The Woods Hole Public Library continues its series of lectures and films about dance in America this summer thanks to life-long Woods Hole summer resident Nancy Lassalle. This is the second in the month-long series, a presentation of the film “Ballet 422.”
This film is a documentary about the internationally acclaimed New York City Ballet’s four hundred and twenty-second ballet. It was choreographed by 25 year old Justin Peck who successfully completed the ballet in an extraordinarily short 2 month dead-line.
The film traces the making of the ballet from first rehearsal to world premiere. As viewers have said “If you love ballet, chances are that you will marvel as we get a glimpse of how the City ballet actually works on a day-to-day basis..…We get to appreciate the hard work that goes into a ballet piece, all the way to the smallest details (it is amazing to see how much attention the costume design is given)!” The director has made an unusual film, with no running commentary or interviews, but rather, merely showing the viewer what the camera sees. As another audience member has said “It is pretty stunning stuff. But dancers and documentary fans should not even think about missing this one! Great stuff!”
The Woods Hole Library has paid more than $100 for a single day movie license for showing this film, so it hopes that many people in the public interested in ballet will take advantage of this opportunity. As always, the film showing will be offered free and is open to all.
The Lassalle Dance Series is held on four sequential Wednesday evenings in July. All are held in the lower level meeting room and will start at 7:30 PM. For more information, call the Library at 508-548-8961.
The third presentation, on July 22, will feature a live, in-person talk by Anna Kisselgoff, dance critic and cultural news reporter for the New York Times, and the fourth will be a showing of the (recently reviewed in the New York Times) Elizabeth’s Streb’s film ”Born to Fly”.