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Posted on December 19, 2013
Dance on television this Christmas
Christmas is here! Along with mince pies, frantic shopping and The Nutcracker on stage, there’s also plenty of festive television. Dancing Times has been circling the dance goodies in our Christmas listings magazine, with everything from the sequins of Strictly Come Dancing – both the series finale and the Christmas special (pictured) – to filmed stage productions from Matthew Bourne to The Royal Ballet, plus a bumper crop of movie musicals.
Here are our picks – let us know if there’s anything we’ve missed!
Check listings guides for changes to the schedule. Matthew Bourne has already tweeted that his Sleeping Beauty will start earlier than advertised on Christmas Day.
Saturday 21
7.35am Sky Arts 2 Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
The Paris Opéra Ballet dance Petit’s celebrated work. Showing a young artist driven to suicide, it has chic designs and spectacular, acrobatic choreography.
6.30pm, 8.40pm BBC1 Strictly Come Dancing
This year’s final, in two parts – who will lift the glitterball trophy?
Sunday 22
2pm Sky Arts 2 The Nutcracker
Alina Somova and Vladimir Shklyarov star in the Maryinsky Ballet’s very pink production. Also shown on December 23 and January 1.
4.20 Sky Arts 2 Dance Dance Dance
Arlene Phillips presents performances by English National Ballet and the Sapnay Dance Company. Also shown on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Monday 23
6.30am Sky Arts 2 Les Patineurs
The Royal Ballet dance Frederick Ashton’s enchanting skating ballet. Repeated on December 26, 27, 30.
10.10am Channel 4 White Christmas
Film. Musical starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, with plenty of crooning and songs by Irving Berlin.
10.10am Sky Arts 2 The Nutcracker
Alina Somova and Vladimir Shklyarov star in the Maryinsky Ballet’s very pink production. Also shown on December 22 and January 1.
3.10pm Channel 5 Oklahoma!
Film. On stage, this Rodgers and Hammerstein show was a groundbreaking for its move to more dramatic storytelling through song and dance. The film stars Gordon McRae, Shirley Jones and Rod Steiger. Repeated on December 28.
9pm BBC4 Len Goodman’s Dance Band Days
The Strictly Come Dancing judge looks back at the heyday of dance bands.
Christmas Eve
10.15am BBC2 An American in Paris
Film. Gene Kelly (pictured) plunged into ballet, paintings and an all-Gershwin score for this Oscar-winning musical. Leslie Caron plays his dream girl, with songs including “I Got Rhythm”.
1.50pm BBC2 Guys and Dolls
Film. This 1955 adaptation of the musical stars Marlon Brando as the gambler wooing Jean Simmons’s uptight Salvation Army girl, with Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine as the couple who can’t quite settle down. Michael Kidd’s choreography is explosive.
4.15pm BBC2 Fantasia
Film. Disney classic from 1940, with animated versions of famous classical music. The “Dance of the Hours” is a spot-on ballet parody, while The Rite of Spring is brilliantly reinvented in a prehistoric setting: instead of a Chosen Maiden’s dance, Disney shows a battle between a stegosaurus and a tyrannosaur.
6.50pm Watch Shall We Dance
Film. Romantic comedy starring Richard Gere as a city lawyer who secretly takes up ballroom dancing. With Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon.
Christmas Day
8.50am BBC2 The Red Shoes
Film. Ballerina Moira Shearer stars in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s lusciously-filmed 1948 drama about a dancer torn between love and her career. The cast includes Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine and Ludmila Tchérina. When this was released, a generation of little girls took up ballet.
2.05pm More4 Singin’ in the Rain
Film. One of the world’s best-loved musicals, with bold numbers, a witty script and a fond look back at 1920s Hollywood as it switched from silent movies to sound. Gene Kelly splashes through the irresistible title number, Donald O’Connor almost literally knocks himself out in “Make ’em Laugh”, while Cyd Charisse is a fabulous flapper vamp in the huge “Broadway Melody” finale.
4.30pm Sky Arts 2 The Nutcracker
The Royal Ballet’s production, filmed in 2012 with Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Ricardo Cervera as Clara and her Nutcracker.
