Pique Dame (or "The Queen of Spades") inspired by Alexander Pushkin, set to a music by Tchaikovsky; Passacaglia (or "Passacaille") set to a music by Anton Webern: two Roland Petit masterpieces brought together on one memorable evening at the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow. Recorded live, 19th of May 2005.
Two musical stars from the golden age of Hollywood get a second chance at rekindling their love in the modern world.
This ballet production tells a dark version of the story of Snow White, as a vain and desperate aging queen attempts to have her beautiful daughter murdered.
Dreams of Giverny is a modern day ghost story told through the art of classical ballet and set in the gardens of Impressionist painter Claude Monet in Giverny, France. This short tells the tale of a young woman who upon reflection at the beauty of Monet’s water lily pond, slips into a daydream where she finds herself wearing pointe shoes and able to dance exquisitely. During this reverie she encounters a ghostlike girl who guides her through the gardens, encouraging her to express her joy at the wonder of such a place through dance. By the end of their journey we are left to ponder whether this was in fact a dream or a magical ghostly encounter?
The film recording of the ballet performance of the State Theatre in Brno was expensively realized in a theatrically stylized set built in the Barrandov studios. The original ballet music by Václav Trojan, based on Shakespeare's fairy tale comedy, was preceded by incidental music for theatre and radio, and in particular the soundtrack to Jiří Trnka's feature-length puppet film A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The Brothers Karamazov novel is the epitome of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s creative work, the acme of the philosophic investigation carried out by this colossal and restless mind throughout his life. World renowned choreographer Boris Eifman offers a remarkable vision of the core ideas within the novel, expanding upon them though body language as a way of exploring the origins of the moral devastation of the Karamazovs; creating through choreographic art an equivalent of what Dostoyevsky investigated so masterfully in his book, the excruciating burden of destructive passions and evil heredity. This ballet production is also known and performed as Beyond Sin.
Meg, a young ballet student, idolizes the school's top ballerina, the shallow Ariane Bouchet. Meg is distressed when she learns visiting prima ballerina Darina rather than Bouchet will play the lead in the school's production of "Swan Lake." So on opening night, Meg arranges an accident which nearly kills Darina and ends her dancing career. As a result, Bouchet becomes a star, while Meg is torn with guilt. This is a remake of the 1937 French film "Ballerina", based on a short story by Paul Morand.
Storytelling through dance is an effective way to make dance accessible and exciting to young children. In The Toy Castle collections, members of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet comprise a brightly costumed cast of girl and boy storybook characters including Ballerina, Soldier, China Doll and Rag Doll who live in a toy dollhouse and come to life at night when the children are sleeping. Nutcracker Sweet presents twelve short dance stories that include themes from famous classical ballets like the "Nutcracker Suite," "Romeo and Juliet," and "Petrouchka" and holiday motifs such as "Twelve Days of Christmas," "Waiting for Santa," and "I Believe." (Ages 3 to 10)
A ballet dancer struggles with his homosexuality and the increasing allure of a young ballerina who seeks to draw him away from his domineering lover.
Live from the Bolshoi Theatre, this 1978 remake of the two-act classical Christmas ballet blends Tchaikovsky's beloved melodies with superb dancing. Famed Bolshoi duo Yekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev star in this production of Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet, The Nutcracker. Maximova dances the role of Maria, the young girl whose mysterious uncle Drosselmeyer gives her a wooden nutcracker (Vasiliev) for Christmas. When he comes to life, she rescues him from marauding mice and is taken to the Kingdom of Sweets.
Tita, who lives on a ranch in Mexico, falls in love with a boy, Pedro, who lives nearby; but when they want to get married, Tita's family prevents it, because she must remain single to take care of her mother.
Two ballet dancers perform a dance enhanced with surreal after-image visuals.
Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) is one of the choreographer's most joyous and colourful creations. Inspired by his love for the Suffolk countryside, the ballet is set on a farm and tells a story of love between Lise, the daughter of Widow Simone, and Colas, a young farmer. It contains some of Ashton's most stunning choreography, most strikingly in the series of energetic pas de deux that express the youthful passion of the young lovers, performed here by Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae. The ballet is laced with exuberant good humour, and elements of national folk dance, from dancing chickens and a maypole dance to a Lancashire clog dance for Widow Simone, performed by Philip Mosley.
Live from ROH 2009, TV relay 1/12/2009.
A 1975 recording of the Bolshoi Ballet's performance of Yuri Grigorovich's production of "Spartacus".
A filmed performance of Stravinsky's ballet Les Noces (The Wedding), depicting a bleakly cynical interpretation of the marriage ritual.
When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.
Lively scenes of Paris, all narrated by Maurice Chevalier, link together four dramatic ballet choreographies by Roland Petit: La Croqueuse de diamants (The Gold Digger), Cyrano de Bergerac, Deuil en 24 heures (A Merry Mourning), and Carmen.
During harvest festival at a collective farm, a visiting dance troupe reunites a ballerina with her childhood friend Zina. In order to teach her unfaithful husband a lesson, Zina, the ballerina, and the ballerina’s husband decide to swap roles for the evening… Alexei Ratmansky invokes the genius of Shostakovich’s score at the Bolshoi, creating a laugh-out-loud masterpiece with its bits of slapstick comedy, hilarious deceptions, false identities including Principal Dancer Ruslan Skvortsov dressed as a Sylph and its many colorful characters! The Bolshoi bursts with vivid life and bright spirits in Ratmansky’s brilliantly choreographed smash. Captured live on Apr 29, 2012.
The Blu-ray Experience II: Opera, Ballet & theatre