Performing Arts

This cinema-verite documentary explores the realities of life as a classical musician through the story of Hexagon, a newly-formed chamber ensemble. The documentary chronicles their challenging first year and a half, from the group's seemingly casual first rehearsal to its high-pressure launching into the mainstream of the classical music scene.

Chronicles the 1987 U.S. tour by the National Symphony Orchestra of the People's Republic of China, including interviews with conductor Zuohuang Chen, a survivor of the Cultural Revolution who studied music in the U.S., Chen's mentor, Seiji Ozawa, director of the Boston Symphony, plus stirring performances of both Western and Chinese music.

This behind-the-scenes documentary chronicles the collaborative efforts of young composer Peter Lieberson, pianist Peter Serkin, and conductor Seiji Ozawa as they shape Lieberson's first orchestral piece for debut by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

This contemporary portrait of folkloric traditions in Cuba, focusing on the everyday life of musicians and dancers.

This concert, performed at the elegant 18th-century Dublin residence of the American Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, features tenor James W. Flannery, accompanied by pianist William Ransom and harpist Cormac DeBarra, who perform a wide range of Irish favorites, including traditional melodies.

This video follows the world-famous Chicago Children's Choir on their 1996 tour of South Africa and shows how music can convey a message of peace.

This video, which documents one of the oldest cultural festivals in the Western Hemisphere, celebrates the vitality of calypso music today on the island of Barbados.

This video portrays the big-band era in American entertainment, profiling the Lee Williams Band which, from 1938 to 1952, barnstormed throughout the Midwest, bringing Swing music to rural America.

Under the stage name "Le Petomane," Joseph Pujol was the toast of turn-of-the-century Paris. Audiences at the Moulin Rouge where first shocked, then won over, by this tall, mustachioed man in a red velvet suit...a suite with a hole cut in the derriere to release his remarkable talent.

A high school teacher and one of his students don Elizabethan garb and travel back in time to London in 1609 to have lunch with William Shakespeare at the Mermaid Tavern.

Celebrates the traditional art of storytelling through profiles of three storytellers--Judith Black, whose stories explore the Jewish immigrant experience; Michael Cotter, a Minnesota farmer whose stories focus on the extraordinary qualities of ordinary people; and Rex Ellis, whose stories deal with the historical period of enslavement of Afro- Americans.

This video profiles five contemporary American performance poets who have taken their poetry and its celebration of language and creative expression into new public venues.

Scandalize My Name examines the way Red Scare politics were used to impede the emergence of African-Americans as full participants in the political, social, and cultural aspects of postwar American life. Because television was born into this era and adopted the political attitudes of the time, the story is told through the confrontations of African-American performers with blacklists, loyalty oaths, and discrimination in casting.

Featuring poetry performances that often resemble contemporary rap, this film examines an important aspect of Afro-Caribbean cultural heritage.

Tells the story of Eddie Torres, who recruits the best of New York's salseros-Hispanic club and street dancers-and, with the musical collaboration of Tito Puente, molds them into a professional dance troupe.

This video intersperses interviews with African-American dancer Eno Washington with lively performance footage and archival footage revealing links between African and African-American dances.

This behind-the-scenes documentary examines the working relationship of choreographer Eric Hyrst and composer Webster Young, observes Hyrst's rehearsals with the dancers and features excerpts from several of the ballets.

Scenes of class sessions at the Marin Ballet in California, and the choreography and rehearsals leading to a public performance, are interspersed with interviews with three young dancers and commentary from their instructors on the intensely competitive world of professional dance.

This documentary offers an overview of the major dance trends of the twentieth century by showcasing the work of four contemporary dancers and interviewing them about their individual artistic approaches to dance.

Traces the career of one of America's best-loved but least-seen actors. During his fifty year career, Daws Butler (1916-1988) provided the voices for such beloved animated characters as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Chilly Willy, Elroy Jetson, and dozens of others.