Great Performances: Dance in America (TV Series) San Francisco Ballet: The Tempest (1981) User Reviews

I'll always remember it like a dream

[nccblue · 8/10 · 9 June 2008]

I saw this when was aired on PBS. I hadn't planned on watching it.

I was channel surfing to find out what was on next. I rarely watch ballet but there was something magical about this. Once I started watching I couldn't stop.

For years I have looked for it on VHS or DVD I have never been able to find a copy. Luckily I can always go the the San Francisco Ballet next time they perform The Tempest.

Whether you have read The Tempest, or not, a trip to San Francisco may be in order.

I doubt I will ever forget the music, costumes, sets, and extraordinary dancers.

Does "all-male" qualify as a spoiler?

[aion-64736 · 10/10 · 19 May 2017]

Like the previous reviewer, I also saw San Francisco Ballet's "the Tempest" on PBS in or about 1981. I was mesmerized by the all-male (as I remember it) ballet's beauty and poignant emotional force, especially in one astounding pas de deux. When I discovered the Internet at the end of the 1990s, I tried to obtain a VHS copy (that was the technology that I knew at the time) but was rebuffed discourteously by the female who responded. I would be so grateful if a DVD of the ballet, whether the original production or another, were available!