Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Widely lauded by critics, choreographer Jonathan Watkins' 1984 is an awe-inspiring retelling of George Orwell's masterpiece.
Winston Smith lives in a world of absolute conformity, his every action scrutinized by Big Brother. However, when Winston meets Julia, he dares to rebel by falling in love.
Danced by Northern Ballet - the UK's foremost narrative ballet company - to a score by Tony-nominated composer Alex Baranowski , this thoroughly modern take on Nineteen Eighty-Four will change the way you think about ballet.
In 1992, Jazz at Lincoln Center and New York City Ballet commissioned the famous jazz musician Wynton Marsalis to compose music for a new ballet by choreographer Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of the NYCB. The film shows the preparation and the perfomance of the ballet.
Guided by his idol George Balanchine, Hans van Manen has striven all his life to create meaning in his choreography. Alongside conversations with colleagues and collaborators, in the documentary Moving to Music , van Manen talks about his life and work, and from where his inspiration came in ballets that are charged with drama and eroticism. Also included are three complete works from Dutch National Ballet - the early Metaforen; Adagio Hammerklavier , which presents the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 106 sonata performed live on stage with three couples in various configurations; and Frank Bridge Variations , a late masterpiece that plays with balance and counterpoint to music by Benjamin Britten .
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Acclaimed dancer-choreographer Akram Khan 'speaks tremendously of tremendous' (Financial Times) and this new Giselle , commissioned by English National Ballet, re-imagines the classic narrative ballet for the 21st century. Giselle has become a former garment factory migrant worker, Albrecht, a member of the wealthy factory-owing class. An abandoned 'ghost factory' haunted by the memory of female migrant workers, many of them victims of industrial accidents, replaces the traditional glade of Act II. There, Giselle's desire to break the cycle of violence will lead to her reconciliation with Albrecht and his release from the retributive justice of the Wilis.
Lewis Carroll's ever-popular story provides the basis for Christopher Wheeldon's spectacular new work, starring Royal Ballet Principal Lauren Cuthbertson. Captivating designs by Bob Crowley, an engaging and passionate score by Joby Talbot, and Wheeldon's breathtaking choreography combine to produce, in the words of The Times, "spectacular family entertainment brought to life with enormous theatrical verve."
Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon magically captured the twists and turns of Lewis Carroll's classic story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , in his 2011 ballet. Bob Crowley's vivid sets and costumes take us down the rabbit hole into a colourful world full of curious creatures and captivating characters. Joby Talbot's original score is full of sweeping melodies and contemporary sounds. Lauren Cuthbertson stars as the inquisitive Alice, with Federico Bonelli as the charming Knave of Hearts, Steven McRae as the tap-dancing Mad Hatter and Laura Morera as the formidable Queen of Hearts. This exuberant and engaging ballet is spectacular entertainment for the whole family.
Joby Talbot's complex, theme-driven score - coruscatingly orchestrated with the help of Christopher Austin - is full of magical surprises. Expertly aided and abetted by lighting guru Natasha Katz, designer Bob Crowley has had an absolute field day too, exploiting every means at his disposal - from puppetry to projection - to send us down the rabbit-hole with the heroine. Wheeldon, meanwhile, absolutely matches his collaborators contributions. This is a ballet that eloquently and respectfully reflects his Royal Ballet heritage (from its three-act structure, reliance on mime, and alternation...
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Original soundtrack, created by Marco Antonio Guimaraes , for the ballet Bach , presented by Grupo Corpo. A free and enlightened creation of the author around the work of the greatest composer of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach .
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Paul Taylor is widely considered to be one of the foremost American choreographers of the 20th century. Paul Taylor is among the last living members of the second generation of America's modern dance artists. He has continued to win acclaim for his recent creations as well as stagings of his earlier works. As prolific as ever, he may propel his dancers through space for the sheer beauty of it, or use them to wordlessly illuminate war, spirituality, sexuality, morality and mortality. This program recorded in 2012 at the Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris is composed of two ballets.
Starring the celebrated dancer Maya Plisetskaya , this brilliant performance of Bolero was given just under two decades after the 1960 premiere of what has become one of Maurice Bejart's most famous choreographies.
The ballet is set to Ravel's 1928 eponymous composition, whose music is comprised of a hypnotic theme and variations: a simple repeating melody is passed among instruments in a fascinating exploration of orchestral timbres that gradually and insistently crescendos into sonic ecstasy. Mirroring this structure, Bejart's choreography places a single individual (usually a woman) at the center of a male collective that surrounds, observes, imitates, admires, and stalks her in a choreography that progressively transforms from subtle understated gestures to high-voltage electricity!
Paul Taylor is widely considered to be one of the foremost American choreographers of the 20th century. Paul Taylor is among the last living members of the second generation of America's modern dance artists. He has continued to win acclaim for his recent creations as well as stagings of his earlier works. As prolific as ever, he may propel his dancers through space for the sheer beauty of it, or use them to wordlessly illuminate war, spirituality, sexuality, morality and mortality. This program recorded in 2012 at the Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris is composed of two ballets.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Choreographer Jiri Bubenicek's Carmen celebrates the incredible inspiration of Bizet's timeless music in a completely new two-act ballet that also includes music by Albeniz, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Falla , orchestrated and adapted by Gabrielle Bonolis . The production emphasis aspects of the original drama, heightening the erotic atmosphere of the cigar factory and Carmen's wild spirit, and including a spectacular on-stage horse. The sensational choreography closely depicts the storyline of Prosper Merimee's original novella in a production that was hailed by critics as a triumph.
A truly remarkable New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg's fabled Mariinsky Theatre, with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky (ex-Kirov) Ballet.
It was at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg that the ballet The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890, with a score by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa. This New Year's Eve programme revolves around Act III, in which Princess Aurora is brought out of her long sleep by the prince of her dreams and marries him. This is the Mariinsky troupe in a veritable explosion of grace and virtuosity.
In addition, prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina dances Camille Saint-Saens famous Dying Swan , first performed by Anna Pavlova.
In conclusion the soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre's Young Singers' Academy perform the finale of Rossini's Journey to Rheims in a joyous celebration of the coming of the New Year.
To the term choreographer Heinz Spoerli prefers "dance maker". In the few short years since he took charge of the Zurich Ballet, the company has gained an international reputation, with the austere yet poetic In den Winden im Nichts (Cello Suites) among its flagship works.
Following on the success of his adaptation of the Goldberg Variations , Spoerli turned to that other Bach masterpiece, the Suites for Solo Cello , offering his abstract vision in three stunningly beautiful dance episodes.
The choreography mixes solos, pas de deux, trios and ensemble work. Beginning and ending with a near-identical solo, the cycle is dominated by circularity. The duets are virtuoso gems, athleticism made dance.
Its subtle play on balance and the relationship between bodies and light, the symmetry and asymmetry of the ensemble parts, its purity of movement and its sheer energy make this a ballet of remarkable density, depth and theatrical beauty.
The Bach Suites are played here by Claudius Herrmann, solo cellist with the Zurich Opera Orchestra, in a rendition that does full justice to their choreographic potential.
A major figure on the contemporary choreography scene, Bil T. Jones is also a remarkable dance and a performer with an electrifying stage presence. Here, alone in a studio and filmed from a totally cinematic point of view, he speaks to us of violence, gentleness and emotion in three short pieces: Ionization, to music by Edgar Varese; Chaconne, from Bach's Partita for Solo Violin in D minor; and Tea for Two , the famous classic song.
The little guy with his mustache, his bowler hat and his bamboo cane is world-famous. But, who is the man behind this figure? Mario Schroder wondered the same thing when choreographing Chaplin . His rise to fame makes Chaplin a person of public interest. The clown becomes political. America's conservatives are, however, suspicious of Chaplin's convictions. Suspected of communism, he is eventually expelled. The ballet describes Chaplin's life in relation to his creative work and shows that an artist who observes his environment both sensitively and consciously is behind the funny Tramp.
The diversity of Wayne McGregor's astonishing talent is demonstrated through Chroma , Infra and Limen , each created for The Royal Ballet, for whom he is resident choreographer. Intimate yet universal, light yet dark, frenetic yet lyrical, McGregor pursues his passion for exploring the inner workings of the human body and mind, his many-layered and beautiful dances providing visual, sensual and kinaesthetic stimulus for the viewer.
Once upon a time was a former prima ballerina called Cinderella. After her mother's death she became a servant in the dance company of her stepmother and her two stepsisters. The invitation to a charity gala performance, which the celebrated solo dancer Frédéric will attend, looking for an equally gifted new partner, is going to change her life?
Heinz Spoerli has the great idea to turn Cinderella into a poor and wretched corps de ballet girl in a provincial company, exploited and humiliated by the wicked ballet mistress who favors her own two daughters - with the Good Fairy as a haggard rehearsal pianist. The stepmother and both stepsisters are played in drag. The stepmother, jealous of seeing Cinderella capturing the attention of the dancing master as she excels at the barre more than her stepsisters, frequently stops Cinderella from dancing.
This is the plot of Heinz Spoerli's Zurich Ballet Cinderella production filmed by Andy Sommer as a musical from Hollywood, which turned out to be a big success at its premiere and must rank as one of the danciest stagings Prokofiev's popular ballet has ever received.
This video presents some of the earliest experiences by the West of the bravura and discipline of Russia's Kirov and Bolshoi ballet companies at the height of their physical and interpretive powers. This rare footage showcases some of the greatest dancers of their time, including the much celebrated Galina Ulanova, who came as close to artistic sainthood for Russians as any dancer in its history.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
Founded in 1959, Cuba's leading contemporary dance company has had a profound influence on Cuban dance and dancers. Over the past 53 years Danza Contemporanea de Cuba has evolved into an exotic hybrid of contemporary, classical and Caribbean styles - an exquisite physical instrument. They move with an old-fashioned juiciness, reminiscent of the Martha Graham Company, but without being old-fashioned. Expect an exciting modern dance performance to the beats of the future.
From The Royal Ballet's classical origins in the works of Petipa, to the home-grown choreographers who put British ballet on the world stage, this mixed programme highlights the versatility of the Company. Petipa's Raymonda Act III is Russian classical ballet summarized in one act, full of sparkle and precise technique, while Ashton's Enigma Variations is quintessentially British in every way - from its score by Elgar and period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman, to Ashton's signature style, the essence of British ballet. Concerto, MacMillan's fusion of classical technique with a contemporary mind, completes a programme that shows the breadth of the Company's heritage.
MacMillan's vision has been vital in shaping The Royal Ballet's style and repertory, and what better way to appreciate his art than with this rare chance to experience three contrasting works in a single performance. Abstract, dramatic, humorous – this programme gives a wonderfully varied introduction not just to MacMillan's work but to the beauty and dramatic power of ballet itself. Concerto, to Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, contrasts moments of exuberance and elegiac reflection. The Judas Tree places a single woman among 13 men to enact a harrowing event that is recognizably contemporary but with biblical overtones. Elite Syncopations completes the programme with a sparkling evocation of a dance hall that brings ragtime rhythms to the dance, and a ragtime band to the stage.
Bonus features:
- Introductions by Deborah MacMillan
Premiered by the Opera De Paris in 1870, and inspired by the fantastical writings of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Coppélia tells the story of a young man who becomes besotted with an exquisite automaton and is finally brought to his senses by his fiancée. In their production from the magnificent Palais Garnier, choreographer Patrice Bart in his final production and designer Ezio Toffolutti explore the story's darker side while doing full justice to the exuberance and elegance of Delibes' glorious score.
The Victor Ullate Ballet brings to its repertoire a new version of this important, internationally performed classic. Choreographer and artistic director Eduardo Lau emphasizes the comic spirit of Coppelia while keeping the original score written by Leo Delibes in 1870. This interpretation of Coppelia is set in a cybernetic laboratory specialised in artificial intelligence, where Doctor Coppelia is attempting to create a female android that moves and acts like a human.
Leo Delibes's Coppelia is not only a collection of fine dances. It is primarily an abrasive and sardonic comedy, which is somewhat unusual in the world of classical ballet. But most importantly, it is a comedy for which excellent music was composed. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's assessment of Delibes's ballet scores, allegedly capable of overshadowing the choreography itself, is well known: "What beauty, what elegance, what richness of melody, rhythm and harmony!" It is not fortuitous that music from this ballet should be performed, for its own merits, during concerts.
Funnily enough, the main theme of this light-hearted ballet is taken from E.T.A. Hoffmann's anything but joyful novellas - mainly from The Sandman. In Hoffmann's tale, the young man's infatuation with the doll ends tragically, while in the ballet, the lively and energetic Swanilda (Frantz's fiancee) is able to over wit the old Coppelius, the cunning inventor of the "Girl with the enamel eyes" and free her lover from the doll's poisonous charm.
Coppelia was premiered in 1870 at the Paris Opera on choreographer Arthur Saint-Leon's initiative. A virtuoso dancer, Saint-Leon was Marius Petipa's predecessor as Head of the Petersburg Ballet. His interest in folk culture, music and dance, is mainly responsible for...
