Baryshnikov dances Sinatra and more ...
(DVD) 

"A dance creation by Twyla Tharp -- Mikhail Baryshnikov with American Ballet Theater."--Container.

Originally broadcast as part of the series, Dance in America, and produced for video by Don Mischer Productions in association with WNET/Thirteen.

Title from container.

Choreography, Twyla Tharp ; music conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn ; written by Twyla Tharp, Peter Elbling ; additional music by Peter Matz.

Dancers for The little ballet: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Deirdre Carberry, Elaine Kudo, Amanda McKerrow, Nancy Raffa.

Dancers for Sinatra suite: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Elaine Kudo.

Dancers for Push comes to shove: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Elaine Kudo, Susan Jaffe, Robert La Fosse, Cheryl Yeager, and members of American Ballet Theatre.

Mikhail Baryshnikov performs in three ballets full of human drama, choreographed by Twyla Tharp. In one sense, they all tell the same story -- the vitality, daring, intelligence, and emotional depth that a great dancer possesses, and a brilliant choreographer's vision of that dancer and of dance itself. As Baryshnikov says in the commentary that links the ballets, Twyla Tharp is "classical but in a new way." She has the classical artist's regard for form and technique and a musicality that some compare to that of George Balanchine, but her approach is always personal, radical and contemporary. The Little Ballet offers Baryshnikov, Deirdre Carberry, and three other American Ballet Theater dancers in a sweet-tempered, fluid work that makes subtle allusions to the dreamer-hero-heroine ballets of the 19th century. In Sinatra Suite, Baryshnikov and Elaine Kudo evoke the less innocent world of Sinatra's moody, bittersweet voice -- from the tender "Strangers in the NIght" to the tough and contentious "That's Life". Push Comes to Shove, created by Tharp in 1976 for American Ballet Theater, can be seen as a witty and affectionate tribute to a major ballet company -- its causal rehearsal behavior and backstage commotion, as well as its traditional grandeur and polished performing.

DVD, region all, NTSC; full screen (4:3); Dolby digital 2.0.

Soundtrack in English; closed-captioned.