Episode 56: Hear the Dance: The Steadfast Tin Soldier
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Host Silas Farley is back with another Hear the Dance episode, devoted to the creation of George Balanchine\\u2019s tale of toy romance, The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Farley is joined by former Principal Dancers Patricia McBride and Peter Schaufuss, on whom the ballet was created. The Steadfast Tin Soldier was the first ballet Balanchine made on Schaufuss, who danced with the Company for just three short but very formative years; this marked the second ballet for which Mr. B cast McBride as a doll, following 1974\\u2019s Copp\\xe9lia, and she highlights here the differences in performing the two roles. Reunited for the first time after more than 40 years, the pair's recollections of the ballet's 1975 premiere in Saratoga Springs are as fresh as if it were yesterday. (1:06:28)
Originally released October 19, 2020
Reading List:
My Theatre Life by August Bournonville and Patricia McAndrew
Letters on Dance and Choreography by August Bournonville and Knud Arne Jurgensen
My Dearly Beloved Wife!\\u2014Letters from France and Italy, 1841 by August Bournonville,
Knud Arne Jurgensen, et al
The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography by Hans Christian Andersen
Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics Edition) by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller by Jackie Wullschlager
Dance in Saratoga Springs by Denise Warner Limoli
Balanchine\\u2019s Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses by Robert Tracy
Dancing Across the Atlantic: USA-Denmark, 1900-2014 by Erik Aschengreen
Music:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor Stravinsky
Jeux d'Enfants, Opp. 22-26, nos. 6, 3, 11, 12 (1871) by Georges Bizet
Overture and Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, opp. 61 (1842) by Felix Mendelssohn