Ninette de Valois' charming and funny Coppelia is a classic of the Royal Ballet repertory - a story of love, mischief and mechanical dolls, starring Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov. The intricate choreography is set to Delibes' delightful score and shows off the technical precision and comedic timing of the whole Company. Osbert Lancaster's designs bring a colourful storybook world to life in his entertaining and joyful ballet
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
In this brilliant studio recording, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the country's boldest and most exciting dance company, brings its distinctive style home to you - dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet graceful and poetic.
Divining was Judith Jamison's first major work as a choreographer for Alvin Ailey. The dance evokes a strong feeling for African tribal ritual and is set to hauntingly rhythmic drum music.
Revelations expresses Ailey's intense feelings for his roots in the South. Here you'll see Ailey's vivid "blood memories" of the blues, spirituals, gospel music, ragtime and folk songs as well as the hard life of the Southern black during the Depression.
Set to Modern Jazz, The Stack-Up takes place in modern-day Harlem. You'll witness the cruel reality of urban street life as a young man is destroyed by drugs.
Cry was choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1971 for Judith Jamison and is one of his most famous pieces. Created as a birthday present for his mother, it is Ailey's tribute to black women. You can't help feeling being moved by the struggle, the anger and most importantly, the celebration.
Cursive II is a masterpiece by Lin Hwai-min, choreographer of the highly acclaimed Moon Water and Bamboo Dream. Inspired by the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy, this work is both commanding and seductive. The superb Cloud Gate dancers, trained in meditation, Chi-Kung and martial arts, touch you with original movements, fierce as striking thunder or soft as flowing ink on rice paper. The complexity of energy is further enhanced by the music of John Cage, while the blown-up images of 'ice crackles' from Sung porcelain shimmer with delicate beauty. This production exquisitely filmed by dance expert Ross MacGibbon captures the meditative aura of the dance. It excites. It mesmerizes. You can never turn away an eye for one second.
Bonus features:
- Dragon Flying and Phoenix Dancing - an introduction to Cursive II with Lin Hwai-min
- Floating on the Ground - a documentary by Reiner E. Moritz, portraying Lin Hwai-min, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and Cursive II in the context of the company?EUR(TM)s history, including interviews with the choreographer, dancers and creative crew.
A singular project is staged at the Salzburg Festival with the famous Felsenreitschule as a backdrop: for the first time the renowned Hagen Quartet appears at the festival accompanied by a dance company. The Swiss grand master of dance Heinz Spoerli presents three works he choreographed for his Zurich Ballet set to three of the great works of the quartet literature: Leos Janacek's string quartet "Intimate Letters", Antonin Dvorak's "American Quartet" and Franz Schubert's string quartet "The Death and the Maiden".
Founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton created more than 100 ballets over a 60 year career. Showcasing three of his shorter works, this video reflects the breadth of his sophisticated, elegant and widely popular style.
Les Patineurs evokes the Edwardian skating rink, with all its youthful charm and humour, in contrast to Scènes de Ballet where sharp geometric shapes and the music of Igor Stravinsky are combined to create perhaps Ashton's most modernist work. Divertissements , a collection of eight short dances, features some of Ashton's most lyrical choreography, including pas de deux set to Romantic masterpieces by Tchaikovsky and Massenet.
In this brilliant studio recording, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the country's boldest and most exciting dance company, brings its distinctive style home to you - dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet graceful and poetic.
Divining was Judith Jamison's first major work as a choreographer for Alvin Ailey. The dance evokes a strong feeling for African tribal ritual and is set to hauntingly rhythmic drum music.
Revelations expresses Ailey's intense feelings for his roots in the South. Here you'll see Ailey's vivid "blood memories" of the blues, spirituals, gospel music, ragtime and folk songs as well as the hard life of the Southern black during the Depression.
Set to Modern Jazz, The Stack-Up takes place in modern-day Harlem. You'll witness the cruel reality of urban street life as a young man is destroyed by drugs.
Cry was choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1971 for Judith Jamison and is one of his most famous pieces. Created as a birthday present for his mother, it is Ailey's tribute to black women. You can't help feeling being moved by the struggle, the anger and most importantly, the celebration.
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
Presenting Petipa's extravaganza, The Pharaoh's Daughter , in a stunning production by Pierre Lacotte . Recreating the spectacular sumptuousness of the original, the ballet tells the tale of a young Englishman who dreams he elopes with a Pharaoh's daughter. Despite a desert storm, a lion hunt and an attempted suicide, the couple finally wins the Pharaoh's blessing of their marriage. From its creation in 1862, Petipa's grandiose ballet was a sensational success; its stupendous costumes and striking scenery, its exotica, romanticism and drama appealing to audiences as much as the virtuoso choreography.
The Bolshoi Ballet and the two soloists Svetlana Zakharova and Sergey Filin are at their best in spite of the difficulty of Pierre Lacotte's choreography.
Special features includes a documentary about the creation of the ballet at the Bolshoi and an exclusive interview of Pierre Lacotte.
This video presents some of the earliest experiences by the West of the bravura and discipline of Russia's Kirov and Bolshoi ballet companies at the height of their physical and interpretive powers. This rare footage showcases some of the greatest dancers of their time, including the much celebrated Galina Ulanova, who came as close to artistic sainthood for Russians as any dancer in its history.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
This spectacular film of Don Quixote , choreographed after Marius Petipa and directed for the screen by Russian ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev, is recognised as one of the finest ballet performances ever caught on camera and cinematic triumph in its own right.
Filmed in Melbourne with The Australian Ballet in 1972, the cast includes Nureyev as Basilio, Sir Robert Helpmann as the deluded knight and Lucette Aldous as Kitri. This timeless story of love, gallantry and misadventure - all unfolding with Minku's exhilarating Spanish-flavoured music - has stood the test of time as one of the world's most popular ballets.
MacMillan's vision has been vital in shaping The Royal Ballet's style and repertory, and what better way to appreciate his art than with this rare chance to experience three contrasting works in a single performance. Abstract, dramatic, humorous – this programme gives a wonderfully varied introduction not just to MacMillan's work but to the beauty and dramatic power of ballet itself. Concerto, to Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, contrasts moments of exuberance and elegiac reflection. The Judas Tree places a single woman among 13 men to enact a harrowing event that is recognizably contemporary but with biblical overtones. Elite Syncopations completes the programme with a sparkling evocation of a dance hall that brings ragtime rhythms to the dance, and a ragtime band to the stage.
Bonus features:
- Introductions by Deborah MacMillan
Opulent and intimate, this enchanting chamber piece combines dance, text and music in a fascinating exploration of the life and loves of Queen Elizabeth I . Choreographer Will Tuckett and playwright and librettist Alasdair Middleton co-direct this special performance, which brings together Royal Ballet Principals Zenaida Yanowsky and Carlos Acosta with actors Laura Caldow, Sonya Cullingford and Julia Righton in an atmospheric and nuanced tribute to the remarkable nature of this extraordinary woman. Martin Yates's original score recalls the structures and harmonies of Elizabethan music, in a modern reimagining of a typical Tudor-period ensemble, deftly performed by world-renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch and acclaimed baritien David Kempster.
From The Royal Ballet's classical origins in the works of Petipa, to the home-grown choreographers who put British ballet on the world stage, this mixed programme highlights the versatility of the Company. Petipa's Raymonda Act III is Russian classical ballet summarized in one act, full of sparkle and precise technique, while Ashton's Enigma Variations is quintessentially British in every way - from its score by Elgar and period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman, to Ashton's signature style, the essence of British ballet. Concerto, MacMillan's fusion of classical technique with a contemporary mind, completes a programme that shows the breadth of the Company's heritage.
With the complicity of the excellent Royal Swedish Ballet, Alexander Ekman makes dreams dance in a new surprising, lyrical and cosmic choreographical piece.
After the instant success of Midsummer Night's Dream , exploring the density of traditional mysticism and the maze of imagination, choreographer Alexander Ekman and the Royal Swedish Ballet once again brings us on a dancing journey through the looking glass, beyond our own reality. Known for the spectacular quality of his pieces and the oneiric imagery he tends to deploy, Ekman seamlessly takes us from one unlikely situation from the next, thanks to the incredible technical maestria and versatility of the Royal Swedish Ballet dancers. "I like creating worlds that have never been seen before", Ekman wrote while creating Play with the Paris Opera Ballet : without ever sacrificing lyrical beauty and deep contemplation to pointless incongruity, Eskapist proves once again that the theatrical stage truly is a magic place, where the world as we know it shifts shapes only to dissolve into the most poetic fantasies one could envision.
Once more, Ekman has sought support from his long-term acolyte, Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson , whose entrancing music follows the wide range of styles mobilized by Ekman: sometimes...
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Guided by his idol George Balanchine, Hans van Manen has striven all his life to create meaning in his choreography. Alongside conversations with colleagues and collaborators, in the documentary Moving to Music , van Manen talks about his life and work, and from where his inspiration came in ballets that are charged with drama and eroticism. Also included are three complete works from Dutch National Ballet - the early Metaforen; Adagio Hammerklavier , which presents the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 106 sonata performed live on stage with three couples in various configurations; and Frank Bridge Variations , a late masterpiece that plays with balance and counterpoint to music by Benjamin Britten .
This video presents some of the earliest experiences by the West of the bravura and discipline of Russia's Kirov and Bolshoi ballet companies at the height of their physical and interpretive powers. This rare footage showcases some of the greatest dancers of their time, including the much celebrated Galina Ulanova, who came as close to artistic sainthood for Russians as any dancer in its history.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
Are we ever honest enough to be unaffected by lies? This is the question asked by Henrik Ibsen's drama Ghosts (Gengangere). Oswald Alving returns from a bohemian existence in Paris to small-town Norway. Encountering people who do not communicate, Oswald responds by becoming ironic and distant. He gradually learns more of the secrets that weigh on his family, as well as those inside himself. His mother, Mrs. Alving, welcomes her much-missed son home - and slowly understands what, or whom, he has brought home with him.
Ghosts is a psychological thriller in which the characters learn more and more about their own stories, says director Marit Moum Aune. It's about how the unsaid can grow to become insuperable. Immense courage is required to make peace with one's illusions.
Together with the young, critically acclaimed choreographer Cina Espejord, she retells Ibsen's play as a ballet. The pair feel the story is suited to dance because both its inner and outer brutality can be pitted against the power of dance.
Ibsen's Ghosts is an evocative production in a modern dance style. Nils Petter Molvaer has composed new music, which he performs on-stage together with Jan Bang.
First performed in 1841, Giselle was an immediate hit. With music by Adolphe Adam and a libretto by Theophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, the ballet touches on the great romantic themes: local colour, a pastoral love affair doomed to end in tragedy, a plunge into fantasy and redemption through the power of love.
Learning that Albrecht, her beloved, is in fact a nobleman engaged to be married to a princess, the naive peasant girl Giselle dies. The Queen of the Wilis - the spirits of deceased young virgins - decides that Albrecht should follow Giselle to the grave, and condemns him to dance until he dies of exhaustion. But Giselle's spirit dances with him and saves him.
Composer Adolphe Adam owes his reputation to this archetypal, richly melodic romantic ballet. As Giselle Svetlana Lunkina is simply sensational. Her Albrecht is the iconically noble dancer Dmitri Gudanov. And the cast is perfectly rounded off by Maria Allash as the Queen of the Wilis.
The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Pavel Klinichev.
Giselle is the quintessential Romantic ballet. Its title role, one of the most technically demanding and emotionally challenging in the classical repertory, is here danced by Alina Cojocaru, partnered by Johan Kobborg as Count Albrecht. This tale of the transcendental power of love over death is evocatively portrayed through Peter Wright's sensitive staging and John Macfarlane's designs, which beautifully contrast the human and supernatural worlds.
Bonus features :
- Illustrated synopsis
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
These two exceptional studio performances represent some of the earliest filmed dance material from the BBC archives. Les Sylphides , introduced by Tamara Karsavina, one of the founders of modern British ballet, and the 1958 performance of Giselle both feature stellar international casts embodying a bygone era.
The whole is thoroughly enjoyable, witty, charming, dramatic and completely absorbing. The dancing is marvellous and the characterisation strong too, with Alessandra Ferri making a wonderfully vibrant Giselle while still alive, and a touchingly haunting ghost Giselle once dead. The score, for those who have only heard suites from this music before, is a melodic joy from beginning to end. With fine musicianship, the sound is everything one can expect from a stereo live recording. (MusicWeb International)
This video presents some of the earliest experiences by the West of the bravura and discipline of Russia's Kirov and Bolshoi ballet companies at the height of their physical and interpretive powers. This rare footage showcases some of the greatest dancers of their time, including the much celebrated Galina Ulanova, who came as close to artistic sainthood for Russians as any dancer in its history.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
In this 2016 production of Giselle , the etoiles Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov join forces with Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Opera House Orchestra to bring the work that Tchaikovsky considered to be "a poetic, musical, and choreographic jewel" to life.
"Lovely in their wedding clothes and crowned with flowers and ribbons, glittering rings on their fingers, the Willis dance in the moonlight as though they were elves. Their countenance, whiter than snow, glows with youth, they laugh with such perverse cheer, such entrancing gaiety (...) that no-one can withstand these dead Bacchants..." This is how Heinrich Heine described the willis, the fantastical creatures of mythology that are at the heart of Giselle, and who would become an archetypal character of Romantic ballet. Dead before their wedding days, the sinister maidens carry away any men they run across in a dance that leads to death.
The willis inspired Theophile Gautier to suggest a plot to Henri de Saint-Georges, author of the libretto that Adam would set to music. The choreography established by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot is employed here by Marius Petipa, the brother of Lucien, who was the dance partner of Carlotta Grisi, the Italian etoile dancer for whom the role of Giselle was written. The premiere...
Guided by his idol George Balanchine, Hans van Manen has striven all his life to create meaning in his choreography. Alongside conversations with colleagues and collaborators, in the documentary Moving to Music , van Manen talks about his life and work, and from where his inspiration came in ballets that are charged with drama and eroticism. Also included are three complete works from Dutch National Ballet - the early Metaforen; Adagio Hammerklavier , which presents the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 106 sonata performed live on stage with three couples in various configurations; and Frank Bridge Variations , a late masterpiece that plays with balance and counterpoint to music by Benjamin Britten .
The 70 dancers of the Igor Moiseyev Ballet take us on a journey around the world and through the regions of Soviet Union, revealing an incredible multitude of folklores, including Moldovan, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Nanai, Kalmyk, Tatar, Adjaran and Caucasian. 14 dazzling, surprising and joyful ballets, including the major works from the repertoire of Igor Moiseyev. A show acclaimed throughout the world!
A truly remarkable New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg's fabled Mariinsky Theatre, with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky (ex-Kirov) Ballet.
It was at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg that the ballet The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890, with a score by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa. This New Year's Eve programme revolves around Act III, in which Princess Aurora is brought out of her long sleep by the prince of her dreams and marries him. This is the Mariinsky troupe in a veritable explosion of grace and virtuosity.
In addition, prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina dances Camille Saint-Saens famous Dying Swan , first performed by Anna Pavlova.
In conclusion the soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre's Young Singers' Academy perform the finale of Rossini's Journey to Rheims in a joyous celebration of the coming of the New Year.
Ten years after his death, the Paris Opera Ballet payed homage to the American choreographer who considered the Paris Opera as his second home after New York City Ballet. The three pieces performed here illustrate not only the diversity of the choreographer's repertoire and sources of inspiration, but also his love of music and his all-embracing attitude to the performing arts. Jerome Robbins brought new energy to classical dance, introducing 20th century urban rhythms, confirming its status as a modern entertainment form and instilling it with the interrogations of contemporary theatre.
In G Major (En Sol) , set to Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major , follows no particular narrative line or dramatic effect. Echoing the music's jazzy invitations and light-heartedly copying Broadway style, this is a light and joyous piece for two soloists and an ensemble. It provided Jerome Robbins with an opportunity to reveal the relaxed, fluid feel so emblematic of his style.
In the Night and The Concert are two tributes to Frederic Chopin, each in a different register. Seeking to free the composer from the commonplaces that have often belittled his music, Robbins transforms Les Nocturnes into In the Night, a long and poetic pas de deux built like a metaphor of love in all...
A singular project is staged at the Salzburg Festival with the famous Felsenreitschule as a backdrop: for the first time the renowned Hagen Quartet appears at the festival accompanied by a dance company. The Swiss grand master of dance Heinz Spoerli presents three works he choreographed for his Zurich Ballet set to three of the great works of the quartet literature: Leos Janacek's string quartet "Intimate Letters", Antonin Dvorak's "American Quartet" and Franz Schubert's string quartet "The Death and the Maiden".
Ten years after his death, the Paris Opera Ballet payed homage to the American choreographer who considered the Paris Opera as his second home after New York City Ballet. The three pieces performed here illustrate not only the diversity of the choreographer's repertoire and sources of inspiration, but also his love of music and his all-embracing attitude to the performing arts. Jerome Robbins brought new energy to classical dance, introducing 20th century urban rhythms, confirming its status as a modern entertainment form and instilling it with the interrogations of contemporary theatre.
In G Major (En Sol) , set to Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major , follows no particular narrative line or dramatic effect. Echoing the music's jazzy invitations and light-heartedly copying Broadway style, this is a light and joyous piece for two soloists and an ensemble. It provided Jerome Robbins with an opportunity to reveal the relaxed, fluid feel so emblematic of his style.
In the Night and The Concert are two tributes to Frederic Chopin, each in a different register. Seeking to free the composer from the commonplaces that have often belittled his music, Robbins transforms Les Nocturnes into In the Night, a long and poetic pas de deux built like a metaphor of love in all...
The diversity of Wayne McGregor's astonishing talent is demonstrated through Chroma , Infra and Limen , each created for The Royal Ballet, for whom he is resident choreographer. Intimate yet universal, light yet dark, frenetic yet lyrical, McGregor pursues his passion for exploring the inner workings of the human body and mind, his many-layered and beautiful dances providing visual, sensual and kinaesthetic stimulus for the viewer.
A major figure on the contemporary choreography scene, Bil T. Jones is also a remarkable dance and a performer with an electrifying stage presence. Here, alone in a studio and filmed from a totally cinematic point of view, he speaks to us of violence, gentleness and emotion in three short pieces: Ionization, to music by Edgar Varese; Chaconne, from Bach's Partita for Solo Violin in D minor; and Tea for Two , the famous classic song.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
George Balanchine and the Paris Opera always enjoyed a special relationship after Jacques Rouche, the then administrator, offered the young choreographer the post of ballet master in 1929. Balanchine declined the job, but he created several ballets for the company and came to the Palais Garnier regularly to oversee his works. In 2000, seventeen years after his death, a rare and precious ballet arrived at the Paris Opera: Jewels, a work first performed by the New York City Ballet in 1967. This alluring, abstract ballet, a triptych in which each piece sparkles with the brilliance of a precious stone, is a lyric tribute to women and to the capital cities of the great dance schools. Couturier, painter and craftsman Christian Lacroix created the glorious costumes and sets which, together with the outstanding performances of the dancers and the sensitive musical direction of Paul Connelly, result in a celebration of sumptuous splendour.
Bonus features:
- George Balanchine Forever - A film by Reiner E. Moritz, including interviews with Barbara Horgan, chairman of the Balanchine Foundation, Brigitte Lefevre, director of Ballet de L'Opera, designer Christian Lacroix and star dancers Laetitia Pujol, Clairemarie Osta, Aurelie Dupont, Agnes Letestu and Marie-Agnes Gillot
Composed to a libretto by Harry Graf Kessler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal and premiered by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes in the summer of 1914, Richard Strauss' Josephs Legende was one of the earliest cultural casualties of the First World War. The leads in John Neumeier's production from 1977 are terrific, especially the sensational Judith Jamison as Potiphar's Wife. The Wiener Philharmoniker sounds sumptuous and conductor Heinrich Hollreiser keeps the drama from dragging without getting in the way of the dancers." (James Leonard, ALLMUSIC.com)
Kes reimagined is a new film by award-winning choreographer Jonathan Watkins and International Emmy award-winning director Ross MacGibbon, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines.
Jonathan Watkin's acclaimed production was conceived and created for Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in 2014.
Set in a Yorkshire mining community, this re-imagining of Hine's tale told through dance and puppetry, takes a us on a journey with the young working-class boy, Billy Casper. Billy is troubled at home and at school but his outlook on life is transformed when he finds and trains a kestrel. As the beloved Kes swoops and spins in the expansive freedom of the Yorkshire countryside, Billy's self-confidence begins to soar, and boy and bird become one.
Grace and ingenuity come together in this ballet by esteemed choreographer Mark Morris, whose vision takes center stage at the Teatro Real de Madrid in L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato , brought to life by exquisite dancers inspired by Handel's pastoral ode. Soloists Sarah-Jane Brandon, Elizabeth Watts, James Gilchrist, and Andrew Foster-Williams sing the poetry of John Milton, accompanied by the theatre's choir and orchestra under the esteemed maestra Jane Glover.
As the work unfolds, the minimalist set design by Adrianna Lobel alternately contrasts with and complements the sobriety of the costumes, playing subtly on the use of color throughout. The ample space created by the decor, brimming with shadows and light, gives the Mark Morris Dance Group an immense canvas on which to project their stunning art-and the eclectic convergence of dance and music expresses the wide variety of moods and emotions inherent in the Baroque style, luminous and witty, certain to leave viewers with lasting joy!
Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov star as tragic lovers Manon and Des Grieux in this performance of Kenneth MacMillan's Manon , a classic of the Royal Ballet repertory. Nicholas Georgiadi's period designs set the ballet in the contrasting worlds of Paris luxury and Louisiana swampland, while the intense emotion of MacMillan's choreography is complemented by a score drawn from Massenet's music. The impassioned pas de deux for Manon and Des Grieux drive this tragic story, and make Manon one of MacMillan's most powerful dramas.
Jean-Christophe Maillot revisits Swan Lake with writer Jean Rouaud (Winner of the 1990 Prix Goncourt)! Filmed in a studio at Monaco's Grimaldi Forum, this modern interpretation of the classic ballet sheds new light on the mythic tale of Siegfried and Odette. Conceived by the cutting edge visual artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Le Lac features costumes by Philippe Guillotel and Bertrand Maillot's musical adaptation of Tchaikovsky's original score performed by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. An impressive production and winner of the 2013 Golden Prague prize for "Best Performing Arts Program"!
The young prince Siegfried is set to become king, and must choose his future wife at the celebration of his 21st birthday. Unhappy that he cannot marry for love, he visits the nearby forest, where he sees a group of swans pass by, and then he pauses at the sight of a woman dressed in white swan feathers. He learns that she is none other than the Princess Odette, who suffers under the curse of the sorcerer Rothbart: during the daytime, she is transformed into a white swan, and at night she returns to her natural form as a beautiful young woman. Unable to kill Rothbart and risk making the curse irreversible, the prince decides to marry Odette, with whom he has...
Marius Petipa's exotic ballet, set in legendary and mysterious India, is a story of love, death and vengeful judgement. Yuri Grigorovich's sumptuous recreation of Petipa's choreography, with breathtaking sets and costumes designed by Nikolay Sharonov, stars Svetlana Zakharova as the Bayadere Nikiya, Vladislav Lantratov as Solor and Maria Alexandrova as Gamzatti whose alluring presence challenges Solor's love for Nikiya.
The Bolchoi Theatre Orchestra is conduced by Pavel Sorokin.
Marius Petipa's exotic ballet, set in legendary India, is a story of love, death and vengeful judgment. Natalia Makarova's sumptuous recreation of Petipa's choreography, with atmospheric sets by Pier Luigi Samaritani and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, stars Tamara Rojo as the Bayadère (temple dancer) Nikiya, Carlos Acosta as Solor, and Marianela Nuñez as Gamzatti, whose alluring presence challenges Solor's love for Nikiya.
The purity of classical dance meets the opulant exoticism of the Maharajas' India in this 150-year-old ballet, glorified by Nacho Duato for the Mikhailovsky Ballet.
Of Ancient India, composer Ludwig Minkus made in his La Bayadere the shiny background of the tragic love story between a priestess and a warrior, unable to get together in this world or in the next. For this new production with the Mikhailovsky Ballet, of which he is the artistic director, Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato created a new version extremely respectful of Marius Petipa's original, preserving the traditional synopsis and the great coups de theatre of the libretto, and keeping the original choreography for the most famous scenes. But at the same time, he liberates the ballet from the weight of its own anachronism, removes the episodes of pointless pantomime, and relocates it in a extravagant, lavish and colourful set.
Before working on La Bayadere, Duato had already tackled some of the great classics of the Russian classical ballet school: his original versions of Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker , both commissionned by the Mikhailovsky, have since then toured in the whole world and were met with tremendous success - from Milan and Berlin to Novossibirsk. For this new project, he surrounds...
Natalia Makarova's acclaimed production of this 19th-century classic ballet brings an exotic world of temple dancers and noble warriors to life. Featuring opulent sets by Pier Luigi Samaritani and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, it stars Marianela Nunez as the bayadere (temple dancer) Nikiya, Vadim Muntagirov as Solor, and Natalia Osipova as Gamzatti, whose alluring presence challenges Solor's Love for Nikiya.
The famous traditional Chinese tale La Fresque (The Painting on the Wall) tells of two travellers who take shelter at a small temple, one of whom becomes so enraptured by the image of a beautiful girl in a fresco that he is transported into another dimension.
Angelin Preljocaj, one of France's leading contemporary choreographers, explores this mysterious relationship between representation and reality with a spectacular and unforgettable ballet filled with dynamic action, emotive lyricism and powerful responses to the music of Nicolas Godin , one half of the celebrated music duo Air. La Fresque has been admired for its 'breath-taking scenes' (La Terresse) and its 'dark and splendid' (L'Humanite).
La Bete et la Belle is renowned French choreographer Kader Belarbi's compelling reimagining of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast - a psychological drama that explores the rejection or acceptance of difference, centring around Beauty's discovery of the depth of true love. First performed by the Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal in 2005, Theatre du Capitole's reprise of Belarbi's acclaimed production has confirmed its status as among the best of modern ballets, combining stunning set and costume designs with striking choreography that reflects the unique soundscape of the Ligeti-dominant musical score. Takafumi Watanabe and Julie Loria assume the lead roles in a production that instantly transport us into the beautiful dream world of this timeless masterpiece reinterpreted.
