
The San Francisco Ballet's performance of John Neumeier's ballet, The Little Mermaid. Composer: Lera Auerbach Conductor: Martin West Artists: John Neumeier, Yuan Yuan Tan, Lloyd Riggins Year: 2011-11 Run time: 02:14:00

The San Francisco Ballet's performance of John Neumeier's ballet, The Little Mermaid. Composer: Lera Auerbach Conductor: Martin West Artists: John Neumeier, Yuan Yuan Tan, Lloyd Riggins Year: 2011-11 Run time: 02:14:00
2011-11-01
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4.0A pair of short ballets, written for the screen, filmed and performed by artists of the Georgian SSR. In color, with narration.
7.7The young Clara creeps downstairs on Christmas Eve to play with her favourite present – a Nutcracker. But the mysterious magician Drosselmeyer is waiting to sweep her off on a magical adventure. After defeating the Mouse King, the Nutcracker and Clara travel through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy treats them to a wonderful display of dances. Back home, Clara thinks she must have been dreaming – but doesn’t she recognize Drosselmeyer’s nephew?
0.0Part of the larger filmic Four Journeys Into Mystic Time, in this work director Shirley Clarke makes use of a dancer’s body not only as the primary performer, but also as a canvas on which to paint projected images. Further enhanced by editing and effective use of shadows, the film is a transformative experience.
0.0A spirit emerges from icy cold water to explore the beautiful snow covered garden she finds herself trapped within.
7.1A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.
8.6The Nutcracker is Mikhail Baryshnikov's breathtaking and critically acclaimed Emmy-nominated production. This spectacular performance is danced by the magnificent team of Baryshnikov, one of the greatest classical dancers of the century, and Gelsey Kirkland, both showcased at the peak of their careers, with members of the American Ballet Theatre.
4.5Al’ya, a light-miner girl, desperately needs the help of her father, Qu’rai, to perform a forbidden sacred ‘Kirakira’ lightdance to resurrect an ancient being before they are stopped by a mob of angry villagers.
4.8Dyke Hard is a failed rock group travelling to a battle of the bands competition in the big city. The journey is further filled with bizarre, fierce and passionate encounters with cyborgs, ghosts, a thai boxer, roller derby gals, ninjas, motorcycle gangs and a mysterious billionaire all of whom will do everything to stop the band from making it in time to the battle.
8.0In 1960, American dancer and actor Gene Kelly created for the Paris Opera Ballet an original choreography that was highly acclaimed at the time, yet rarely performed thereafter; a genius work that the Scottish Ballet, accompanied by the stirring and evocative score by composer and pianist George Gershwin, epitome of orchestral jazz, brings back to life sixty years later.
5.7Johnny Riggs, a con man on the lam, finds himself in a Latin-American country named Patria. There, he overhears a convent-bred rich girl praying to her guardian angel for help in managing her tangled business affairs. Riggs decides to materialize as the girl's "angel", gains her unquestioning confidence, and helps himself to the deluded girl's millions. Just as he and his partner are about to flee Patria with their booty, Riggs realizes he has fallen in love with the girl and returns the money, together with a note that is part confession and part love letter. But the larcenous duo's escape from Patria turns out to be more difficult than they could ever have imagined.
5.4With the loss of Patroclus (his undeclared male lover), Greek warrior Achilles returns to the Trojan War.
7.1A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.
0.0An abstract work featuring three dancers, the performers interact with large screens as well as each other. Included in Shirley Clarke’s Four Journeys Into Mystic Time, costuming and color play an integral role in this piece.
5.7An American ballerina arrives in Hungary to enroll in a ballet school and it soon becomes apparent that things are not what they seem.
5.6The Royal Ballet Company brings Squirrel Nutkin, Tom Thumb, Hunca Munca, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Jeremy Fisher, Pigling Bland, and Pigwig to the screen doing pirouettes and pas de deux in this filmed ballet production directed by Reginald Mills. The film more properly belongs, however, to choreographer Frederick Ashmore, composer John Lanchbery, and costume designer Rostislav Douboujinsky. This literal adaptation concerns the shy Beatrix Potter and how, when all of the toy animals in her room come to life, she emerges from her shell and begins to enjoy life. Sequences include a rowdy dance with Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca destroying a collection of plaster food, a midnight pas de deux between Pigling Bland and Pigwig, and a corps de ballet of dancing mice.
7.0London's Royal Ballet performs two of Igor Stravinsky's classic works in this pair of performances choreographed by dance legend Nijinska. Zenaida Yanowsky and David Pickering star in "Les Noces," the stark, percussion-centric tale of a Russian peasant wedding that incorporates traditional folk music into its score. "The Firebird" stars Leanne Benjamin as the mythical creature who brings both a blessing and a curse upon her captors.
5.0In 1920s Vienna, a young girl receives a magical doll on Christmas Eve.
10.0After their getaway goes wrong, two bank robbers (sisters Connie and Sly) set off a nearby car alarm. The siren pulls them into a trance-like state, making them perform a wild, hypnotic dance around the vehicle.
6.5Boisterous nightclub entertainer Buzzy Bellew was the witness to a murder committed by gangster Ten Grand Jackson. One night, two of Jackson's thugs kill Buzzy and dump his body in the lake at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Buzzy comes back as a ghost and summons his bookworm twin, Edwin Dingle, to Prospect Park so that he can help the police nail Jackson.
8.0Yuwol, who is dancing all the time, has been considered to be the main culprit behind the dance virus at his school. The teachers calling for order begin to trace him.