Encore for Ruby
written and produced by Margot Jones |
|
Encore for Ruby is a whimsical tour
through the memories of Ruby Asquith Christensen,
whose colorful career
as a ballerina embodies the history
of Dance in America.
Her recollections reach from
the early days of vaudeville, traveling
across the United States in a 1934 Cadillac
with the Christensen
Brothers, to association with Eugene Loring, George Balanchine, The
Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and the formation of the San Francisco
Ballet. Her memories and portrayals of Alicia Alonzo, Anges De Mille and
Ezio Pinza are a fascinating encounter with
and enchanting storyteller.
WCAF's 60 minute documentary,
"Encore for Ruby", the story of an American Ballerina and the
San Francisco Ballet, directed by Margot Jones, can still be seen on PBS
stations throughout
the nation.
For your copy please send a check or money in the amount of
$25.00 to:
West Coast Arts Foundation
Margot Jones, Founder and Director
1554 Fourth St.
San Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 453-0552  |
|
 |
|
|
|
The Evolution of Black Dance in America
written and produced by Margot Jones |
The Evolution of Black Dance in America, narrated by film stars like
Sydney Portier and Mya Angelou, embraces the history of American social
dance and music. Its inception is traced to the first slaves of record
to dance in New Orleans at Congo Square. Buck contests, black medicine
shows, black minstrel shows, black Vaudeville, the emergence of New
York's rising phoenix, Harlem, the Harlem renaissance period and
concert dance are successive, creating a spectacle of entertainment and
history.
Unlike many documentaries our production will fall into the category of
a dynamic Broadway show / mini series with highly theatrical and well
documented re-enactments, dance and drama.
Most all of America's popular dances began with the rhythm, the pulse
and the music of impromptu slave dances as early as 1619 in Virginia,
New Orleans and other parts of the South.
We move visually through ritualistic voodoo dances in the dark woods of
Virginia, to the festive, high step-in Cake-Walk and other plantation
dances. Re-enactments and excerpts from the first black stage
shows like Shuffle Along, The Creole Show, Black Birds, Clorindy and
their stars; Buck n' Bubbles, Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, Dora
Dean, Ethel Waters, Bo jangles, Williams and Walker and numerous
others. Sultry bordellos (the birth place of many new dance styles)
rich with black entertainers on the rise.
We trace the migration of some black entertainers like black
vaudeville's Florence Mills, Mable Whitman and the Dixie Boys, Ada
Overton and Josephine Baker to lucrative careers Overseas.
We document the emergence of jazz dancing; jazz music and black jazz
musicals permeating into white society. Florence Ziegfield and Buzz be
Berkeley's hunger for hip-swinging, syncopated tap routines from
Harlem's black musicals.
We trace the desegregation of American social dance and concert dance
stage - its evolution from the plantations, minstrelsy shows,
vaudeville, Black Broadway via Harlem, theater and films.
This is the evolution of American dance from blacks to whites as depicted in our stunning, historical, musical drama. |
|
|
|
