Ballet and Film at the NFB (Ages 12-14)
Dance is an age-old art form that is both beautiful to watch and participate in. Watching people move together in rhythm and create a shared experience is one of the great joys in cultural society. This playlist used another movement-based art form, filmmaking, to focus on and capture some of the unique aspects of the dance world. Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici.
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Dance is an age-old art form that is both beautiful to watch and participate in. Watching people move together in rhythm and create a shared experience is one of the great joys in cultural society. This playlist used another movement-based art form, filmmaking, to focus on and capture some of the unique aspects of the dance world.
Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici.
Playlist
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Pas de deuxNorman McLaren 1968 13 minThis short film by Norman McLaren is a cinematic study of the choreography of ballet. A bare, black set with the back-lit figures of dancers Margaret Mercier and Vincent Warren create a dream-like, hypnotic effect. This award-winning film comes complete with the visual effects one expects from this master filmmaker.
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Shadow on the Prairie (A Canadian Ballet)Roger Blais 1953 14 min
This is a screen presentation of a Canadian ballet created for and identified with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company. The theme centres around the settlement of the Canadian West and concerns the fate of a young wife who comes to the prairies with her pioneer husband to begin a new life. Ingeniously designed stage sets suggest a covered wagon and a rude homesteader's dwelling.
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Ballet AdagioNorman McLaren 1972 9 min
This short film by Norman McLaren is a slow-motion study of the pas de deux adagio, one of the most exacting dances of classical ballet. A ballet originally choreographed by the Russian ballet master Asaf Messerer is performed for this film by the internationally known Canadian pair David and Anna Marie Holmes, to the music of Albinoni's Adagio.
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Ballet FestivalRoger Blais 1949 11 min
From the Canada Carries On series, this is a look at Canada's first national Ballet Festival. Amateur companies from Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton and Vancouver perform at Toronto's Royal Alexander Theatre. An Ottawa company dances Les Sylphides. The Winnipeg Ballet appears in Visages by Walter Kaufman and the Volkoff Ballet of Toronto in Red Ear of Corn by John Weinzweig, both new Canadian works.
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NarcissusNorman McLaren 1983 21 min
In this short film by Norman McLaren, dancers enact the Greek tragedy of Narcissus, the beautiful youth whose excessive self-love condemned him to a trapped existence. Skillfully merging film, dance and music, the film is a compendium of the techniques McLaren acquired over a lifetime of experimentation.
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A Delicate BalanceChristine Chevarie-Lessard 2018 1 h 15 min
Filmed from the point of view of its young subjects, A Delicate Balance takes an introspective look at the lives of four aspiring ballet dancers who candidly tell their stories and share their hopes and dreams.
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Dancing Holidays1959 7 min
Ballet by the Lake: The Wilderness Ballet Camp in Ontario's Algonquin Park. Dancing on the Rockies: The Banff School of Fine Arts ballet class practises out of doors.
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Mavis Staines: Sharing DanceLeah Nelson 2019 4 min
When Mavis Staines took the helm of Canada’s National Ballet School in 1989, the pedagogy of ballet was due for an evolution. Driven by a belief system that honoured tradition but challenged outdated practices, Staines set in motion a paradigm shift that has transformed ballet training in Canada and around the world.
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Anik Bissonnette: The Gift of DancePhilippe Baylaucq 2014 8 min
This short film pays tribute to ballet dancer Anik Bissonnette as she takes the reins of the École supérieure de ballet du Québec. Having dazzled audiences for decades with her astounding talent, she now teaches the rigorous fundamentals and secrets of movement that underlie her art. Bissonnette's grace is reflected through the mirror of time. As we watch the steps and movements of the young dancers she has inspired, we realize that we are witnessing the most beautiful of dances—the transmission of knowledge.
This film was produced by the NFB in co-operation with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation on the occasion of the 2014 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.