Ever since its triumphant premiere in 1960, Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardee has been treasured as one of his happiest creations EUR" his artistic tribute to nature, and an expression of his feelings for his beloved Suffolk countryside.
Marianela Nunez and Carlos Acosta perfectly portray the young lovers Lise and Colas, determined to thwart the plans of Widow Simone to marry off her wayward daughter to Alain, the simple son of wealthy Farmer Thomas.
Osbert Lancaster's colourful, picture-book designs, along with Ferdinand Herold's tuneful score, arranged by John Lanchbery, provide the perfect setting for Ashton's blissfully bucolic ballet, complete with haywain, pony, maypole and ribbons, a cockrel and his chickens and, of course, the famous clog dance, here wonderfully led by William Tuckett as the irascible but lovable Widow Simone.
Bonus features:
- Illustrated Synopsis.
Widely regarded as the definitive version of comic ballet La Fille mal gardée , this video showcases Frederick Ashton's choreography as designed for the London Royal Ballet in 1960 and features the original cast, with Nadia Nerina and David Blair in roles that Ashton created with them in mind. Nadia Nerina's "joyous, soaring skill, which is Lise's signature" (Financial Times) and David Blair's technical and interpretative genius are perfectly offset by Stanley Holden's hilarious travesti turn as Widow Simone, and Alexander Grant, who brings pathos and humour to the character of Alain.
Jean-Christophe Maillot's inspired adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew won three Golden Masks (best choreographic show best male dancer (Petruchio) and best female dancer (Katherine)) and has toured the world to great acclaim since it was created for the Boilshoi in 2014. Now Jean-Christophe Maillot and The Ballets de Monte-Carlo bring this "funny", fast-witted version" (The Guardian) to the screen, with a fresh and witty re-interpretation of the combative relationship between Katherine and Petruchio as they fight to find true love. Set to an inspired selection of some of Shostakovich's most memorable music, this is one of the finest "Shakespeare ballets" and not to be missed.
Lost after its material records were destroyed by fire in 1883, the spectacular ballet La Source originally portrayed the idealistic vision of a magical domain in which a complex but beautiful love story of mythical figures unfolded. Jean-Guillaume Bart has long been captivated by La Source, and his new choreography retains the ballet's romantic fascinations and its glorious music Delibes and Minkus . Filled with exotic colour and atmosphere, Bart takes the narrative on an odyssey through near- and far-flung realms of classical dance in a brilliant production, further elevated by Christian Lacroix's gorgeous costumes and Eric Ruf's imaginative set designs.
The New York City Ballet, with its collection of extraordinary dancers and its unique repertoire, is one of the most prestigious dance companies in the world. This exceptional production, performed in Paris after eight years of absence, revolves around three great French composers who inspired NYCB founder George Balanchine : Charles Gounod, Maurice Ravel and Georges Bizet .
The four ballets performed, choreographed from 1925 to 1980, perfectly encapsulate Balanchine's genius and his very own neo-classical style. They also provide a particular insight on the bonds that tied Balanchine to France. What is known today as Walpurgisnacht Ballet was a ballet choreographed for the opera Faust (Charles Gounod) at the Paris Opera in 1975. It premiered as an independant piece in New York in 1980. Sonatine , set to a music by Maurice Ravel, was created by two New York City Ballet French principals, the recently departed Violette Verdy and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. La valse was originally composed by Maurice Ravel for the Ballets Russes and Serge Diaghilev, then exiled in France, shortly before Balanchine entered the company. Symphony in C (Georges Bizet), better known as Le Palais de Cristal, premiered at the Paris Opera.
Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company has been headed since 1990 by Ohad Naharin : an incredible dancer with a musical training, who has a true passion for movement. Through his "Gaga" technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company its finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann's documentary "Mr. Gaga" paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, its influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. This diptych aims to broaden the Batsheva videography by, as a showcase of Naharin's aesthetics and demanding technique, featuring two of the most emblematic works in the company's current repertoire, both filmed in Paris: Naharin's Virus and Last Work .
A carefully negotiated balance between frenzy and meditation, a frail and unstable whole saturated with an enigmatic opacity and symbolism, Last Work is also a politically committed, ethically-charged piece reflecting on war, peace, oppression and coercion. While dance is stretched up to its limits, Naharin's choreographic gesture calls for a new outlook on our contemporary world, its violence, its possibilities, its future.
With its narrative of buccaneering bravado, exotic opulence, romance and traitorous intrigue, Le Corsaire is one of the most impressive nrrative ballets of the 19th century, and it remains and of Adolphe Adam's best-known works. Director of the Wiener Staatsballett, Manuel Legris, has choreographed a new version that draws on the rich performance traditions of Russia and France, and carefully spirited action, Adam's delightful music, choreography, scenery and costumes into an elegant and impressive production which brings to life the colourful events surround the leading couple of Conrad and Medora
Founded in 1959, Cuba's leading contemporary dance company has had a profound influence on Cuban dance and dancers. Over the past 53 years Danza Contemporanea de Cuba has evolved into an exotic hybrid of contemporary, classical and Caribbean styles - an exquisite physical instrument. They move with an old-fashioned juiciness, reminiscent of the Martha Graham Company, but without being old-fashioned. Expect an exciting modern dance performance to the beats of the future.
If the Bejartian style does not always look as boldly modern as it did decades ago, it's only because Bejart's influence on ballet was so great that his revolutionary ideas were taken up as part the standard ballet vocabulary.
Premiered in 1959, Bejart's staging of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring still feels, in many ways, a breath of fresh air as invigorating as the season it celebrates. "It must be simple and strong," he often insisted, and indeed, the stark simplicity still dazzles: quick leaps, extended arabesques, bodies that slouch and release as if spring-loaded, dancers clashing in frenzied, up-close confrontation. The mass of moving bodies, arranged in shifting geometric patterns, captivates the eye like a kaleidoscope.
Bejart's Ballet of the 20th Century restaged the legendary 1959 production ten years later at the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, giving modern viewers the chance to experience the choreographer's singular vision.
Uwe Scholz, former ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation and he was certainly one of the most important German choreographers when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. The fragile-looking man, who had enjoyed a full dance and musical education from childhood, took up his first position as a choreographer with Marcia Haydée in Stuttgart when he was 22. He saw himself as a mixture between his teacher John Cranko and the influential George Balanchine, and the well over one hundred magically beautiful and extraordinarily musical choreographies that he created for houses such as the Opera in Vienna, La Scala, Zurich and Leipzig owe much to neoclassicism. This recording focuses on the two interpretations of Le Sacre du Printemps that he created for "his" Leipzig Ballet, the company that he led to international fame from 1991 to his untimely death. The evening opens with a legendary solo interpretation, danced by Giovanni di Palma to Stravinsky's own adaptation for two pianos of his impressive The Rite of Spring . Often seen as Scholz's autobiographical legacy, this choreography shows a dancer's loneliness and despair in heartbreaking images. An emotive ensemble interpretation to the original...
Uwe Scholz, former ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation and he was certainly one of the most important German choreographers when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. The fragile-looking man, who had enjoyed a full dance and musical education from childhood, took up his first position as a choreographer with Marcia Haydée in Stuttgart when he was 22. He saw himself as a mixture between his teacher John Cranko and the influential George Balanchine, and the well over one hundred magically beautiful and extraordinarily musical choreographies that he created for houses such as the Opera in Vienna, La Scala, Zurich and Leipzig owe much to neoclassicism. This recording focuses on the two interpretations of Le Sacre du Printemps that he created for "his" Leipzig Ballet, the company that he led to international fame from 1991 to his untimely death. The evening opens with a legendary solo interpretation, danced by Giovanni di Palma to Stravinsky's own adaptation for two pianos of his impressive The Rite of Spring . Often seen as Scholz's autobiographical legacy, this choreography shows a dancer's loneliness and despair in heartbreaking images. An emotive ensemble interpretation to the original...
Founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton created more than 100 ballets over a 60 year career. Showcasing three of his shorter works, this video reflects the breadth of his sophisticated, elegant and widely popular style.
Les Patineurs evokes the Edwardian skating rink, with all its youthful charm and humour, in contrast to Scènes de Ballet where sharp geometric shapes and the music of Igor Stravinsky are combined to create perhaps Ashton's most modernist work. Divertissements , a collection of eight short dances, features some of Ashton's most lyrical choreography, including pas de deux set to Romantic masterpieces by Tchaikovsky and Massenet.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
These two exceptional studio performances represent some of the earliest filmed dance material from the BBC archives. Les Sylphides , introduced by Tamara Karsavina, one of the founders of modern British ballet, and the 1958 performance of Giselle both feature stellar international casts embodying a bygone era.
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
Two Frederick Ashton ballets in one exquisite evening performance. Principals Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae dance Ashton's Rhapsody , created for the Royal Ballet in 1980 by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lesley Collier, with spectacular choreography to suit the dancers' star reputations. Laura Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov lead the charistmatic cast in Ashton's poignant and heart-warming reflection on love, The Two Pigeons , based on an old French folk tale and first performed on Valentine's Day 1961. These two ballets by the Company's Founder Choreographer capture The Royal Ballet's famous skill and distinctive style.
Barry Wordsworth conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in the rapturous Rachmaninoff and Messager scores.
A singular project is staged at the Salzburg Festival with the famous Felsenreitschule as a backdrop: for the first time the renowned Hagen Quartet appears at the festival accompanied by a dance company. The Swiss grand master of dance Heinz Spoerli presents three works he choreographed for his Zurich Ballet set to three of the great works of the quartet literature: Leos Janacek's string quartet "Intimate Letters", Antonin Dvorak's "American Quartet" and Franz Schubert's string quartet "The Death and the Maiden".
The diversity of Wayne McGregor's astonishing talent is demonstrated through Chroma , Infra and Limen , each created for The Royal Ballet, for whom he is resident choreographer. Intimate yet universal, light yet dark, frenetic yet lyrical, McGregor pursues his passion for exploring the inner workings of the human body and mind, his many-layered and beautiful dances providing visual, sensual and kinaesthetic stimulus for the viewer.
The French composer Maurice Ravel remains a source of inspiration for any choreographer. Artistic director and star choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and rising talent Jeroen Verbruggen take their vision of Ravel's music to the stage. Jeroen Verbruggen, who as a young student dancer at the Royal Ballet School won the Prix de Lausanne, has drawn his inspiration from Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte and from Ma mere l'oye . Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui also translates Ravel into dance, opting for Pictures at an Exhibition , which was originally composed by Modest Mussorgsky , but which was later orchestrated by Ravel to become the most widely performed orchestration of this work: It has thus become truly canonical. It is a programme full of surprises with which the Royal Ballet Flanders/ Ballet Vlaanderen might just write a page of dance history.
The starting point and destination of Heinz Spoerli's new ballet is the Magnificat by Johann Sebastian Bach .
From the beginning of the Allemande' movement of the Partita in A minor for solo flute, through the joy of Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 , this is the question of faith, which sparked Heinz Spoerli's interest in this piece.
Heinz Spoerli intensifies the emotions here, by inserting two moving arias from the cantatas Wo soll ich fliehen hin and Ich habe genug .
This is an important aspect for Heinz Spoerli in his discourse with the text of the Magnificat, in which his deep respect for all religions, or rather every faith, is not about the worship of a certain creator-figure, but more about the conditions and prerequisites of this for the expression of a profound devoutness, which also involves rejection, exclusion, uncertainty and separation.
Performed by Orchestra La Scintilla and conducted by Marc Minkowski in February 2012. In 1996 the group was founded as an independent ensemble by specialist musicians of the Zurich Opera Orchestra and soon obtained an excellent reputation. The spark that ignited the enthusiasm for new 'old music' gave its name to the ensemble: La Scintilla - The Spark. Performances with eminent authorities in the field such as Nikolaus...
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
Performed in 1981 by Rudolf Nureyev and recently added to the Bolshoi's repertoire, this rarely presented swashbuckling ballet, now sees its rebirth on the stage of the famed theatre. Re-created specifically for the Bolshoi by French choreographer Pierre Lacotte, Marco Spada , or the Bandit's Daughter is a grandiose and unique ballet both on a technical and dramatic level: complex choreography, five lead roles created for five principals, several changes in scenery, the participation of nearly all the Corps de ballet, and even the presence of animals on stage. With its scenes of pantomime, devilish intrigue, rejected suitors, kidnapping heroines, rebellion, and lovers misunderstandings, Marco Spada is a fresh and joyful ballet to discover.
The american soloist David Hallberg stars as Marco Spada with Evguenia Obraztsova, Olga Smirnova, Semion Chudin and the Corps de ballet of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Three contrasting ballets by the Royal Ballet's Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton: The Dream (1964) is an enchanting adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to music by Mendelssohn . Symphonic Variations (1946) is an early Ashton masterpiece, and a breathtaking, abstract work on the beauty of pure movement. Marguerite and Armand (1963), here danced by former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky and Guest Artist Robert Bolle, is tragic love story of great lyric beauty. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House is conducted by Emmanuel Plasson.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
The man of the future will overcome man, but will rediscover what it is to be human while having become something fundamentally different. (Maurice Bejart)
Maurice Bejart and the Ballet du XXeme siecle with a visionary and groundbreaking choreography, rarely performed.
