Product Description

Powerhouse creative forces unite, and sparks fly, in Mirra Bank's award-winning LAST DANCE. Bank follows the dazzling Pilobolus Dance Theater and legendary author-illustrator, Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are) as they collaborate on the dance-theater work that honors a haunting holocaust legacy. LAST DANCE weaves rehearsal footage, probing interviews, chilling Nazi propaganda footage and breathtaking performance into a thrilling insight into the creative process. The film holds nothing back as philosophies clash, confrontations abound, and artistic disaster threatens at every turn. But in the end we are rewarded as Pilobolus dancers -- pure bolts of force and grace -- give life to a stark and stunning dancework.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70425 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-11-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

From The New Yorker
An inside view, from concept to performance, of a recent collaboration between Maurice Sendak and Pilobolus on a haunting dance-theatre piece entitled "A Selection," which honors the children of the Holocaust. The filmmaker Mirra Bank documents the rigorous, sometimes contentious atmosphere surrounding the work's development, but the movie is at its best when it quiets down and catches the dancers in motion. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

WARNING: THE LAST DANCE shw is NOT INCLDD
This is a behind the scenes look at the creative process and collaberation behind the "where the wild things are bk''s illustrator (Maurice Sendek) and the Pilobolus dance theaters intrepreation of their 'LAST DANCE' piece.
What you get is footage of alot of rehearsals, and creative studiochoreographic ideas, as well as footage of the effort behind cstmng & stage backdrop.
WHAT IS MISSING is the final completed performance of the LAST DANCE piece, they show a few brief seconds of performance highlights, but not any of the performance from start to finish. I FEEL VERY DECEIVED & MISLEAD by the packaging on the DVD, YOU DO NOT GET 'LAST DANCE' as a filmed choreogrphic piece, you only see the work that goes into creating the entire mis en scene and choreogrphy. THIS DVD IS NOT WORTH THE FULL PRICE, BE WARNED, you are not receiving what the title and packaging leads you to beleive you will see.

Wonderful Full Length Modern Dance Documentary!
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?
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!