Customer Reviews

ABT In San Francisco / American Ballet Theatre

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
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This is a DVD with some of the finest american dancers ever, most of them are retired by now ( I guess this performance was recorded live in mid '80s).

Airs: Music by Handel, choreography by Paul Taylor, is a nice piece of neo-classical ballet.

Jardin aux Lilas: Music by Chausson, choreography by Anthony Tudor, created in the '30s, kind of "pychological" expressionist ballet, well danced by Leslie Browne, Martine Van Hamel, Robert La Fosse and Michael Owen.

Black Swan: Tchaichovsky/Petipa. Pas de deux extracted from third act of "Swan Lake", one of the most difficult (technical and artistical) pas de deux from the entire ballet repertoire,

danced by two of the best american dancers ever: Cynthia Gregory and Fernando Bujones. Bujones was the first american dancer to win a gold medal in the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition, and partnership with Cynthia Gregory is legendary. One of the most acclaimed ballet couples.

A MUST SEE!!!

Romeo and Juliet: Prokofiev/MacMillan. Natalia Makarova and Kevin McKenzie dances the Verona lovers. She is superb, a true ballerina and great star. McKenzie has been American Ballet Theater's artistic director since 1992. This is not the most happy pair for this particular ballet ( Alexandra Ferri and Julio Bocca are the best!)in my opinion, he just seems too tall and big for the tiny and delicate Makarova, but still, it's so beautiful and romantic!

Great Galloping Gottschalk: The entire corps comes to stage.

Humor, speed, technical virtuosos, who can say ballet is boring after this?

Overall: Great samples of really fine dancing.

ABT in San francisco AND ABT at the Metropolitan...make a very

delightful collection of short, brilliant ballets. Abt in

San Francisco has a very early Baryschnikov dancing 'the poet'

in Les Sylvides. It is like watching a flower open. The Black

Swan is dynamic, but my own favorite is "Great Galloping

Gottschalk"...toward the end of which Johan Renvall has a

brilliant, witty featured solo. Watch for it.

Sometimes I get tired of having the TV YELL at me..and I put

one or the other of these ABT DVD's on...they are both great

collections, beautifully performed, and wildly varied. Just

great music and great dancers...not oblivion, but certainly

serenity.

The American Ballet Theater paid a visit to San Francisco some twenty-five years ago and did themselves proud with a ballet revue.. For those like myself, the ballet naive, it provided an admirably paced program of "classic" and "modern" which gave pleasure beyond the contribution of each individual component. A bow also to kultur for a disc excellent both in picture and sound (at least for one watching on a simple TV unadorned by extensions creating a Home Theater).

I confess that I only purchased this DVD for Gregory dancing the pas de deux from Swan Lake Act III. I was lucky enough to see her tear up the stage @ the MET as the swan princess and stood for what seemed hours as flowers and torn programs rained down at the end of an extraordinary afternoon. Sadly (and I suspect because she is an American dancer) there seems to be little "official" performance recording of her dancing. What a shame! This performance proves it beyond any doubt. Her place in ballet history is secure in spite of the lack of documentation.
This alone makes purchase worthwhile!

I was also pleased to see Makarova as Juliet (saw her dance but not this role). Her ability to transform into an impulsive teen and the tempo of the pas de deux took my breath away. I believed and was swept away by their passion. Additional performances are quite nice and remind me of a time this company rivaled the best the world had to offer.

Its really good for does who, like me, love ballet, i would like to thank to amazon for being so punctual and for give a graet service.

Thanks!

MIRIAM