The Royal Ballet presents a stellar cast in Kenneth MacMillan's ballet, filmed in 1994 for the BBC, with John Lanchbery's sumptuous scoring of music by Franz Liszt. The dramatic soundscape is matched by MacMillan's penetrating interpretation of the events.
Edward Watson dances the role of Crown Prince Rudolf in Kenneth MacMillan's compelling ballet depicting the final years of Rudolf's life. A relentless downward spiral of political intrigue, drugs and murder culminates in a suicide pact between Rudolf and his 17-year-old mistress, Mary Vetsera (Mara Galeazzi), at the royal hunting lodge known as Mayerling.
Bonus features:
- Costumes
- Principals in rehearsal
Kenneth MacMillan based his dark, intense ballet Mayerling on the tragic true story of Crown Prince Rudolf and his Mistress Mary Vetseva, and its celebrated as one of The Royal Ballet's narrative masterpieces. The oppressive world of the Austro-Hungarian empire is brought to life the whole company, with a score drawn from the sweeping music of Franz Liszt , and with the sumptuous designs by Nicholas Georgiadis, Steven McRae dances Rudolf, one of the most technically and emotionally demanding roles in the repertory for male dancers, with Sarah Lamb as Mary Vetseva, in choreography that pushes classical ballet to its limits.
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
Guided by his idol George Balanchine, Hans van Manen has striven all his life to create meaning in his choreography. Alongside conversations with colleagues and collaborators, in the documentary Moving to Music , van Manen talks about his life and work, and from where his inspiration came in ballets that are charged with drama and eroticism. Also included are three complete works from Dutch National Ballet - the early Metaforen; Adagio Hammerklavier , which presents the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 106 sonata performed live on stage with three couples in various configurations; and Frank Bridge Variations , a late masterpiece that plays with balance and counterpoint to music by Benjamin Britten .
After the sensational success of A Swan Lake , performed by the Norwegian National Ballet in 2014 at the Oslo Opera, the choreographical prodige Alexander Ekman created his Midsummer Night's Dream in April 2015 for the Royal Swedish Ballet at the Stockholm Opera. A powerful contemporary piece that explores the energy and the mysteries conjured up by the summer solstice in the scandinavian tradition!
It is the height of summer, the longest day of the year, and everyone gets together to celebrate the most loved of all traditions - Midsummer. Expectations are high, seven kinds of flower must be picked, schnapps must be drunk, and everyone dances giddily around the maypole - perhaps there will even be new love in the air? It is a night filled of love and eroticism as nature gushes with vitality. The border between the world of mortals and the kingdom of the supernatural becomes thinner and thinner as the bottle becomes emptier and emptier. Traditions play jokes on us, the world changes and suddenly we are no longer sure - is it all a dream? a midsummer night's dream.
Original soundtrack, created by Marco Antonio Guimaraes , for the ballet Bach , presented by Grupo Corpo. A free and enlightened creation of the author around the work of the greatest composer of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach .
Orfa was Adolphe Adam's penultimate ballet, with an intriguing scenario based on Nordic mythology. It shares analogies with Hesiod's Theogony and Wagner's Ring cycle in depicting the struggle between the older gods (Loki) and younger gods (Odin). Full of archetypal Romantic elements, Orfa was mounted with the lavish stage spectacle for which the Paris Opera was famous, and featured Fanny Cerrito in the title role. Adam's writing shows increasingly vivid orchestral imagination, drama and tonal colour, with roles for several instrumental soloists. This world premiere recording uses a new edition copied from Adam's original manuscript score held at the Bibliotheque nationale de France.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
A breath of fresh air is blowing over the Ural Opera Ballet with this new version of Paquita , halfway between tradition and modernity!
A festive ballet recounting the thwarted loves of a gypsy and an officer, Paquita marked the debut of Marius Petipa in Saint Petersburg. But only the last scene of the ballet, the famous Grand pas Classique, remained in the companies' repertoire. Thanks to a careful reconstruction, the Ural Opera Ballet finally revives the original version in three acts.
The product of methodical research by expert Sergei Vikharev and former Principal Vyacheslav Samodurov, the choreography scrupulously recreates Petipa's 1881 version, according to notes kept at the Harvard Theater Collection. The original score has been rearranged by the famous Saint Petersburg composer, Yuri Krasavin .
But if this new production uses the original libretto of the ballet, it nonetheless transposes it in time. The result is a show of great relevance, which brings up to date the strong political and social substrate of the original plot by illustrating it with artistic references gleaned throughout the 20th century. A powerful theatrical experience, crowned with the jury's special award of the "Golden Masks" in 2019.
GENE KELLY - PAS DE DIEUX
Pas de Dieux tells the story of Aphrodite and Eros, who descend to earth. On the beach where they have landed, the ardent goddess and mischievous god seduce respectively a lifeguard and his fiancee. These newly-formed couples bask in the pleasures of love. Just when the beautiful Aphrodite is dancing with her suitor, Zeus arrives to win back his fickle wife, and everything returns to normal. The reconciled immortals return to Olympus, leaving the humans to their earthly loves.
This admirably constructed ballet by Gene Kelly faithfully follows the three movements of Gershwin's Concerto in F . The choreography is snappy and full of fantasy, each step a gag. Dancing while rolling the shoulders, knees bent and feet turned in perhaps constitutes an approach contrary to laws of aesthetics but it certainly complies with those of humour.
LEO STAATS - SOIR DE FETE
A choreographer appreciated by Balanchine, Leo Staats is a figure from the world of dance who does not enjoy the fame he deserves. Competing in his time with the scandalous Ballets Russes, he was a brilliant albeit discreet maitre de ballet and, above all, a great teacher. His choreographies had the merit of getting down to a task that was considerable at the time: restoring to favour the...
The French composer Maurice Ravel remains a source of inspiration for any choreographer. Artistic director and star choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and rising talent Jeroen Verbruggen take their vision of Ravel's music to the stage. Jeroen Verbruggen, who as a young student dancer at the Royal Ballet School won the Prix de Lausanne, has drawn his inspiration from Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte and from Ma mere l'oye . Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui also translates Ravel into dance, opting for Pictures at an Exhibition , which was originally composed by Modest Mussorgsky , but which was later orchestrated by Ravel to become the most widely performed orchestration of this work: It has thus become truly canonical. It is a programme full of surprises with which the Royal Ballet Flanders/ Ballet Vlaanderen might just write a page of dance history.
Considered one of the greatest European choreographers of our time, Heinz Spoerli has created a Peer Gynt that combines the lyrical with the grotesque, the fantastical universe of gnomes with the reality of the modern world, and philosophy with folklore. Mischievous moments give a touch of lightness to the legend's tragic theme.
For this production, the contemporary composers Brett Dean and Mark-Anthony Turnage adapted Grieg's score at the choreographer's direction. The talented young conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen joins forces with soprano Christiane Kohl and dancer Yen Han (who together personify Solveig), and with dancer Marijn Rademaker and actor Philipp Schepmann (who bring Peer Gynt himself to life).
Peter and the Wolf , Prokofiev's musical fairy tale, has been delighting children since 1936. Nearly 60 years later, in 1995, the young choreographer Matthew Hart created a witty choreographed version for the Royal Ballet School with designs by Ian Spurling. Described as 'an utterly delightful ballet and a perfect showcase for the younger students,' by the Royal Ballet's Director, Monica Mason, it was staged again in 2010.
The French composer Maurice Ravel remains a source of inspiration for any choreographer. Artistic director and star choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and rising talent Jeroen Verbruggen take their vision of Ravel's music to the stage. Jeroen Verbruggen, who as a young student dancer at the Royal Ballet School won the Prix de Lausanne, has drawn his inspiration from Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte and from Ma mere l'oye . Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui also translates Ravel into dance, opting for Pictures at an Exhibition , which was originally composed by Modest Mussorgsky , but which was later orchestrated by Ravel to become the most widely performed orchestration of this work: It has thus become truly canonical. It is a programme full of surprises with which the Royal Ballet Flanders/ Ballet Vlaanderen might just write a page of dance history.
These two ballets by John Cranko are early examples of the choreographer's theatrical ingenuity. Created for the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, which later became the Royal Ballet, Pineapple Poll is a light hearted frolic. Lady and the Fool is a bittersweet satire on the plight of society's outcasts with La Capricciosa danced by Svetlana Beriosova in the year she became Prima Ballerina at Sadler's Wells. Both ballets are rare studio performances from the BBC's earliest television archives and are released here for the first time on video.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
Produced in the 1930s, The Flames of Paris, with music by Boris Asafiev, was presented on the eve of the anniversary of the October Revolution, and later continued to be included in the ranks of works which were always brought out for an airing on anniversaries of this sort. This is hardly surprising, The Flames of Paris is about the conflagration of the great French Revolution. It had a new 'hero' type which, up to then, had not been encountered in ballet ?EUR" one of its main characters was the populace, revolutionary in mood and ready for action.
A sparkling personality on the contemporary dance scene, Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman has been invited for the first time to work with the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet. His language, both visceral and tinged with humour, combining theatricality, and classical and contemporary vocabulary alike, perfectly resonates with the incredible versatility and stage presence of the Ballet: the result is Play , a piece that evokes the world of childhood and its careless pleasures. But beyond pure entertainment, this performance contemplates the meaning and the importance of play when we become adults...
Best known for the spectacular quality of his pieces and their dreamlike imagery, like for instance his Midsummer Night's Dream , the Swedish choreographer fills the stage of the Palais Garnier with an entrancing energy. The metallic structures, dancers suspended in space, and the elevations are but a few of the powerful images that will strike the audience's imagination!
For this new creation, Alexander Ekman worked with his acolyte composer Mikael Karlsson , but also with a talented team of instrumentalists not often seen on the stage of the Palais Garnier, among which gospel singer Callie Day, or the incredible drums and marimba player Adelaide Ferriere. An...
Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet The Great Mass is one of the most impressive works of this important neoclassical Choreographer - a requiem, a choreographic revelation and certainly his grand legacy to the Leipzig ballet. The full length Choreography, here recorded at the Leipzig Opera in a performance in June 2005, takes its name from Mozart's famous unfinished Mass in C minor . It absorbs the structure of the liturgy of the mass and adds other works by Mozart as well as passages of Gregorian chant, and sequences from contemporary music by Gyorgy Kurtag, Thomas Jahn and Arvo Part and readings of poems by Paul Celan. Internationally famous soloists from the Leipzig Ballet, among them Kiyoko Kimura, Christoph Bohm and Oksana Kulchytska, take on the leading roles and the staging proves the ensemble to be one of the best ballet companies worldwide.
For this production, Christian Spuck was inspired by Claudio Monteverdi's last opera, L'incoronazione di Poppea . The story of the manager of the Emperor Nero and Poppea Sabina still brings a chill to audiences today, portraying as it does the cruel lust for power and passion at the court of the Roman ruler. In the end, all succumb to the elemental force of a totally amoral idea of love, and the boundaries between reality and fiction become blurred. What began as a game becomes deadly serious when the explosive mix of emotions reveals its fateful consequences.
Christian Spuck has created a compelling piece of experimental choreography from this remarkable opera plot, producing a ballet which incorporates film and spoken elements.
Founded in 1959, Cuba's leading contemporary dance company has had a profound influence on Cuban dance and dancers. Over the past 53 years Danza Contemporanea de Cuba has evolved into an exotic hybrid of contemporary, classical and Caribbean styles - an exquisite physical instrument. They move with an old-fashioned juiciness, reminiscent of the Martha Graham Company, but without being old-fashioned. Expect an exciting modern dance performance to the beats of the future.
When Rain , created by the Rosas Company in 2001, entered the Paris Opera Ballet's repertoire ten years later, Director of Dance Brigitte Lefevre brought a whole dimension of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's world to the Paris Opera, giving dancers and audiences alike the possibility of undertaking a unique visual and auditory kinaesthetic experience. Since the 1980s, the choreographer has continually played a key role in the world of contemporary art, marking the emerging Flemish scene with the imprint of an original language initiated with the New York avant-garde and borne by a quest for composition in all its forms. Parallel to her intense theatrical work, she has also developed an art of minimalist purity through skillfully dynamic choreography seeking "to burst into life" in a kaleidoscope of perpetually changing forms.
Set to Music for Eighteen Musicians, Steve Reich's major score composed in 1976, Rain embodies the culmination of a dance form drawing its own spatial polyphony from the mathematical principles of musical composition, a polyphony which also materialises on the floor, where the infinite trajectories of the dancers criss-cross like brightly coloured pick-up sticks. Music and dance become one until, breathless and exhausted, they discover the motifs of...
From The Royal Ballet's classical origins in the works of Petipa, to the home-grown choreographers who put British ballet on the world stage, this mixed programme highlights the versatility of the Company. Petipa's Raymonda Act III is Russian classical ballet summarized in one act, full of sparkle and precise technique, while Ashton's Enigma Variations is quintessentially British in every way - from its score by Elgar and period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman, to Ashton's signature style, the essence of British ballet. Concerto, MacMillan's fusion of classical technique with a contemporary mind, completes a programme that shows the breadth of the Company's heritage.
