White Nights White Nights

White Nights

Movie poster in 1985.

An excerpt featuring Baryshnikov and Hines.

Tharp and Hines rehearse during filming.

Tharp and Baryshnikov on set during filming.

Premiere

  • Date

    22 November 1985

  • Company

    Columbia Pictures

Production

  • Choreographer

    Twyla Tharp

  • Director

    Taylor Hackford

  • Producers

    Taylor Hackford,
    William S. Gilmore

  • Author

    James Goldman

  • Screenplay Writers

    James Goldman and Eric Hughes

  • Cinematographer

    David Watkin

  • Music Score by

    Michel Colombier

  • Original Songs by

    Walt Aldridge performed by Lou Reed (My Love is Chemical, 1985),

    Stephen Bishop performed by Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin (Separate Lives, 1985),

    Michel Colombier and Kathy Wakefield performed by Roberta Flack (People on a String, 1985),

    David Foster (tapDANCE, 1985),

    John Hiatt (Snake Charmer, 1985),

    David Pack (Prove Me Wrong, 1985),

    Robert Plant (Far Post, 1983),

    Lionel Richie (Say You, Say Me, 1985),

    Nile Rodgers performed by Jenny Burton (People Have Got to Move, 1985),

    Nile Rodgers & Sandy Stewart (This Is Your Day, 1985),

    Mike Rutherford performed by Chaka Khan (The Other Side of the World, 1985)

  • Costume Designer

    Evangeline Harrison

  • Production Designer

    Philip Harrison

  • Art Directors

    Richard Dawking,

    Malcolm Middleton,

    Austen Spriggs

Awards

Academy Awards
Won:
Best Original Song: “Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie
Nominated:
Best Original Song: “Separate Lives (Love Theme from White Nights)” by Stephen Bishop

Dancers

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines

  • Number of Dancers

    2

  • Runtime

    02:16:08

Description

Tharp teamed up with director Taylor Hackford for the film White Nights, starring Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

 

The dance sequences in this film function differently than in Tharp’s previous projects. In Amadeus (1984), the dancing operates as a “play-within-a-play;” in Hair (1979), as one of the musical-theater components. White Nights is a straight play and the actors, who are also world-class dancers, employ the choreography in developing their characters.

 

Tharp choreographed solos for Hines and Baryshnikov in their signature styles in addition to duets in a composite vocabulary that highlighted each dancer’s strengths.

 

In Loving Memory of Jerry Benjamin and Mary E. Hackford.