5pm BBC1 Strictly Come Dancing
The Christmas special stars Rufus Hound, Rochelle Hume, Sara Cox, Matt Goss, Elaine Paige and Ricky Norwood, plus a winter wonderland sequence from the professional dancers.
5.55pm BBC2 Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty. CHANGE FROM ORIGINAL SCHEDULE
Bourne’s adaptation of the fairy tale was Sadler’s Wells’ all-time most successful Christmas show. It starts the story in 1890 – the year of the original ballet – and adds vampires along the way. Hannah Vassallo (pictured, photograph by Hugo Glendinning) stars as Aurora, with Christopher Marney as Count Lilac. Both were nominated for National Dance Awards for these performances.
8pm BBC4 The Royal Ballet: Don Quixote
Carlos Acosta’s new production, filmed with Acosta himself and the sunny Marianela Nuñez as the young lovers. The colourful designs are by Tim Hatley and Michael Vanstone.
9.30pm Channel 5 Michael Jackson’s This is It
Concert documentary, including auditions and rehearsal footage from the concerts the pop star was preparing when he died. Jackson was one of the 20th-century’s most influential dancers: across the world, children got into dance by watching and imitating his routines. Repeated on December 28.
Boxing Day
10.20am Sky Arts 2 Dance Dance Dance: Ballet
Arlene Phillips presents performances by English National Ballet and the Sapnay Dance Company. Also shown on December 22 and New Year’s Day.
10.35am BBC2 Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball
A team of experts recreates a Regency ball.
10.35am Channel 4 The King and I
Film. Musical starring Deborah Kerr as the very English governess teaching at the court of Yul Brynner’s King of Siam. The dances were staged by Jerome Robbins, and include the polka “Shall We Dance?”, with the two leads whirling about the floor with Kerr’s huge crinoline swishing, and “Small House of Uncle Thomas”, a restaging the story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
12.45pm Channel 5 High Society
Film. Musical based on the movie The Philadelphia Story, starring Grace Kelly, with top banter from Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, particularly in the Cole Porter song “Well Did You Evah?”
2.55pm Channel 5 Meet Me in St Louis
Film. Musical starring Judy Garland, directed by Vincente Minnelli. It’s a nostalgic look at early 20th-century family life in St Louis, with numbers including “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”.
4.30pm Sky Arts 2 Swan Lake
The Royal Ballet production, starring the tall, glamorous Zenaida Yanowsky as the Swan Queen, partnered by Nehemiah Kish. Repeated on Friday 27.
5.15pm Channel 5 The Wizard of Oz
Film. We’re off to see the Wizard! This classic musical fantasy, starring Judy Garland, is full of iconic images, from the ruby slippers to the yellow brick road.
7.20pm Sky Arts 2 Les Patineurs
The Royal Ballet dance Frederick Ashton’s enchanting skating ballet. Repeated on December 23, 27, 30.
9.20pm BBC1 Len Goodman’s Perfect Christmas
The Strictly judge looks at Christmas traditions
Friday 27
8am Sky Arts 2 Swan Lake
The Royal Ballet production, starring the tall, glamorous Zenaida Yanowsky as the Swan Queen, partnered by Nehemiah Kish. First shown on Thursday 26.
1.40pm ITV Step Up
Film. Channing Tatum stars as a disaffected youth doing community service at a performing arts school.
3pm Sky Arts 2 Les Patineurs
The Royal Ballet dance Frederick Ashton’s enchanting skating ballet. Repeated on December 23, 26, 30.
4.10pm Channel 5 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Film. Dick Van Dyke stars as the inventor with the flying car, with ballet star Robert Helpmann as the creepy Child Catcher.
4.30pm The Sleeping Beauty
Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin star in the Royal Ballet production, filmed in 2011. Repeated on December 28.
9pm Sky Arts 1 Stars of the Moulin Rouge
Documentary following six dancers from audition to performance.
Saturday 28
1.55am Channel 4 The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Film. Cult musical comedy starring Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon, with creator Richard O’Brien as the sinister butler Riff Raff.
8am The Sleeping Beauty
Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin star in The Royal Ballet production, filmed in 2011. Also shown on December 27.
1.15pm Channel 5 Oklahoma!
Film. On stage, this Rodgers and Hammerstein show was a groundbreaking for its move to more dramatic storytelling through song and dance. The film stars Gordon McRae, Shirley Jones and Rod Steiger. Also shown on December 23.
