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Title: EXTRACTS: TROY GAME / VESPRI / FIVE BRAHMS WALTZES IN THE STYLE OF ISADORA DUNCAN / SEA OF TROUBLES / FORGOTTEN LAND /MONOTONES

Reference number: 11294

Date: 1992c

Sound: sound

Colour: col

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 22.09 mins

Description: A video with excerpts from six different performances, filmed on multiple cameras. A note on the cover of the tape states that these extracts 'still await final edit with orchestral accompaniment'.

The video contains the following performances: 'Troy Game', 'Vespri', 'Five Brahms Waltzes in the Style of Isadora Duncan', 'Sea of Troubles', 'Forgotten Land' and 'Monotones'.

These works were performed by Scottish Ballet between 1991 and 1992. This footage was used in a promotional video in 1994, a recording of which is at ref 11345

Please note this is a copy of the raw capture of the original analogue video for preservation and as such may display defects such as dropout, washed out colour and sound fluctuation.

Credits: Troy Game
Choreographer: Robert North
Composer: Rob Downes

Vespri
Choreographer: Andre Prokovsky
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi

Five Brahms Waltzes in the Style of Isadora Duncan
Choreographer: Frederick Ashton
Composer: Johannes Brahms

Sea of Troubles
Choreographer: Kenneth McMillan
Composer: Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern, Bohuslav Martinu

Forgotten Land
Choreographer: Jiri Kyli
Composer: Benjamin Britten
Noriko Ohara dances in the pas de deux

Monotones
Choreographer: Fredrick Ashton
Composer: Erik Satie

Shotlist: Troy Game (00.24-02.31)
Choreographed by Robert North, who later became artistic director of Scottish Ballet in 1999. Troy Game is a ballet in one act. 'When first presented by The Scottish Ballet in 1991, Troy Game was a smash hit, showcasing as it does the athleticism of the male dancer at his best. Humorous and cock-sure, Troy Game pokes fun at the preening macho male through devastatingly demanding choreography for eight men. American choreographer Robert North sets the piece to rhythmic batucada percussion music, a traditional form of accompaniment from Brazil.' (STA SB 11 33a-c)

Vespri (03.24-05.04)
A suite of dances choreographed by Andre Prokovsky, who was married to Galina Samsova between 1972-1981. Samsova was a principal dancer with, and later artistic director of, Scottish Ballet.
'A brilliant and witty one-act piece to the ballet music written by Verdi for his opera ‘The Sicilian Vespers’, with sparkling costumes and settings by Norman MacDowell.' (STA SB Box 15/3a)

Five Brahms Waltzes in the Style of Isadora Duncan (05.21-08.50)
A solo one act ballet inspired by the pioneering dancer Isadora Duncan and the impression she left on the choreographer, Frederick Ashton. Lynn Seymour, on whom this ballet was created, came in person to teach 'not just the steps but the very essence of this captivating solo' to the company. (Scottish Ballet: Forty Years, p.44)

Sea of Troubles (09.21-11.47)
A short work which takes the death of Hamlet's father as its inspiration. 'One of Britain’s leading choreographers, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, has created in Sea of Troubles an examination of the nightmare world of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. Set to Webern and Martinu’s moody cello and piano pieces, the dancers share and alternate the roles illuminating the facets of Hamlet and Ophelia’s characters and intensifying their doomed world.' (STA SB 11 33a-c)

Forgotten Land (12.19-15.23)
A one act ballet in three parts set to Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem. The three parts are titled Lacrimosa, Dies Irae and Requiem Aeternam.
'The image of land taken over by the sea became the focal point of Forgotten Land: land – the ground and centre of human experience, of flora and fauna, or even music – being in itself subject of a cycle, of mutation, of being absorbed by the sea. In this context it touches on the polarities of our existence, a juxtaposition of everyman. Yet, from time unthinkable land bears the imprints of generations, has undergone and caused transformations. A requiem calls on the very borders of existence. Britten’s Sinfonia de Requiem, developing a cradle-song like them in the final part, thus calls back to mind the cycle of life: Forgotten Land may recall a new beginning.
(Jiri Kylian, STA Fe Box 6/7, p.4)

Monotones (16.24-20.31)
A one act ballet in two parts, the extract here captures the pas de trois.