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
This program showcases the breathtaking beauty and exquisite skill of the dancers of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia , performing live in France. They dance Reamker , Cambodia's version of India's Ramayana, which tells how Prince Rama's beautiful wife Sita is abducted by Ravana, the demon-king of Sri Lanka; the Moni Mekhala, describing the union between the goddess Keo Moni and the giant Ream Eyso; and the snake dance, Makara. The stories told on stage are explained in captions punctuating the scenes.
In this brilliant studio recording, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the country's boldest and most exciting dance company, brings its distinctive style home to you - dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet graceful and poetic.
Divining was Judith Jamison's first major work as a choreographer for Alvin Ailey. The dance evokes a strong feeling for African tribal ritual and is set to hauntingly rhythmic drum music.
Revelations expresses Ailey's intense feelings for his roots in the South. Here you'll see Ailey's vivid "blood memories" of the blues, spirituals, gospel music, ragtime and folk songs as well as the hard life of the Southern black during the Depression.
Set to Modern Jazz, The Stack-Up takes place in modern-day Harlem. You'll witness the cruel reality of urban street life as a young man is destroyed by drugs.
Cry was choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1971 for Judith Jamison and is one of his most famous pieces. Created as a birthday present for his mother, it is Ailey's tribute to black women. You can't help feeling being moved by the struggle, the anger and most importantly, the celebration.
Two Frederick Ashton ballets in one exquisite evening performance. Principals Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae dance Ashton's Rhapsody , created for the Royal Ballet in 1980 by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lesley Collier, with spectacular choreography to suit the dancers' star reputations. Laura Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov lead the charistmatic cast in Ashton's poignant and heart-warming reflection on love, The Two Pigeons , based on an old French folk tale and first performed on Valentine's Day 1961. These two ballets by the Company's Founder Choreographer capture The Royal Ballet's famous skill and distinctive style.
Barry Wordsworth conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in the rapturous Rachmaninoff and Messager scores.
Romeo and Juliet is one of the most frequently performed ballets at the Prague National Theatre. The first one premiered on the 30th December 1938, yet this new staging, which is already the sixth, will be very different compared to previous productions. Petr Zuska, artistic director of the Czech National Ballet unlike in the origina Shakespearean tragedy does not focus on the story of lovers but on the reason for resentment and blood feud between the Montagues and Capulets: The eternal conflict of the male and female principle. This rendering leaves more room for other, all too often neglected characters, such as Friar Laurence. In this piece his role is highlighted as renaissance man representing human faith in God. His nemesis is Queen Mab, a mythical ruler of shadows, the "midwife of dreams and phantoms".
A love to die for: Prokofiev dance with the Ural Opera Ballet in this contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet choreographed by Vyacheslav Samodurov.
Two lovers, united by fate but kept apart by an old family feud, who can only be together in death: Shakespeare's timeless tale, set to ballet music by Sergey Prokofiev in 1935, needs no introduction. However, this production from the Ural Opera Ballet in Ekaterinburg, which won the prestigious Golden Mask Prize as "Best Ballet" in 2017, adds interesting twists to this well-known frame, as choreographer Vyacheslav Samodurov sets his performance in a dance studio, during a rehearsal of the Romeo and Juliet ballet.
This way, the characters of the play are placed out of a specific country or era: the action could take place anytime and anywhere. It could even be happening in front of your window right now: it is not by chance that the dancers reminded the audience of today's 'boys and girls from the Uralmash district', as some viewers have noted in social media. The motive of struggle between the two clans disappears from the performance - it does not matter which families the street fighters belong to. The concept of repetition and inexorability of the theatrical ritual plays a central part: a tragedy is about to happen and...
Founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton created more than 100 ballets over a 60 year career. Showcasing three of his shorter works, this video reflects the breadth of his sophisticated, elegant and widely popular style.
Les Patineurs evokes the Edwardian skating rink, with all its youthful charm and humour, in contrast to Scènes de Ballet where sharp geometric shapes and the music of Igor Stravinsky are combined to create perhaps Ashton's most modernist work. Divertissements , a collection of eight short dances, features some of Ashton's most lyrical choreography, including pas de deux set to Romantic masterpieces by Tchaikovsky and Massenet.
Sinfonietta
Czech-born Kylian was inspired by the beautiful music of his compatriot Janacek to create this fluid, spacious, romantic ballet which has become a milestone in contemporary choreography. The forceful fanfares of Janacek's music are matched by a ceaselessly energetic and exuberant display of movement, creating an image which carries through the composer's intention of evoking the spirit of the "modern, free Czech."
This video presents some of the earliest experiences by the West of the bravura and discipline of Russia's Kirov and Bolshoi ballet companies at the height of their physical and interpretive powers. This rare footage showcases some of the greatest dancers of their time, including the much celebrated Galina Ulanova, who came as close to artistic sainthood for Russians as any dancer in its history.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
GENE KELLY - PAS DE DIEUX
Pas de Dieux tells the story of Aphrodite and Eros, who descend to earth. On the beach where they have landed, the ardent goddess and mischievous god seduce respectively a lifeguard and his fiancee. These newly-formed couples bask in the pleasures of love. Just when the beautiful Aphrodite is dancing with her suitor, Zeus arrives to win back his fickle wife, and everything returns to normal. The reconciled immortals return to Olympus, leaving the humans to their earthly loves.
This admirably constructed ballet by Gene Kelly faithfully follows the three movements of Gershwin's Concerto in F . The choreography is snappy and full of fantasy, each step a gag. Dancing while rolling the shoulders, knees bent and feet turned in perhaps constitutes an approach contrary to laws of aesthetics but it certainly complies with those of humour.
LEO STAATS - SOIR DE FETE
A choreographer appreciated by Balanchine, Leo Staats is a figure from the world of dance who does not enjoy the fame he deserves. Competing in his time with the scandalous Ballets Russes, he was a brilliant albeit discreet maitre de ballet and, above all, a great teacher. His choreographies had the merit of getting down to a task that was considerable at the time: restoring to favour the...
The New York City Ballet, with its collection of extraordinary dancers and its unique repertoire, is one of the most prestigious dance companies in the world. This exceptional production, performed in Paris after eight years of absence, revolves around three great French composers who inspired NYCB founder George Balanchine : Charles Gounod, Maurice Ravel and Georges Bizet .
The four ballets performed, choreographed from 1925 to 1980, perfectly encapsulate Balanchine's genius and his very own neo-classical style. They also provide a particular insight on the bonds that tied Balanchine to France. What is known today as Walpurgisnacht Ballet was a ballet choreographed for the opera Faust (Charles Gounod) at the Paris Opera in 1975. It premiered as an independant piece in New York in 1980. Sonatine , set to a music by Maurice Ravel, was created by two New York City Ballet French principals, the recently departed Violette Verdy and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. La valse was originally composed by Maurice Ravel for the Ballets Russes and Serge Diaghilev, then exiled in France, shortly before Balanchine entered the company. Symphony in C (Georges Bizet), better known as Le Palais de Cristal, premiered at the Paris Opera.
Inspired by Gene Kelly's iconic work in Hollywood, Starstruck , winner of the 2022 Best Dance Film Award at the National Dance Awards, brings an immersive, theatrical experience, in which audiences around the world can escape with us to the glamour and grace of Paris, 1960.
One of the first choreographers to bring the 'American style' to Europe, the legendary Gene Kelly was invited to create an original work for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1960. His jazzy, joyful Pas de Dieux was highly acclaimed at the time as 'a breath of fresh air' but has been rarely performance since. It has now been given a new set of wings for its life on stage and screen.
In collaboration with Kelly's widow, Patricia Ward Kelly, Scottish Ballet's CEO/Artistic Director Christopher Hampson and designer Lez Brotherson (The Snow Queen, The Secret Theatre) have lovingly revived the original ballet and added a delightful new twist. You'll be transported into the world where jazz meets ballet, and the stars align.
Combining live performance capture with cinematic filming techniques and additional elements not seen in the stage production, Starstruck is directed for screen by Oscar Sanson (Dive) , and produced in partnership and beyond, and we honour his creative legacy with this playful new ballet....
Perhaps the most popular ballet in the world, TchaikovskyEUR(TM)s Swan Lake has been given a compelling new interpretation by Rudolf Nureyev. The Russian dancer, a towering figure in 20th-century ballet, placed greater emphasis on the character of Prince Siegfried. First produced in Vienna in 1964, Nureyev's choreography has been hailed as one of the most fascinating ever. Nureyev and his partner Dame Margot Fonteyn perfectly embodied the noble and more volatile style of classical ballet performance featured here.
Exceptional studio productions from the late 1950s, all three of the Tchaikovsky ballet performances featured on this video are released for the first time. The perfect partners, Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes give stunning performances with Fonteyn at her most beguiling as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty ?EUR" the ballet in which she and the Sadler's Wells Ballet made their historic American debut in 1949.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on DVD for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
At the palace, the royal family and their guests are gathered for Prince Siegfried's birthday celebrations. In a majestic ceremony, Siegfried is made a knight; young girls try to attract his attention, as he must choose a wife during the ball. Overcome by the sudden awareness of his future responsibilities, he escapes into the night and meets a strange flock of swans by a magical lake. White swan by day, human by night, the beautiful Odette awaits an oath of true love to break the curse. The great legend of the enigmatic swan/woman is one of the most romantic classical ballets, appropriately set in the era of courtly romance and characterized by elegance, style and harmony.
With Tchaikovsky's famous, lyrical score, Swan Lake depicts the tragic love between Princess Odette and Prince Siegfried, and will no doubt be performed to perfection by the unparalleled virtuosity of Russia's great Bolshoi Ballet . This universal and enchanting masterpiece of love, deception and drama is a must.
With wonderful ballerina Svetlana Zakharova , one of the most beautiful Odette/Odile of the time, Denis Rodkin, Artemy Belyakov and Bolshoi Ballet.
Agnes Letestu, a feminine and warm Odette, and Jose Martinez, a convincing, pale, vulnerable prince Siegfried, are the stars of this deeply passionate, 'dream' version of Swan Lake . Rudolf Nureyev's interpretation of Tchaikovsky's lyrical ballet, far from being a cliched stereotype of this celebrated masterpiece, is an expose of astonishingly powerful and recognisable human emotions. Under the inspired and clear-cut musical direction of Vello Pahn, this production of one of the jewels of the Paris Opera Ballet's repertoire brilliantly displays the meticulous precision, technical prowess and pure, unmannered style of the company's unrivalled female corps de ballet, eliciting an ethereal, intense beauty.
Bonus features:
- Illustrated Synopsis.
Yolanda Sonnabend's Faberge-inspired designs evoke a world of Imperial Russia in Anthony Dowell's acclaimed production for The Royal Ballet of one of the world's best-loved ballets. Marianela Nuñez as Odette/Odile and Thiago Soares as Prince Siegfried bring new vitality to a compelling story of tragic romance. The Russian conductor Valeriy Ovsyanikov directs the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in Tchaikovsky's lush romantic score.
It is the one ballet that everyone knows, has heard of or seen, and it is one of the loveliest and most frequently performed works in the ballet literature. No other ballet is capable of conjuring up such intensive images, dreams and yearnings as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake! Rudolf Nureyev created his now classic version 1964; to mark the 50th anniversary of this early masterpiece by a ballet genius, the Vienna State Opera has revived his production for 2014 with new sets and costumes.
A Swan Lake for our times.
A magical version of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece by the Zurich Ballet and choreographer Heinz Spoerli.
Swan Lake for our times capable of transporting the audience to another world. The magic in the story suddenly takes hold of the viewer. Ballet is not simply a way of telling the story. Rather than gestures asking to be deciphered, the choreographer created large-scale, visionary movements closer to an artistic language of symbols and plays on the whole spectrum of human emotions. It always maintains a relationship of creative tension with its surroundings, especially the music, the poetry of the set, the use of light and colour, the texture of the costumes.
A key element of this artistic responsibility is to tell the story precisely but openly, without pinning it down, especially the ending - an ending which is in a many-facetted sense a "deliverance." Does this mean that the lovers are saved? Is the spell's power broken? Are there other kinds of salvation and deliverance? Perhaps even by death and transfiguration?
The impossible love between a human prince and a swan princess, tragic fates, the constant opposition between imagination and reality: these are the core elements of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake . Profoundly classical, Valery Kovtun's version for the Ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine is an homage to Tchaikovsky's talent, but also to Marius Petipa's timeless heritage. As in the original libretto, this Swan Lake ends with the two main character's death, drowned into the lake's tears. But evil is overpowered by love, and in the final apotheosis, Odette and Siegfried are forever united in a world of perfect harmony.
A first class company, the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine has toured all around the world : from the United States to Europe and Asia. Thanks to its rich classical heritage, the Company has managed to win the hearts of its audience thanks to its amazing technique and artistic maestria, and as in every good dance company, the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. The Company has also, over the years, establised itself as a unique talent pool, that has nurtured first class dancers such as Iana Salenko (Staatsballet Berlin), Alina Cojocaru (Royal Ballet), Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko (American Ballet Theater); and the young gifted dancers...
