John Clifford recently posted a number of great New York City Ballet (NYCB) videos on his YouTube channel. Clifford is a choreographer and Artistic Director at Los Angeles Dance Theater and was a Principal Dancer at NYCB from 1966-1974, founder of Los Angeles Ballet (1974-1985), and Ballet of Los Angeles (for more information on Clifford’s interesting career, check out an interview with Rebecca King at Tendus Under a Palm Tree). The videos feature NYCB stars Jacques d’Amboise, Allegra Kent, Patricia McBride, Arthur Mitchell, Kyra Nichols, Violette Verdy, Maria Tallchief and many others. As I noted in a previous post, finding NYCB video is difficult; these videos help to fill a big void, giving a great historical perspective on Balanchine’s work and his company. The videos seem to come from live TV and video recordings. Whatever the source, it is a wonderful treasure that will keep NYCB and ballet history fans busy.
A sample of videos:
Serenade: Darci Kistler, Kyra Nichols, Maria Calegari, Adam Luders (see post below for video)
Western Symphony (1956): Tanaquil Le Clercq and Jacques d’Amboise a few weeks before she was stricken with polio (see video above)
Tarantella: Patricia McBride and Edward Villella
Agon (1960)
Raymonda Variations (1965): Melissa Hayden
Concerto Barocco (1966): Suzanne Farrell
Who Cares? (1983): Sean Lavery, Lourdes Lopes, Patricia McBride, Heather Watts
Agon Pas de Deux: Diana Adams and Arthur Mitchell
Scotch Symphony, 2nd Movement: Maria Tallchief
Violette Verdy compilation
La Source: Violette Verdy, John Clifford
Concerto Barocco (1966): Suzanne Farrell)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1966): Allegra Kent, Jacques d’Amboise