Dancing in the Blitz - Sunday 6 May, 9pm BBC4

[Serial_Apologist]

How World War Two Made British Ballet

David Bintley, director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, uses rare archive footage to show how British ballet thrived during the conflict. Featuring contributions from Gillian Lynne, Beryl Grey and Julia Farron.

I must have missed this first time around, it says it's a repeat. Looks interesting though.

Correction: that should be 8 pm.

[Mary Chambers]

I very much enjoyed this, and also the Kenneth MacMillan documentary that followed. It was like reliving my youth. Even though I was only a very small baby during the Blitz, these were the stories and dancers I worshipped in my childhood. The amazing thing to me was that the aged ballerinas, Beryl Grey and Julia Farron, were still totally recognisable to me, even though I only knew them from photos taken in their late teens and early twenties.

I saw the beginning of MacMillan’s career. I was at the first performance of his Romeo and Juliet. In the sixties we all thought he was very modern and exciting. Now, I find he seems a bit obvious. He did not, as he said, use euphemisms. His ballets are like films or popular novels, with a fast-paced, broad brush approach. They can be gripping, but subtle they are not. I prefer Frederick Ashton’s balletic poetry.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01s4z2h/dancing-in-the-blitz-how-world-war-2-made-british-ballet

I remember watching this when it was first shown - I had "remembered" this being Christmas 2013, but the site says "5th March, 2014". It's a fascinating programme, even for someone like me whose appreciation of classical ballet is extremely muted.

[Serial_Apologist]

The amazing thing to me was that the aged ballerinas, Beryl Grey and Julia Farron, were still totally recognisable to me, even though I only knew them from photos taken in their late teens and early twenties.

I too was struck by them: now in their nineties but some looking and indeed sounding 30 years or more younger. There has to be something going for this strange artform called ballet!

[DracoM]

As a side-track, have you noticed that the BBC has overkilled WAR: on R4, the dead-in-the-water, wearily and seemningly everlasting 'Home Front' / nauseatingly ill-written and conceived 'Tommies' - now this look back to 'Dancing in the Blitz'.

What IS the fascination with wartime and its 'activities'?

Don't get it.

[Serial_Apologist]

As a side-track, have you noticed that the BBC has overkilled WAR: on R4, the dead-in-the-water, wearily and seemningly everlasting 'Home Front' / nauseatingly ill-written and conceived 'Tommies' - now this look back to 'Dancing in the Blitz'.

What IS the fascination with wartime and its 'activities'?

Don't get it.

The last time there was a bigger threat to the country than unrestrained capitalism??