As the BBC’s Ballet Season came to an explosive end last week with bombs and ballet many ballet connoisseurs have complained about the restricted and imbalanced nature of the BBC’s coverage of this art form. In recent years however, dancing on the TV has grown in popularity from the recent Channel 4 series Big Ballet, to the infamous Strictly Come Dancing, to full-length broadcasts of Matthew Bourne’s Red Shoes. Indeed, while ballet may not get as much air time as it may deserve this latest surge of programmes suggests it is well on the way to becoming a significant part of our TV viewing!
The BBC’s ballet season consisted of four programmes narrated by prima ballerina Darcey Bussell, director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet David Bintley and artistic director of the English National Ballet Tamara Rojo. The first programme Fonteyn ’59: Sleeping Beauty introduced by Bussell included highlights from the 1959 TV production of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty originally directed by Margaret Dale and featuring Royal Ballet stars Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes. It also includes footage of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming’s lost kiss rediscovered whilst researching for the programme.
This classic example of 1950s ballet was followed by Darcey Bussell’s account of the stories behind her ballet heroines as she explores the changing role of the ballerina. Amongst the list of women who inspired ‘one of the great British Ballerinas’ is Margot Fonteyn and Anna Pavlova. Although Bussell’s explorations take us from eighteenth century France to America in the 1950s the season focuses on Britain’s connection with the ballet. The third programme narrated by David Bintley documented the growth of the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Company, which would become the Royal Ballet, during World War Two and the Blitz. His report includes the story of the company’s visit toHollandas the Nazis invaded recounting how Margot Fonteyn stood on the hotel’s roof to watch the bombs in her lilac dressing gown. Primarily however, Bintley seeks to show how a previously foreign art form was adopted by Britain.
The season also included an autobiographical programme which followed Darcey Bussell’s ballet career. Finally it ended with a backstage tour guided by Tamara Rojo as she prepares for the dual lead in Swan Lake. Although the BBC’s rather short look at the history of British Ballet is over, here at Dancewear Central we believe it is a great sign of the raised profile of dancing on the television.