Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Appalachian Spring Full Ballet with the Original Cast

What a treat it is finally get a chance to see Graham perform this ballet!



Here's the rest:

Appalachian Spring Part 2
Appalachian Spring Part 3
Appalachian Spring Part 4

and here's an excerpt from the ballet with Hawkins and Cunningham that is mentioned in the comments!

1 comment:

Elaine Fine said...

Somehow this didn't make it through as a comment, so I'm pasting it in.

THANK YOU for all this information and this wonderful (and yes original) film with the real original cast.

Darrell Wood has left a new comment on your post "Appalachian Spring Full Ballet with the Original C...":

Hello,
I came across your site; I have Google alerts for anything about modern dance. Thank you for posting these videos, I watched all four and greatly enjoyed them.

But, I thought you might like to know that the video you have posted is not of Merce Cunningham or Erick Hawkins in Appalachian Spring. The one you have post is with Bertram Ross as the Revivalist (originally created on Merce) and The Husbandman is Stuart Hodes (originally created on Erick).

Still, what you have posted in an important and significant piece of dance history. Bertram and Stuart are well recognized for their contributions in Modern Dance. I actually got to meet Bertram Ross in 1991; he was still teaching and giving Master classes around the world. Bertram was with Graham for 20 years or so. Stuart Hodes was also with Graham for years.

Appalachian Spring premiered in 1944 but Merce also left Graham’s company in 1944 so I am not sure how many times he performed the ballet.

There is a grainy 1944 16 mm version with both Merce and Erick, but I do not think it’s the whole ballet. It was originally filmed without sound, it was primarily created as a reference tool and then someone added the Copeland score to it. Which I am grateful they did.

Sorry for the rambling but I am fascinated by dance history. Thank you for posting this. I had not seen it before with this cast. I am going to post it on my site.

I’ve add a link to the video with Merce and Erick in Appalachian Spring below….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1o65tCZTWA

Thank you for posting this...
Darrell Wood
NYC Dance Stuff
http://nycdancestuff.wordpress.com/