This video presents some of the earliest experiences by the West of the bravura and discipline of Russia's Kirov and Bolshoi ballet companies at the height of their physical and interpretive powers. This rare footage showcases some of the greatest dancers of their time, including the much celebrated Galina Ulanova, who came as close to artistic sainthood for Russians as any dancer in its history.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
Darcey Bussell and Roberto Bolle star in Frederick Ashton's Sylvia , restored to the splendour of its elegant and opulent three-act form for the 75th anniversary celebrations of The Royal Ballet. Taken from Greek mythology, it tells the story of Sylvia, loved by Aminta, abducted by Orion and eventually rescued by Eros.
Ashton was inspired by the music of Leo Delibes to create such great choreographic sequences as the famous Act 3 pas de deux and the mischievous role of Eros, one of the delightful, darkly comic characterisations for which Ashton became known and loved. Sylvia is a wonderful showcase for virtuosity, invention and classical beauty, the epitome of Ashton style in stage settings of great detail and painterly perfection.
Three contrasting ballets by the Royal Ballet's Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton: The Dream (1964) is an enchanting adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to music by Mendelssohn . Symphonic Variations (1946) is an early Ashton masterpiece, and a breathtaking, abstract work on the beauty of pure movement. Marguerite and Armand (1963), here danced by former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky and Guest Artist Robert Bolle, is tragic love story of great lyric beauty. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House is conducted by Emmanuel Plasson.
The New York City Ballet, with its collection of extraordinary dancers and its unique repertoire, is one of the most prestigious dance companies in the world. This exceptional production, performed in Paris after eight years of absence, revolves around three great French composers who inspired NYCB founder George Balanchine : Charles Gounod, Maurice Ravel and Georges Bizet .
The four ballets performed, choreographed from 1925 to 1980, perfectly encapsulate Balanchine's genius and his very own neo-classical style. They also provide a particular insight on the bonds that tied Balanchine to France. What is known today as Walpurgisnacht Ballet was a ballet choreographed for the opera Faust (Charles Gounod) at the Paris Opera in 1975. It premiered as an independant piece in New York in 1980. Sonatine , set to a music by Maurice Ravel, was created by two New York City Ballet French principals, the recently departed Violette Verdy and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. La valse was originally composed by Maurice Ravel for the Ballets Russes and Serge Diaghilev, then exiled in France, shortly before Balanchine entered the company. Symphony in C (Georges Bizet), better known as Le Palais de Cristal, premiered at the Paris Opera.
In Symphony in D Kylian demonstrates his remarkable ability to create a highly inventive and graceful ballet which is, at the same time, extremely funny. Set to Haydn's Symphony No. 101 (The Clock) and Symphony No. 73 (The Chase), it is an affectionate send-up of classical ballet poses and is performed with great wit and style by the Nederlands Dans Theater.
Created by Frederick Ashton for a film in 1971, and brought to the stage in a production by Anthony Dowell in 1992, Tales of Beatrix Potter brings alive, with rich characterization and invention, the famous images and stories of Beatrix Potter.
John Lanchbery's music (incorporating mostly forgotten Victorian melodies) is utterly captivating, inspiriting spirited playing from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Paul Murphy. Christine Edzard's designs conjure up a lost England field mice and Berkshire black pigs, of foxgloves and shady groves. Swept up in the ballet's childlike exuberance, the entire cast delivers outstanding portrayals of such colourful figures as Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mr Jeremy Fisher, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and the irrespressible Peter Rabbit. Frederick Ashton's warm and witty, yet demanding, choreography creates a piece of charm and grace for all ages.
A major figure on the contemporary choreography scene, Bil T. Jones is also a remarkable dance and a performer with an electrifying stage presence. Here, alone in a studio and filmed from a totally cinematic point of view, he speaks to us of violence, gentleness and emotion in three short pieces: Ionization, to music by Edgar Varese; Chaconne, from Bach's Partita for Solo Violin in D minor; and Tea for Two , the famous classic song.
Composed in 1931 by Dmitry Shostakovich, The Bolt to a book by Viktor Smirnov, is being revived for the first time in more than 70 years.
Shostakovich composed a caustically humourous ballet, blending popular tunes, serious music, circus music, waltzes, marches, tangos. He had imagined his ballet as a joyful lampoon of proletarian drama. His intention was to highlight the eventful and ambiguous relationship existing between proletarian experience and the representation given of it by the Soviet vanguard.
Alexei Ratmansky's choreography develops into a true marvel, opening with a ballet of giant robots and ending in a blood red delirious grand parade.
Ten years after his death, the Paris Opera Ballet payed homage to the American choreographer who considered the Paris Opera as his second home after New York City Ballet. The three pieces performed here illustrate not only the diversity of the choreographer's repertoire and sources of inspiration, but also his love of music and his all-embracing attitude to the performing arts. Jerome Robbins brought new energy to classical dance, introducing 20th century urban rhythms, confirming its status as a modern entertainment form and instilling it with the interrogations of contemporary theatre.
In G Major (En Sol) , set to Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major , follows no particular narrative line or dramatic effect. Echoing the music's jazzy invitations and light-heartedly copying Broadway style, this is a light and joyous piece for two soloists and an ensemble. It provided Jerome Robbins with an opportunity to reveal the relaxed, fluid feel so emblematic of his style.
In the Night and The Concert are two tributes to Frederic Chopin, each in a different register. Seeking to free the composer from the commonplaces that have often belittled his music, Robbins transforms Les Nocturnes into In the Night, a long and poetic pas de deux built like a metaphor of love in all...
Three contrasting ballets by the Royal Ballet's Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton: The Dream (1964) is an enchanting adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to music by Mendelssohn . Symphonic Variations (1946) is an early Ashton masterpiece, and a breathtaking, abstract work on the beauty of pure movement. Marguerite and Armand (1963), here danced by former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky and Guest Artist Robert Bolle, is tragic love story of great lyric beauty. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House is conducted by Emmanuel Plasson.
Legendary Canadian artist Joni Mitchell in collaboration with internationally acclaimed choreographer Jean Grand-Mâitre of the Alberta Ballet Company created The Fiddle and The Drum , a special ballet that speaks volumes of Joni Mitchell's life-long concerns about environmental neglect and the warring nature of mankind. It is a celebration of the profoundly humanistic questions and testimonies that are expressed so poetically by Joni Mitchell, a world-renowned poet.
This ballet, choreographed by James Kudelka, and set to Vivaldi's celebrated score, describes the four seasons in a man's life - from the exuberance of youth in Spring to the resignation and compassion of old age in Winter .
MacMillan's vision has been vital in shaping The Royal Ballet's style and repertory, and what better way to appreciate his art than with this rare chance to experience three contrasting works in a single performance. Abstract, dramatic, humorous – this programme gives a wonderfully varied introduction not just to MacMillan's work but to the beauty and dramatic power of ballet itself. Concerto, to Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, contrasts moments of exuberance and elegiac reflection. The Judas Tree places a single woman among 13 men to enact a harrowing event that is recognizably contemporary but with biblical overtones. Elite Syncopations completes the programme with a sparkling evocation of a dance hall that brings ragtime rhythms to the dance, and a ragtime band to the stage.
Bonus features:
- Introductions by Deborah MacMillan
These two ballets by John Cranko are early examples of the choreographer's theatrical ingenuity. Created for the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, which later became the Royal Ballet, Pineapple Poll is a light hearted frolic. Lady and the Fool is a bittersweet satire on the plight of society's outcasts with La Capricciosa danced by Svetlana Beriosova in the year she became Prima Ballerina at Sadler's Wells. Both ballets are rare studio performances from the BBC's earliest television archives and are released here for the first time on video.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on video for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
Nacho Duato composed the one-act ballet White Darkness as a requiem for his sister. The result is a masterpiece which, according to critics, has reached heights deemed hitherto impossible on the landscape of modern arts. In contrast, American choreographer Joseph Hernandez , a regular guest at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, creates an exhilarating aesthetic universe with an urge to live and a lust for life in The Lavender Follies .
In The Little Mermaid, Hamburg Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer John Neumeier blends dance, dramatic storytelling and spectacle into a stunning interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen's fable. With choreography, sets and costumes all by Neumeier, this ballet - as much theatre as it is dance - reveals the psychological transformation and the resilience of the spirit, human or otherwise.
A ballet based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
This beautiful ballet, based on the famous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen , tells the heartbreaking story of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life and identity out of love. This charming performance, abounding in poetic dance scenes, is intended not only for parents and children but for everyone who loves this immortal story.
Delivered by the National Theatre Orchestra, choreographed by Jan Kodet and directed by the acclaimed SKUTR tandem (Martin Kukucka and Lukas Trpisovsky to a new composition by Czech composer Zbynek Mateju .
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
The Mother is a powerful, narrative dance production choreographed and directed by Arthur Pita - a master storyteller. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's dark tale, The Story of a Mother , this sumptuously designed production stars international dance superstar Natalia Osipova and multi-award winning dancer Jonathan Goddard.
This inventive new production conjures up a dangerous, kaleidoscopic world, combining narrative dance and drama. In setting out to save her sick child, a young mother journeys into the unknown to face life and death. Will she succumb to the forces of evil, or will the power of motherhood prevail?
Maurice Bejart's compelling staging of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has been enchanting audiences worldwide since its inception and its idea of universal brotherhood remains highly topical. "Alle Menschen werden Bruder" (All men will be brothers) is the powerful message communicated by the unforgettable music and choreography.
From the stage of the NHK Hall in Tokyo 250 dancers and musicians send this message out into the world. "It is a 'manifestation', in the deepest sense of the word." Maurice Bejart. This performance of Maurice Bejart's Ninth Symphony has been performed at the NHK Hall, Tokyo on the 8th and 9th of November, 2014.
Exceptional studio productions from the late 1950s, all three of the Tchaikovsky ballet performances featured on this video are released for the first time. The perfect partners, Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes give stunning performances with Fonteyn at her most beguiling as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty ?EUR" the ballet in which she and the Sadler's Wells Ballet made their historic American debut in 1949.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on DVD for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
Masterpiece of classical dance this Nutcracker is a magical version of the score by Tchaikovsky filmed at the Bolshoi Theatre.
Till its premiere in Saint-Petersbourg in 1892, The Nutcracker is one of the most successful classical ballet and Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions.
Yuri Grigorovich deals with Hoffmann's fantastic imagery and takes ideas from the Marius Petipa' scenario: battle of the mice, snowflakes flurry, characters dances executed by little doll that came to life.
The most talented soloists of the Bolshoi Ballet appear in this production as Nina Kaptsova (Marie) and Artem Ovcharenko (the Nutcracker Prince) or Denis Savin (Drosselmeyer).
The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Pavel Klinichev.
This all-time ballet favourite, in which young Clara is swept into a fantasy adventure when one of her Christmas presents comes to life, is at its most enchanting in Peter Wright's glorious production EUR" as fresh as ever in its 25th year. Tchaikovsky's ravishing score, period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman (including an ingenious magical Christmas tree), an exquisite Sugar Plum Fairy (Miyako Yoshida) and chivalrous Prince (Steven McRae), the mysterious Drosselmeyer (Gary Avis) and vibrant dancing by The Royal Ballet make for a captivating performance.
This visually stunning, all-new production of Nutcracker , choreographed by Helgi Tomasson (artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet) is a graceful and timeless adventure on a grand scale. The scenic design by Michael Yeargan, setting the tale at the time of the 1915 San Francisco World Fair, is sensational. From the lovely Waltz of the Flowers to the crystalline beauty of the stunning Snowflake Waltz, each scene is more breathtaking than the last, bringing to life all the well-known and beloved characters with fresh sparkle and compelling originality. This age-transcending production offers a dazzling magical journey which has received critical acclaim throughout the world.
Bonus features:
- Illustrated Synopsis.
- Interviews with Helgi Tomasson, Michael Yeargan and Martin Pakledinaz.
- Documentary: 1915 World's Fair .
At long last, the Staatsballett Berlin is once more dancing The Nutcracker , one of the most popular ballets ever. Vasily Medvedev and Yuri Burlaka , two Russian choreographers and connoisseurs of the tradition, have developed a version for the Staatsballett Berlin which is based on the historic stage designs and choreography from the original of 1892. The stage designs and costumes have been modeled on the historic designs, part of the treasures of the Russian ballet archives.
The choreography, which was created for Lev Ivanov's inaugural performance, is largely based on his specifications - after all, it was he who gave this ballet his unmistakable style of dancing and whose art continues to be stylistically influential even to this day.
In combination with the brilliance of modern dance, this production - a loving reconstruction designed as a great ballet feerie - reveals all of its nostalgic charm and promises the wonderful anticipation of Christmas: it's as if Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky had composed the falling of snowflakes or the fragrance of Christmas spices - a piece of musical genius.
The Wiener Staatsballet is one of the great companies in the world. Yet never before had Rudolf Nureyev's world-famous choreography of The Nutcracker performed in Vienna. The present production remedies this omission by presenting Nureyev's final, 1985 Paris version with two magnificent young soloists and the splendid Vienna corps de ballet. Nureyev's version enjoys a particular standing in the history of this well-known ballet in that it was the first to incorporate the psychology of E.T.A Hoffman's fairy tale on which Tchaikovsky's ballet is based. The critic Clive Barnes set the tone by remarking: "No version of the Nutcracker that we have ever seen has been more potently dramatic; few have displayed so sharp an imprint of personal style."
