Search - Last Dance on DVD

Wonderful Full Length Modern Dance Documentary!

J. M WILINSKY | teaneck, NJ United States | 06/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This dvd gives us a very complete view of the creation and rehearsal of the dance theater piece entitled "A Selection". This is a dance piece about a very difficult subject to handle in dance: the Holocaust. The original idea for this was developed by Maurice Sendak who collaborates with the modern dance company known as Pilobolus Dance Theatre. To make this clear, please understand that the name of this documentary dvd is "Last Dance" and the name of the dance piece they develop about the Holocaust is "A Selection". The entire performance of "A Selection" is not included, but at the end of the documentary, highlights from one of the actual performances are included. The style of dance is a somewhat acrobatic modern dance. The dancing itself is very exciting, but we are exposed to quite a bit of excitment from the very emotional and vocal verbal exchanges that take place over all the creative differences, not the least being how to portray such gut-wrenching subject matter in dance. The rehearsal scenes are very exciting, taking place in a dance room with great camera work. This is a very lively documentary! In terms of artistry and dance technique, I highly recommend this, but I should warn viewers of some features that might influence whether they want to buy this: first, there is quite a bit of nudity of both men and women(the reason for this is explained as being artistically necessary and it was something they argued about quite a bit); with all the arguing, there is a lot af adult language; finally, the dance rehearsals include, as all dance rehearsals do, light hearted moments and humor and the use of humor as part of the artistic vehicle is also disscussed; because of the seriousness of the subject(the Holocaust) this might offend some viewers(and it has!). The dvd also includes plenty of bonus interviews and background on all the dancers, so the total running time is about two hours. If you are not sensitive to the drawbacks mentioned, you should enjoy this greatly."

THE LAST DANCE show is NOT INCLUDED?

Erifili I. Nikolakopoulou | Athens Greece | 01/17/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I feel very sorry NOT to have read the reviews... having seen Pilobolus team live a few months ago I did the unthinkable and purchased without checking reviews...



Don't get me wrong I LOVED the documentary, it was very interesting to see how this unique troupe forms their dances... what I wasn't expecting was after having watched for over an hour the story behind the birth of "Last Dance" get to the end of the dvd and see only GLIMPSES of the actual performance...

I felt let down, disappointed... cheated!"