THE WALTER READE THEATER

A Midsummer Night's Dream

(George Balanchine and Dan Eriksen, 1966)

Sun Oct 24, 2004: 6:30

Suzanne Farrell and Edward Villella, the leads in the film, will be here to introduce and do a Q & A. We may also have an appearance by Patrick Bensard of the Cinematheque de la Danse in Paris.

In 1966 George Balanchine and Dan Eriksen filmed the full-length ballet of A Midsummer Night's Dream with an all-star cast of New York City Ballet principal dancers and the children of the School of American Ballet. In April 1967, when the film had its world premiere at the New York State Theater, Clive Barnes, reviewing it for The New York Times, called it "quite probably one of the best dance films ever made." In an interview, Balanchine explained his reason for doing the film. "I wanted to leave my own ballet, as I have done it myself, for the future." Essentially, Balanchine did not try to rethink the film in film terms, but simply to make a record of it with some adjustments. By all accounts, it was a success in the few venues where it played. Eventually it disappeared from view when its producer, Richard Davis, lost the rights to the film in a poker game. Inferior versions turned up in subsequent showings, and in recent years, great efforts were made to find the original negative without success.

On October 24 the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with the cooperation of the George Balanchine Trust and the Cinemathèque de la Danse in Paris, will show A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in its only existing version, on video, re-mastered and color-corrected by the British Film Institute. For a new generation of ballet lovers, this is an opportunity to see Suzanne Farrell as a nubile Titania, Edward Villella imperious as Oberon, Arthur Mitchell as a delightful Puck, and Allegra Kent and Jacques d'Amboise in a gorgeously danced second act pas de deux that is one of the film's highlights.

Special thanks to Patrick Bensard, Sallie Blumenthal, Bob Gottlieb, Nicolas Villodre and Bryony Dixen (BFI). Grateful thanks to the Howard Gilman Foundation for its continuous support of dance programs at the Walter Reade Theater.

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