Video
Ballet Adagio
A short film directed by Norman McLaren and produced by the National Film Board (1972)
From the direction to the dancing, Ballet Adagio is a classic Canadian masterpiece. Viewed through the expert eye of award-winning Scottish-Canadian director Norman McLaren, the dancers, Canadian-born husband and wife Anna Marie and David Holmes, appear caught in the act of a joyous and perfectly organic pas de deux. The couple were the first North Americans to be invited to dance with the famed Kirov Ballet in Russia and their expertise is palpable. Shot in slow motion to Albinoni’s enchanting music, each movement of Messerer’s demanding pas de deux is captured alongside flower-child radiance and ease. With athletic agility and exacting grace, the formidable motions of ballet are made human through Anna Marie and David’s joie de vivre.
TAGS
You May Also Like...
Caribana is Our Stage
Themes of becoming, shaping from and returning to are central to Caribbean performance arts. As one of these art forms, Carnival is a nuanced performance art practice rooted in the cultural memory of the lives of Caribbean peoples throughout Canada and the diaspora. But whose story is told (or not told) and in what context? The telling or omission of stories can be traced to a lack of understanding of the complexity of the Caribbean and its Carnival – a performance tradition that is more than the mass commodification, sexuality and “loud music” we often associate it with.
Happy Seventy-fifth RWB
In celebration of Canada’s oldest ballet company, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet presents a short film reflecting on their past seventy-five years and driving them into an exciting future.
