Footage of the original WSS

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 3/20/09 at 4:20pm

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet, but I thought everyone here would enjoy WSS on the Sullivan show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_gywyiPWR8&NR=1
Also, I was wondering if anyone knows where I could find footage of Chita in WSS. Anyway, enjoy!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/20/09 at 4:44pm

Flawless.

Brunjes puts Green to shame.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 3/20/09 at 5:16pm

Come on guys, don't you know that this number was never successful until Arthur's magic touch? I mean, there's proof right there. How unsuccessful and unexciting, it's only NOW when the audience really applauses for the number.

Posted: 3/21/09 at 1:20am

HAHAH I know isn't it amazing that a dance that apparantly never even got much of a hand before was chosen to be the one to showcase on Ed Sullivan (this was I believe a year into the run to be fair--they ahd already done Tonight)

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 2:24am

Sondheim and Bernstein wanted to do Arthur Godfrey but Laurents held out for Sullivan and the rest is Broadway history.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 2:46am

WOW.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 10:18am

When did Hank Brunjes take over from Mickey Calin as Riff?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 11:25am

These performances need to be released to DVD.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 11:33am

See what I mean about the dancers understanding the psychology and meaning behind the steps?

None of the dancers in the current revival does that, with the exception of Graziella.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 11:56am

PJ, I understand exactly what you mean, just seeing clips. Most of the dancers today don't "act" while they dance. They don't connect to the movements emotionally, even if they execute them flawlessly. I think that's the problem. We've turned dancing into a competitive sport instead of an art, and we've turned dancers into athletes instead of artists. So we have plenty of "dancers" on Broadway, TV, and in the movies, with incredible technical capabilities, and nothing much else going for them. And nothing resonates. There's no impact, no matter how good they are with the execution.

I saw this incredible example that Liza Minnelli demonstrated on "Inside the Actors Studio." She was talking about the difference between "dancing" and just doing steps. How dancers were, in fact, actors (or at least should be, if they're any good).

She stood in front of the audience and just stepped forward with her arms stretched out to the side. Nothing.

Then she did it again, but gave the movement a purpose and a meaning. As if that exact same step was an extension of an emotion. She didn't do the step because some choreographer told her to. She did it as if it were improvisational, coming from within.

The difference was unbelievable. No comparison. And it was the exact same step.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 12:52pm

The dancers in Twelya Tharp's Movin' Out danced with character and emotion, especially John Selya, but the others too.

There are other choreographers who have been trained to restage in the Jerome Robbins shows who always work with the dancers on what the steps mean.

I'm not sure why Joey McNeely failed to do so on this, a Broadway production, and I'm sorry only a few of the critics picked up on what is lacking.

Updated On: 3/21/09 at 12:52 PM

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 1:05pm

Yeah, I get what you mean. They also felt more... menacing to me. I mean, not that they're terribly menacing, but I hope you get what I'm trying to say.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 3:53pm

The reason this isn't out on any Ed Sullivan video is the same reason I'm shocked it made it out on youtube. Robbins was very, very protective of any of his work being shown in public, afraid that people would copy it, so he took care that this clip, especially, was hardly ever seen again after its initial airing.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 3:58pm

And isn't that a shame? Thanks for posting.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 11:21pm

I saw that clip of "Cool" from the Ed Sullivan show for the first time last year when the Lincoln Center Library did the big exhibit on Jerome Robbins. It literally stunned me. I didn't move. I might have cried. Old ladies definitely judged me.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 1:12am

The Jets posed more threat in that clip then in the entire current revival! Those kids were dangerous even though they were dancing. It was incredible. That is what I was hoping to see when I went a week ago, and that is why I was let down.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 12:25pm

Theaterkid, I first saw it a couple of months ago at the Paley Center special event discussion on Bernstein's Broadway. Same reaction.

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 12:41pm

PJ and Best, you hit the nail on the head. I was looking at the BWW video of the show and was thinking there is just something lacking not only with what I was looking at but with a lot of dancers these days period. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I just knew "something" was missing.