A Day of Grace with Boston Ballet
September 22, 2013 5:04 AM   Subscribe

A Day of Grace: A time lapse video of one day at Studio 7 with the Boston Ballet.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow (2 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
This gorgeous video was shown last night at the Boston Ballet 50th anniversary performance Night of Stars, which was a stunning public performance on the Boston Common to perfect weather.

The video was made by MIT Professor David Gifford and gradstudent Adrian Dalca. Here's the description they sent to the CSAIL mailing list yesterday:
CSAIL Principal Investigator and Professor David Gifford and graduate student Adrian Dalca created the video by placing multiple small cameras in a Boston Ballet studio, shooting from two angles at various speeds to create a visual record of a day of rehearsal. The resulting footage was used for both time-lapse and slow-motion capture, and the segments were computationally manipulated to add effects and set to music. The video is two and a half minutes long, and illustrates a typical day in the life of a ballet company.
My girlfriend and I saw the performance last night, which was magical. The performance spanned the range of classical and modern styles that the Boston Ballet performs.
posted by honest knave at 5:47 AM on September 22, 2013


The BB performance last night had three giant monitors, really needed as there was only a very small section with good viewing angles. Pretty huge crowd, thousands. The view improved when the park rangers realized they better restrict traffic on the large diagonal walk or the dance moms were going to riot. No really, they were chanting "Sit Down, Please".

The timelapse video is pretty cool, but as a record of a day in the rehearsal studio it's pretty carefully edited for effective visual moments. When they set up for the bar section of the morning technique class, it totally cuts out pliƩ's (deep knee bends in different 'turned out' positions), which would be quite static visually, almost no movement from above.

I could recognize the distinctive pattern from the ballet Seranade but there were cuts to different dances juxtaposed. I'd love to watch the unedited timelapse from above but I doubt it'd be dramatically interesting, dancers actually spend a lot of time sprawled motionless carefully stretching a particular sore muscle.
posted by sammyo at 8:25 AM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


« Older "I'm *not* anti-science... I'm for *responsible*...   |   And the Mercy Seat is Waiting Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments