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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2014
This discussion focuses on the extent to which the essential components of a choreographic work are transmitted in different renderings of it. Tudor's Dark Elegies is observed in performances by two different companies as mediated by film and television. The 1976 American Ballet Theatre (ABT) production of the work is documented in a black and white archival film of a stage rehearsal in which dancers perform in tights and leotards and are accompanied by a piano rendering of the score. The 1974 videotape produced by Swedish television and performed by members of the Royal Swedish Ballet translates Tudor's proscenium work into a television event. The comparative analysis of these two productions addresses (a) variants in the performance of choreographic motifs that were made by Tudor for the two companies, and (b) the perceptual differences arising from the nature of the film record versus the television adaptation. The discussion of film and television interventions in rendering a work conceived for the proscenium stage is of particular relevance at a time when much of western theatrical dance research relies on resources in which the material is transmitted by these media.