JOSEPH PAPP PRESENTS: SWAN LAKE MINNESOTA (TV)
Summary
One in this series of performing arts programs. This surreal version of the classic ballet "Swan Lake," set primarily out of doors in the fictional farming community of Swan Lake, Minnesota, features the Minnesota Dance Theatre and a country/western adaptation of Tchaikovsky's familiar music. As in traditional productions of this work, the ballet opens as a group of hunters come upon a swan while out looking for game. Farmer Olsen is surprised as well when he sees swans all over his farm -- on his baling machine, in his silos and hen house, among the cows, and on the lake. That evening he goes to a honky-tonk and meets a swan in the guise of the charming and glamorous Odette. One moment they are having a delightful tete-a-tete, and the next she is gone, leaving him only her feathered comb as a poignant reminder. Later that night Olsen attends a country fair and sees swans at all the booths and amusements. Soon the swans, including Odette, become a familiar and accepted aspect of his daily life. The next evening, the farmer and his young son attend a local dance where Olsen again meets Odette. This encounter is more satisfying for the young lovers as they dance a pas de deux amidst the general merriment of the corps and later spend the night together. The following day, as Odette and her followers frolic in the fields, a group of farmers on tractors chase them away into the sights of the hunters. Sadly, Odette is shot for sport, and Olsen is brokenhearted. As an epilogue, the host of a local Minnesota talk show conducts a short, unenlightening discussion on the Freudian significance of the ballet. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: A&E
- DATE: April 5, 1983 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:53:30
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T85:0609
- GENRE: Dance
- SUBJECT HEADING: Dance; Ballet
- SERIES RUN: A&E - TV series, 1982-1983
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Joseph Papp … Producer
- Jason Steven Cohen … Associate Producer
- Kenneth Robins … Director, Created by
- Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky … Composer
- Scott Killian … Composer, Lyricist
- Kim D. Sherman … Composer, Lyricist
- Loyce Houlton … Choreographer
- Jeni Austin … Dancer
- Annick Colton … Dancer
- Yveline Cottez … Dancer
- Janet Desiderio … Dancer
- Michael L. Fritzke … Dancer
- Marshall J. Helgeson … Dancer
- Glen Martin … Dancer
- Andrew Rist … Dancer
- Robin Stiehm … Dancer
- Stout, Thomas, III … Dancer
- Tom Teague … Dancer
- Andrew Thompson … Dancer
- Dawn Baker … Instrumentalist, Clarinetist
- Faith Farr … Instrumentalist, Cellist
- Scott Killian … Instrumentalist, Keyboardist
- Joe McBride … Instrumentalist, Percussionist
- Jim Price … Instrumentalist, Fiddler
- Gary Sherman … Instrumentalist, Brass player
- Kim D. Sherman … Instrumentalist, Keyboardist
- Gregg Temple … Instrumentalist, Guitarist
- Naomi Sorkin … Cast, Odette O. Deal
- Bill Schoppert … Cast, Siegfried Olsen
- Amrit John Jensen … Cast, the Boy
- Nancy Marvy … Cast, the Country Western Singer
- Gene A. Homan … Cast, the Bartender
- Jessica Zuehlke … Cast, the Talk Show Hostess
- Christine Gentz … Cast, the Swan Dive
- Martin Diffley … Cast, the Tractor Driver
- Thomas Diffley … Cast, the Tractor Driver
- David Morris … Cast, the Tractor Driver
- Jeff Wachter … Cast, the Tractor Driver
- Scott Killian … Cast, the Piano Player
- Jocelyn Labsun … Cast, a Swanette
- Marianne C. Simons … Cast, a Swanette and a Dancer in the Bar
- Cheryl Gomes Rist … Cast, a Swanette
- Michelle Haugen … Cast, a Swanette
- Beba Altshuler … Cast, a Gypsy
- Todd Knaeble … Cast, a Gypsy
- Scott Vreeland … Cast, a Gypsy
- Allen Brookins-Brown … Cast, a Farmer
- James Stowell … Cast, a Farmer
- Andrew Thompson … Cast, a Dancer in the Bar