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 Ashton on Film
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Though there have been several television programmes about Ashton in the past, and there are snippets from many of his ballets embedded in various documentaries, only a few of his works have been made available on commercial videotapes of DVDs, and even some of those have been deleted, though they turn up on eBay. This is a summary of what you should be able to find: Cinderella: a performance from 1969 with Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell in the leads, and Ashton himself with Robert Helpmann as the Ugly Sisters, has recently been rereleased on DVD. A DVD of an earlier cast - Fonteyn, Somes, Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan - taken from an American television showing in 1957 is also now available The Dream: there's a recording of American Ballet Theatre's production, with Alessandra Ferri and Ethan Stiefel. La Fille mal Gardee: there are two versions available, one from the Royal Ballet (Leslie Collier and Michael Coleman) and one from the Australian Ballet (Fiona Tonkin and David McAllister). The Royal Ballet's wonderful Nunez/Acosta performance, shown on television in 2005, has not yet appeared on DVD. Marguerite and Armand: a new recording, with Sylvie Guillem and Nicholas LeRiche, has just been issued; the video I am a Dancer, not currently available, contains a slightly adapted version with Fonteyn and Nureyev. Ondine: Fonteyn's performance can be seen in a video of most of the original cast Swan Lake: English National Ballet's video of Natalia Makarova's production (with Evelyn Hart and Peter Schaufuss) includes Ashton's Act 1 Waltz, his pas de quatre and Neapolitan Dance, and his elegaic Act 4. Tales of Beatrix Potter: this is the original film, and much more worthwhile than the adapted stage version! La Valse: there's a complete performance on the video An Evening with the Royal Ballet Voices of Spring: the Royal Opera's DVD of Die Fledermaus contains a performance of this pas de deux, danced by Viviana Durante and Stuart Cassidy - though not the Explosions Polka which originally appeared in the same scene. Extracts: for a short time you could buy a video of the Royal Opera House's Reopening Gala, which had some bits of Ashton in it - about 90 seconds of Symphonic Variations, the duet for the tutor and the maid from Month in the Country, the clog dance from Fille, the men's dance from Birthday Offering and the Ugly Sisters' bit with the oranges from Cinderella. The 'Ashton at 100' programme shown on BBC4 last season, with Scènes de Ballet and Daphnis and Chloe, has not so far appeared on DVD, but the recently televised performance of Sylvia with Darcey Bussell and Roberto Bolle is said to be due for DVD release later in the year.
Please let us know of anything we've missed.
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