4.30pm Sky Arts 2 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin star in The Royal Ballet’s production, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. Shown again at 11.45pm and on December 29.
5.50pm Channel 5 Michael Jackson’s This is It
Concert documentary, including auditions and rehearsal footage from the concerts the pop star was preparing when he died. Jackson was one of the 20th-century’s most influential dancers: across the world, children got into dance by watching and imitating his routines. Also shown on Christmas Day.
11.45pm Sky Arts 2 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Repeat showing.
Sunday 29
8.20pm Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin star in The Royal Ballet’s production, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.
2.15pm 5* Happy Feet
Film. Animated adventure about a dancing penguin. The hero’s moves were based on those of star tap dancer Savion Glover.
Monday 30
9.30am Sky Arts 2 Les Patineurs
The Royal Ballet dance Frederick Ashton’s enchanting skating ballet. Repeated on December 23, 26, 27.
4.15pm BBC1 Mary Poppins
Film. Musical comedy starring Julie Andrews as the magical nanny who sorts out the Banks family with song and a spoonful of sugar. Dick Van Dyke, with the world’s most notorious bad Cockney accent, is the singing, dancing sweep.
9.30pm Channel 5 Dirty Dancing
Film. Romantic drama starring Jennifer Grey as the girl who learns about dancing and love from Patrick Swayze. All together now: “Nobody puts baby in a corner!”
New Year’s Eve
6am Sky Arts 2 Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
The Paris Opéra Ballet dance Petit’s celebrated ballet. Showing a young artist driven to suicide, it has chic designs and spectacular, acrobatic choreography. Also shown on December 21 and January 1.
11.15am Channel 5 Fiddler on the Roof
Film. Comedy drama starring Topol as the Jewish father in pre-revolutionary Russia, worrying about finding husbands for all his daughters. The movie is based on the stage production, which was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.
2.50pm Channel 5 Pal Joey
Film. Frank Sinatra is the singer torn between love and success, singing in a seedy nightclub. He’s also torn between Rita Hayworth – who sings the standard “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” – and Kim Novak.
5pm Channel 5 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Film. Musical comedy starring Howard Keel as the newly-married rancher whose wife is horrified to find she has to look after his unruly brothers. Michael Kidd’s choreography makes dance numbers out of chopping wood, raising a barn and other frontier activities; the cast includes New York City Ballet dancer Jacques d’Amboise.
8pm ITV Mamma Mia!
Film. Musical comedy starring Meryl Streep, based on the stage musical, with songs by Abba.
New Year’s Day
8am Sky Arts 2 Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la Mort
The Paris Opéra Ballet dance Petit’s celebrated ballet. Showing a young artist driven to suicide, it has chic designs and spectacular, acrobatic choreography. Also shown on December 21 and 30.
10am Sky Arts 2 Colin Dunne: Sculpting Space
Documentary about the Irish dancer and Riverdance star.
11.15am BBC2 New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna
The traditional Viennese concert of waltzes, polkas and marches from the Strauss family and others, with dancing from the Vienna State Ballet in choreography by Ashley Page. The costumes are by Vivienne Westwood, which suggests a departure from tradition! Highlights are repeated on BBC4 at 7pm.
2.15pm BBC1 The Sound of Music
Film. Julie Andrews stars as the nun who leaves the convent to teach the many children of the Von Trapp family, finding love and escaping from the Nazis along the way. It’s one of the world’s most popular musicals.
4.50pm Sky Arts 2 Dance Dance Dance: Ballet
Arlene Phillips presents performances by English National Ballet and the Sapnay Dance Company. Also shown on December 22 and Boxing Day.
7.55pm Sky Arts 2 Dance Dance Dance: Ghost Tracks
At St Pancras International railway station, Combination perform a work inspired by meetings and departures.
8pm Sky Arts 2 Kiss Me, Kate
Stage production of Cole Porter’s musical based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Starring Brent Barrett, Rachel York, Nancy Anderson and Michael Berresse, and recorded at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London.
10.30pm Sky Arts 2 Stomp: Live
The choreographed percussion show, recorded at Brighton Dome.
All Strictly Come Dancing pictures © BBC