Chopin — Waltz in G flat major, Op. 70, No. 1 (Ballspiel)
- Music:
Chopin — Waltz in G flat major, Op. 70, No. 1
- Original choreography by: Isadora Duncan (c. 1901)
- Categories: lyrical dances
Reconstructed by Julia Levien. A dance with an imaginary ball, demonstrating rebound and buoyancy in the body.
Notes
Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck
Reference: Nahumck, Nadia Chilkovsky. Isadora Duncan: The Dances. Washington DC: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1994.
An effective bit of sleight of hand takes place during the opening theme, in which the movements depicting the bouncing and tossing of an imaginary ball resemble the themes in the Schubert Ballspiel. A somewhat plaintive second theme, with its halting waltz rhythm, suggests an interlude in a more adolescent mood.
Andrea Mantell Seidel
In [this dance], while similar in theme to the Schubert Ballspiel, the soloist is less innocent and on the cusp of adulthood. She teeters back and forth between the yearnings of a young woman blushing with the excitement and tantalizations of her first love, both real and imagined, and the playfulness of a child. In one moment, on the halting rhythms of the Chopin score, she hops, skips, and turns as she delights in her childhood games, bouncing an imaginary ball and catching it in the air like a flying Mercury. As the music grows more languid and slow, she pauses to flirt shyly with an imagined boyfriend, darting behind imaginary trees and then reappearing again.
Videos
| Title | Date | Dancers | Full Dance? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S.F. Duncan Dancers, 6/23/91, Hotel Nikko Ballroom | 1991-06-23 | Mary Sano | Yes | |
| Amy Garland, at Mignon Garland's S.F. studio, Chopin's Ballspiel | 1990-08-10 | Amy Garland | No | Video cuts off after slow section |
| Amy Garland, at Mignon Garland's S.F. studio, Chopin's Ballspiel | 1990-08-10 | Amy Garland | Yes | |
| Chopin's Ballspiel and Sister Mazurka | 1989-04-23 | Ann Cogley | Yes | |
| Open Eye | 1983 | Adrienne Ramm | Yes | Start is cut off |
| DFI Cunningham | 1980 | Adrienne Ramm | Yes | |
| Hortense Kooluris Collection | 1978 | Lori Belilove | Yes | |
| Hortense Kooluris Collection | 1978 | Adrienne Ramm | Yes |
Related items in the Archives
The San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design > Programs > Isadorables — Dec 28, 1919
The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S.F. Duncan Dancers, The Heritage of Isadora — 1989
The Collection of Mignon Garland > Programs > S.F. Duncan Dancers, Hotel Nikko — 1991
The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Isadora Duncan — 1908
The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Isadora Duncan Centenary Dance Company — Jun 24, 1978
The Collection of Barbara Kane > Programs > Homage to Isadora — Madeleine Lytton — 1984
The Collection of Janaea Rose Lyn (McAlee) > Programs > Isadorables