Dancers Light Up the Screen

By JBFC Marketing Volunteer Dotty Battel

Happy anticipation reigns at the Burns as we await the return of Dance on Film, our annual celebration of dance, running from Nov. 1-9. This year’s program offers everything from classic ballet, to ballroom, tap and contemporary styles…in other words, something for everyone!

Here are a few highlights sure to delight:

Opening Night, Reception & Book Signing
Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 7:30

Rudolf Nureyev: Dance to Freedom—Dance, espionage, passion, this exhilarating docudrama has it all! In 1961, while on tour in Paris, and at the height of the Cold War, the Kirov Ballet star made his historic escape from his KGB minders into the arms of the French police. The film recreates this dramatic event, highlighting the forces that led up to Nureyev’s defection.

Q&A—host/choreographer Peter Pucci with dancer David Hallberg will discuss the film, and Hallberg’s new memoir, A Body of Work: Dancing to the Edge and Back

A principal dancer in both the American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi, Hallberg is “one of the most extraordinary dancers of today,” says Pucci. Check out this video in which Hallberg discusses his unexpected journey to Moscow:

Light Reception and Book Signing to follow–this evening is not to be missed!

Dancers Dancing
Thursday, Nov. 2 at 7:30

Peter Pucci, choreographer, Drama Desk Award winner, and 9-year veteran of Pilobolus, has hosted and been a guest speaker for Dance on Film since 2009. This year he has curated a program of extraordinary short films that explore the challenges that dancers must take on to deliver a vast variety of choreographic styles.

Q&A—Pucci will host a lively discussion with guest Larry Clark of the Purchase College Conservatory of Dance

In the Steps of Trisha Brown
Wednesday, Nov. 8 and Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7:30

Choreographer Trisha Brown “is one of the great explorers of postmodern dance, with a distinctive body of work that is off the wall—sometimes literally.” (The Guardian) Watch and listen as dancer Elizabeth Streb narrates what it felt like to walk down the façade of the Whitney Museum.… it’s thrilling!

This fascinating doc takes us behind the scenes as we watch the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet rehearse for their premiere performance of Brown’s seminal piece “Glacial Decoy”. Needless to say, this requires close to an “undoing” of all their classical training.

Q&A Wednesday, Nov. 8—Carolyn Lucas, dancer and associate artistic director of the Trisha Brown Company joins choreographer Peter Pucci

Join us as we waltz and pirouette out way through Dance on Film 2017. Tickets are now on sale.