays the line "hey, people hear with their eyes", it's a wonderfully grand truth that they are corrupting, not a clever lie that they are attempting to create into sustainment.

I mean, shit, there are spots when you can hear the footsteps...is there a more primal percussion instrument than the human body?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labanotation

That system was developed after "The Rite," though. Don't know how the Joffrey recreation was accomplished.

[JSngry]

Interesting, thanks. And not just the recreation, the original creation, or any earlier choreography...did they Mingus it, and was there a Booker Ervin handy if so?

Part of the music ed degree was taking a class in marching band routine creation. Had to buy marching score paper and learn the notation system for it.

Don't know if that's still in use now or not...marching band routines have gotten so damn abstract and asymmetrical now...but could still be graphed on that paper, maybe with different notation?

Is marching a form of dance?

[Larry Kart]

Further info on the Joffrey Ballet reconstruction:

http://www.amazon.com/Nijinskys-Crime-Against-Grace-Reconstruction/dp/0945193432

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hodson-409325-rite-ballet.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/25/arts/the-joffrey-ballet-restores-nijinsky-s-rite-of-spring.html

http://www.joffreymovie.com/2012/08/29/reconstructing-the-rite/

[JSngry]

Wow...going to read that book..whole other world...

[Larry Kart]

Interesting, thanks. And not just the recreation, the original creation, or any earlier choreography...did they Mingus it, and was there a Booker Ervin handy if so?

These books might be a good place to start about the history and the how it was done:

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-History-Classic-Theatrical-Dancing/dp/0837139724/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419056543&sr=1-4&keywords=lincoln+kirstein+classic+ballet

http://www.amazon.com/Ballet-liveliest-artdby-Walter-Laurel/dp/B0007I6UXG/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419056614&sr=1-2&keywords=walter+terry+ballet

[mikeweil]

All the dance and ballet teachers and choreographers I worked with basically memorized everything, just took sketches of spatial distribution of dancers, directions of movement etc. Labanotation is not suited for everything.