1 streaming video file (NTSC) (58 min.) : sd., col. with b&w sequences
Summary
Profile of Veronica Tennant, prima ballerina of the National Ballet of Canada, focusing on her interpretations of several significant roles. Performance or rehearsal excerpts of each role are accompanied by commentaries by Tennant, her various partners, and choreographers, teachers, and dance critics. The program also touches upon key events in the ballerina's life: her early training in her native England; her studies at the National Ballet School in Canada; her marriage and the birth of her daughter; her knee injury, operation, and subsequent recovery. Tennant also discusses her partnerships with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev, who do not perform in this program.
Uniform title
Romeo and Juliet (Choreographic work : Cranko)
Washington Square (Choreographic work : Kudelka)
Sylphide (Choreographic work : Bruhn after Bournonville)
Mad shadows (Choreographic work : Ditchburn)
Dream (Choreographic work : Ashton)
Napoli (Choreographic work : Schaufuss after Bournonville)
Canciones (Choreographic work : Patsalas)
Giselle (Choreographic work : Petipa after Coralli and Perrot)
Dance excerpts (in order of appearance): [Opening sequence], danced by Veronica Tennant in practice clothes, combining excerpts from Giselle, Mad shadows (role of Isabelle-Marie), The dream (Titania), Napoli (excerpt from the interpolated Flower festival at Genzano pas de deux), Washington Square (Catherine), Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet: bedroom pas de deux (1965, b&w) / choreography, John Cranko ; music, Sergei Prokofiev ; libretto based on the play by William Shakespeare ; set, Robert Lawson ; costumes, Jürgen Rose ; danced by Veronica Tennant (Juliet) and Earl Kraul (Romeo).
Romeo and Juliet: bedroom pas de deux / television recording ; choreography, music, and libretto credits as above ; design, Jürgen Rose ; danced by Veronica Tennant (Juliet) and Raymond Smith (Romeo).
[Trio] (b&w) / danced by Veronica Tennant as a young girl with two other girls.
Washington Square [excerpt] / television recording ; choreography, James Kudelka ; music, Michael Conway Baker ; libretto based on the novel by Henry James ; design, Jack King ; danced by Veronica Tennant (Catherine) and Charles Kirby (her father).
La sylphide [excerpt] / studio rehearsal, in practice clothes, with piano accompaniment ; supervised by Erik Bruhn ; choreography, Bruhn after August Bournonville ; music, H. Løvenskjold and George Crum ; danced by Veronica Tennant (the sylphide) ; pianist, Mary McDonald.
Mad shadows [excerpt] / television recording ; choreography, Ann Ditchburn ; music, André Gagnon ; libretto based on the novel by Marie Claire Blaise ; design, Jack King ; danced by Veronica Tennant (Isabelle-Marie) and Tomas Schramek (Michael, the blind boy) ; pianist, Nadine Litwin.
The dream: pas de deux of Titania and Oberon / studio rehearsal, in practice clothes, with piano accompaniment ; supervised by Alexander Grant ; choreography, Frederick Ashton ; music, Felix Mendelssohn ; libretto based on William Shakespeare's play A midsummer night's dream ; danced by Veronica Tennant (Titania) and Anthony Dowell (Oberon) ; pianist, Mary McDonald.
Romeo and Juliet: poison scene / see credits above.
Napoli [interpolated pas de deux from Flower festival at Genzano] / studio rehearsal, in practice clothes, with piano accompaniment ; choreography, Peter Schaufuss after August Bournonville ; music, H.S. Paulli ; danced by Veronica Tennant and Peter Schaufuss ; pianist, Mary McDonald.
Canciones [excerpt] / studio rehearsal, in practice clothes ; choreography, Constantin Patsalas ; music, Xavier Montsalvatge ; danced by Veronica Tennant and Kevin Pugh ; singer, Janice Taylor ; pianist, Gloria Saarinen.
Giselle: Act I daisy scene, mad scene / television recording ; choreography, Coralli, Perrot, Petipa ; music, Adolphe Adam ; design, Desmond Heeley ; danced by Veronica Tennant (Giselle), Frank Augustyn (Albrecht), Victoria Bertram (Berthe), Charles Kirby (Duke of Courland), Linda Maybarduk (Bathilde), Hazaros Surmeyan (Hilarion), with David Allan, Yolande Auger, Alexandra Auld, Todd Carter, Stephanie Landry, Craig Randolph.
Call number
*MGZIDF 8826
Access (note)
Patrons can access streaming video file only at the Library for the Performing Arts.
Credits (note)
Assistant to the producer, Andrea Levine ; writer, Fiona McHugh ; musical director, George Crum ; sets, William Zaharuk ; lighting, Aylmer Wright.
Event (note)
Presented on the program Portraits.
Funding (note)
Preservation of this video was supported by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Title
Veronica Tennant, a dancer of distinction [electronic resource] / Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ; produced and directed by Carol Moore-Ede.
Imprint
Canada : Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, c1982.
Country of producing entity
Canada.
Performer
Danced by Veronica Tennant, with Frank Augustyn, Anthony Dowell, Peter Schaufuss, Charles Kirby, Kevin Pugh, Tomas Schramek, Raymond Smith, and members of the National Ballet of Canada.
Interviewees (on camera): Veronica Tennant, Peter Schaufuss, Constantin Patsalas, Raymond Smith, Erik Bruhn, Tomas Schramek, Alexander Grant, Anthony Dowell.
Interviewees (voices only): William Littler, Stephen Godfrey, Betty Oliphant, Celia Franca.
Narrator: Harry Mannis.
Credits
Assistant to the producer, Andrea Levine ; writer, Fiona McHugh ; musical director, George Crum ; sets, William Zaharuk ; lighting, Aylmer Wright.
Event
Presented on the program Portraits.
Restricted access
Patrons can access streaming video file only at the Library for the Performing Arts.
Funding
Preservation of this video was supported by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.