Search - ABT In San Francisco / American Ballet Theatre on DVD

Worth its weight in gold....

Richard Dodge | San Diego, CA USA | 05/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"ABT in San francisco AND ABT at the Metropolitan...make a very
delightful collection of short, brilliant ballets. Abt in
San Francisco has a very early Baryschnikov dancing 'the poet'
in Les Sylvides. It is like watching a flower open. The Black
Swan is dynamic, but my own favorite is "Great Galloping
Gottschalk"...toward the end of which Johan Renvall has a
brilliant, witty featured solo. Watch for it.
Sometimes I get tired of having the TV YELL at me..and I put
one or the other of these ABT DVD's on...they are both great
collections, beautifully performed, and wildly varied. Just
great music and great dancers...not oblivion, but certainly
serenity."

Great Dancers!

Chi yun Lu | Argentina | 03/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a DVD with some of the finest american dancers ever, most of them are retired by now ( I guess this performance was recorded live in mid '80s).
Airs: Music by Handel, choreography by Paul Taylor, is a nice piece of neo-classical ballet.
Jardin aux Lilas: Music by Chausson, choreography by Anthony Tudor, created in the '30s, kind of "pychological" expressionist ballet, well danced by Leslie Browne, Martine Van Hamel, Robert La Fosse and Michael Owen.
Black Swan: Tchaichovsky/Petipa. Pas de deux extracted from third act of "Swan Lake", one of the most difficult (technical and artistical) pas de deux from the entire ballet repertoire,
danced by two of the best american dancers ever: Cynthia Gregory and Fernando Bujones. Bujones was the first american dancer to win a gold medal in the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition, and partnership with Cynthia Gregory is legendary. One of the most acclaimed ballet couples.
A MUST SEE!!!
Romeo and Juliet: Prokofiev/MacMillan. Natalia Makarova and Kevin McKenzie dances the Verona lovers. She is superb, a true ballerina and great star. McKenzie has been American Ballet Theater's artistic director since 1992. This is not the most happy pair for this particular ballet ( Alexandra Ferri and Julio Bocca are the best!)in my opinion, he just seems too tall and big for the tiny and delicate Makarova, but still, it's so beautiful and romantic!
Great Galloping Gottschalk: The entire corps comes to stage.
Humor, speed, technical virtuosos, who can say ballet is boring after this?
Overall: Great samples of really fine dancing."

A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL

drkhimxz | Freehold, NJ, USA | 04/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The American Ballet Theater paid a visit to San Francisco some twenty-five years ago and did themselves proud with a ballet revue.. For those like myself, the ballet naive, it provided an admirably paced program of "classic" and "modern" which gave pleasure beyond the contribution of each individual component. A bow also to kultur for a disc excellent both in picture and sound (at least for one watching on a simple TV unadorned by extensions creating a Home Theater)."