Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12233 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-11-08
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 60 minutes

Synopsis
Darcey Bussell filmed during her preparation time before a performance. Also film footage of Darcey dancing with Adam Cooper.

Customer Reviews

Missed opportunity
The best thing about this DVD is the long segments of "In the Middle Somewhat Elevated", where you really see what an extraordinary dancer Bussell is.

Given that the opening and closing sequences are virtually identical, the DVD is really only about 37 minutes long.

Once again, a dance film is ruined by not showing the whole of the dancer's body: the rehearsal sequences in particular suffer.

There are stills of her as a younger dancer (with Macmillan for instance), but no more information on his influence, or her development as a dancer.

I was disappointed - a missed opportunity, and warranting the 3 stars purely for "In the Middle..." sequence.

Quite disappointing
I absolutely agree with the first review of this DVD. I only rented it and am glad I didn't spend any money on buying this DVD as I kept having deja vue's, or so I thought. It was actually the same scenes repeated over and over again, the Swan Lake rehearsal was shown 3 or 4 times (I actually lost count). Darcey is such an exceptional dancer, I have been fortunate enough to see her live a few times and there would have been so much more to be on offer. Also, when filming ballet it's always best to show the whole body, not just the dancer's face, the Dallas cameraman must have been quite an amateur in this field...
All in all, it's nice to have a DVD dedicated to Darcey, but run-time is 43 Minutes only (not 60 as described) of which there is too much repetition and definitely a missed opportunity to show her talent properly. I hope there will be another, better DVD soon, now that Darcey has retired from classical ballet.

How can someone have produced such a disappointing film of such a wonderful dancer?
Having just watched this DVD I can say that I completely agree with the previous reviews. How can someone have produced such a disappointing film of such a wonderful dancer? I loved Darcey in "Sylvia" and long to have more DVDs of her performances now that she has retired but this is a very strange tribute to her. I don't have the dance knowledge to name the opening dance sequence which I enjoyed and have never seen before (there are no notes with the DVD to help me here and trying to find any credits on the DVD meant watching too much again of what I had not enjoyed). The majority of the rest of the content is an unsatisfying collection of disjointed (and repetitive)snippets of practice sessions, making-up, preparing shoes (and toes) etc, many with poor lighting and camera work.