On Christmas Eve, a young girl has a dream... Emotional awakening, physical transformation, childhood that slowly merges into adulthood... behind what seems to be a tale for children slowly emerges a danced initiatory journey. And while children revel in Drosselmeyer's magic tricks and enjoy a good scare with the apparition of the Mouse King, the adults notice all the finesse that pervades this narrative and admire the virtuosity of the choreography.
A first class company, the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine has toured all around the world : from the United States to Europe and Asia. Thanks to its rich classical heritage, the Company has managed to win the hearts of its audience thanks to its amazing technique and artistic maestria, and as in every good dance company, the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. The Company has also, over the years, establised itself as a unique talent pool, that has nurtured first class dancers such as Iana Salenko (Staatsballet Berlin), Alina Cojocaru (Royal Ballet), Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko (American Ballet Theater); and the young gifted dancers that make the Ballet's reputation ensure the preservation of the classical heritage of this historical and world-renowned company.
The Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker is the quintessential Christmas ballet. When her nutcracker toy comes to life, young Clara is transported by the magician Drosselmeyer to a magical world of excitement and delight. Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli dance the exquisite Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince; Francesca Hayward and Alexander Campbell take the roles of Clara and the Nutcracker, and Gary Avis is the mysterious, kindly Drosselmeyer. This performance celebrated Peter Wright's 90th birthday and a production that has been in The Royal Ballet's repertory for more than thirty years. With sumptuous period designs, spellbinding stage effects and of course Tchaikovsky's iconic score, The Nutcracker continues to enchant audiences of all ages.
Peter Wright's timeless and enchanting interpretation of The Nutcracker has been in The Royal Ballet's repertory for over thirty years. Presented in a festive period setting, this charming and magical production features Marianela Nunez as the exquisite Sugar Plum Fairy and Vadim Muntagirov as her charming Prince.
Vivid designs and spellbinding stage effects which include authentic Christmas tree decorations that magically come to life, and Tchaikovsky's sumptuous, iconic score combine to create the quintessential Christmas ballet - an opulent treat for the senses for audiences of all ages.
With a humorous and imaginative staging and ballet scenes acted out in great detail, the Salzburg Marionette Theatre will immerse you in the story of Clara and the Nutcracker. Artfully directed puppets bring life to the figures from the fairy tale. A wonderful interpretation of Tchaikovsky's masterwork.
In a deserted city, a young boy stumbles into a theatre. He wanders through the audition, where rows of velvet chairs, draping curtains and chandeliers seem to lie in lovely wait for audiences to return. The theatre may be empty, but the show will go on...
Starring characters from Scottish Ballet's most popular festive ballets, the worlds of the Snow Queen and the Sugar Plum Fairy collide when the theatre bursts into life. In this spectacular, hour-long film, you'll be treated to an extraordinary show filled with acrobats, snowflakes, clowns, princes and - of course - beautiful ballerinas.
The Secret Theatre features the choreography of Scottish Ballet founder Peter Darelle and CEO/Artistic Director Christopher Hampson, co-directed for the screen by Jess and Morgs. With set and costumes designed by Lez Brotherston, music by Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky recorded live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra, new additional composition by Frank Moon , and performances from the full Scottish Ballet Company, this Christmas special is an unforgettable adventure for the whole family
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
A truly remarkable New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg's fabled Mariinsky Theatre, with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky (ex-Kirov) Ballet.
It was at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg that the ballet The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890, with a score by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa. This New Year's Eve programme revolves around Act III, in which Princess Aurora is brought out of her long sleep by the prince of her dreams and marries him. This is the Mariinsky troupe in a veritable explosion of grace and virtuosity.
In addition, prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina dances Camille Saint-Saens famous Dying Swan , first performed by Anna Pavlova.
In conclusion the soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre's Young Singers' Academy perform the finale of Rossini's Journey to Rheims in a joyous celebration of the coming of the New Year.
Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty is one of the best loved of classical ballets, combining in a single work all the enchantment and virtuosity that ballet has to offer. The royal court, the panoramic journey of the Prince to the overgrown castle, and the great celebratory dances of the happy ending (in which other famous fairytale figures appear) are all brought to life by the luscious designs of this celebrated production, created in 1946 for the The Royal Ballet. The inspired performances of its revival for the 75th anniversary of the Company in 2006 make this a superb tribute to The Royal Ballet's unique style and visual splendour.
Exceptional studio productions from the late 1950s, all three of the Tchaikovsky ballet performances featured on this video are released for the first time. The perfect partners, Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes give stunning performances with Fonteyn at her most beguiling as Aurora in Sleeping Beauty ?EUR" the ballet in which she and the Sadler's Wells Ballet made their historic American debut in 1949.
The ICA Classics Legacy series presents a collection of historic performances by some of the world's greatest artists. These performances are released on DVD for the first time, incorporating rare archive footage that has been expertly and lovingly restored.
Sleeping Beauty , the mythical Tchaikovsky's ballet in a new production of the Bolshoi Ballet. Set for the reopening of the world famous historical stage completely renovated while celebrating David Hallberg's Bolshoi debut.
The choreographer, Yuri Grigorovich presents a new version of one of his most famous choreography for a breath taking experience in splendid sets designed by Ezio Frigerio and more than 400 new costumes designed by Franca Squarciapino .
The american superstar dancer David Hallberg is Prince Desire while Principal Dancer Svetlana Zakharova, well known by Parisian audience thanks to her many performances at the Palais Garnier is Princess Aurora. They are joined by a great cast such as Maria Allash as Lilac Fairy, Artem Ovcharenko as Bluebird and Nina Kaptsova as Princess Florine.
Marius Petipa's demanding but enchanting choreography of Tchaikovsky's romantic fairytale The Sleeping Beauty is one of the best-loved of all classical ballets. This recording of Anthony Dowell's gloriously romantic 1994 production, with charming, dreamlike designs by Maria Bjornson, features an all-star cast led by Viviana Durante as a charismatic Princess Aurora, Zoltan Solymosi as a delightful Prince Florimund and Anthony Dowell as a wonderfully dishevelled Carabosse. The Royal Ballet, in exceptionally fine form, is beautifully accompanied by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conducted by Barry Wordsworth.
When she is finally released from an evil spell by the kiss of a young prince, the Sleeping Beauty awakes and is - despite of a hundred years of sleep - as beautiful as a young woman. The love of the prince is simply stronger than the curse that rests on the haunted princess.
The artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin, Nacho Duato, has brought new life to this beloved classic, which itself is over a hundred years old and for which Tchaikovsky has composed the unforgettable music. This production demonstrates that Nacho Duato can also tackle classical ballets with dance en pointe with great success. Nothing in this production is old and dusty, rather the entire choreography looks fresh and is bursting with vitality and brings an air of spring to the stage.
Likewise, the costumes by Angelina Atlagic deserve admiration as they sparkle on stage like spring buds in morning dew. The stage design, also designed by Atlagic, offers as refined setting for the ballet fairy tale. The decor of this production is highly imaginative, colourful, elegant and stylish.
Royal Ballet Principal Marianela Nunez delights as Princess Aurora, with Vadim Muntagirov as her Prince Florimund, in this performance of a timeless classic. Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet's repertory, with its vibrant sets and glittering costumes and featuring such iconic moments as the Rose Adage, the Vision pas de deux, the exuberant wedding celebration and the charming fairy-tale guests, all dances to Tchaikovsky's richly layered music - one of the most beloved ballet scores of all time. This Sleeping Beauty captures all the magic and virtuosity that ballet has to offer.
In this brilliant studio recording, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the country's boldest and most exciting dance company, brings its distinctive style home to you - dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet graceful and poetic.
Divining was Judith Jamison's first major work as a choreographer for Alvin Ailey. The dance evokes a strong feeling for African tribal ritual and is set to hauntingly rhythmic drum music.
Revelations expresses Ailey's intense feelings for his roots in the South. Here you'll see Ailey's vivid "blood memories" of the blues, spirituals, gospel music, ragtime and folk songs as well as the hard life of the Southern black during the Depression.
Set to Modern Jazz, The Stack-Up takes place in modern-day Harlem. You'll witness the cruel reality of urban street life as a young man is destroyed by drugs.
Cry was choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1971 for Judith Jamison and is one of his most famous pieces. Created as a birthday present for his mother, it is Ailey's tribute to black women. You can't help feeling being moved by the struggle, the anger and most importantly, the celebration.
This studio recording of Par Isberg's ballet, created specially for television, is based on a romantic adventure story by the great nineteenth-century Swedish writer Selma Lagerlof. The original score was composed by Jan Sandstrom and is performed here by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jonas Dominique. With lavish period sets and costumes designed by Bo-Ruben Hedwall, this large-cast ballet tells a gothic tale reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast.
In the late 1880s, Selma Lagerlof's family were forced to move from Marbacka, the house she had lived in during her childhood. This even had a profound influence on her life and writing and is one of the sources of inspiration for The Tale of a Manor.
From the prestigious Royal Ballet at world-famous Covent Garden comes this Shakespearean adaptation by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon , already considered a modern-day classic! Building on the success of his ballet version of Alice in Wonderland , Wheeldon brought the Bard to the ballet stage in 2014 to rapturous acclaim from critics and audiences alike, who praised its intelligent and emotionally potent story, told through exquisite dance.
The story follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet, through remorse and regret - and after a seemingly miraculous return to life - the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation. With powerful designs by Bob Crowley, atmospheric music by Joby Talbot , and brilliant work from the soloists and the corps de ballet, Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale is a masterful modern narrative ballet, "lighting up the stage like a shaft of sunlight" (The Independent, in a five-star review); "Christopher Wheeldon's 2014 ballet is one of his finest, with complex storytelling and ecstatic dances."
Ten years after his death, the Paris Opera Ballet payed homage to the American choreographer who considered the Paris Opera as his second home after New York City Ballet. The three pieces performed here illustrate not only the diversity of the choreographer's repertoire and sources of inspiration, but also his love of music and his all-embracing attitude to the performing arts. Jerome Robbins brought new energy to classical dance, introducing 20th century urban rhythms, confirming its status as a modern entertainment form and instilling it with the interrogations of contemporary theatre.
In G Major (En Sol) , set to Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major , follows no particular narrative line or dramatic effect. Echoing the music's jazzy invitations and light-heartedly copying Broadway style, this is a light and joyous piece for two soloists and an ensemble. It provided Jerome Robbins with an opportunity to reveal the relaxed, fluid feel so emblematic of his style.
In the Night and The Concert are two tributes to Frederic Chopin, each in a different register. Seeking to free the composer from the commonplaces that have often belittled his music, Robbins transforms Les Nocturnes into In the Night, a long and poetic pas de deux built like a metaphor of love in all...
Miyako Yoshida dances the title role originally created for Margot Fonteyn in the hauntingly beautiful underwater world of Ondine , vividly brought to life by The Royal Ballet. Frederick Ashton's shimmering choreography, Lila de Nobili's impressionistic designs and Hans Werner Henze's specially commissioned, vibrant and inventive score, memorably combine to evoke the many moods and colours of the sea.
Bonus features :
- The making of Ondine - an interview with Hans Werner Henze
Jiri Kylian's ballet is set to Arnold Schoenberg's passionate string sextet, Verklarte Nacht , a narrative composition about a young woman walking at night with her lover and admitting that she is pregnant by another man. He accepts the situation as part of his love for her. Danced by two couples, Kylian's stylized interpretation of the piece expresses the passion of the music, as well as capturing its delicate ethereal texture.
7 VISIONS OF AMEN is a masterpiece of Olivier Messiaen's musical production consisting of seven meanings of the word Amen. It is extraordinarily contemporary despite its 70 years of existence and its writing music is highlighted by four main essences: complex timbre, rhythmic and harmonic richness, deep spirituality, sound seduction - color and knowledge of nature through singing birds.
VISIONS OF AMEN is a dream. An adventure. A fusion of artistic expression made possible by a bold investment in talents. A great technical and human team led by Carlos Osorio's personal vision to visually enhance Olivier Messiaen's sound universe, and send it to all audiences of the world.
The New York City Ballet, with its collection of extraordinary dancers and its unique repertoire, is one of the most prestigious dance companies in the world. This exceptional production, performed in Paris after eight years of absence, revolves around three great French composers who inspired NYCB founder George Balanchine : Charles Gounod, Maurice Ravel and Georges Bizet .
The four ballets performed, choreographed from 1925 to 1980, perfectly encapsulate Balanchine's genius and his very own neo-classical style. They also provide a particular insight on the bonds that tied Balanchine to France. What is known today as Walpurgisnacht Ballet was a ballet choreographed for the opera Faust (Charles Gounod) at the Paris Opera in 1975. It premiered as an independant piece in New York in 1980. Sonatine , set to a music by Maurice Ravel, was created by two New York City Ballet French principals, the recently departed Violette Verdy and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. La valse was originally composed by Maurice Ravel for the Ballets Russes and Serge Diaghilev, then exiled in France, shortly before Balanchine entered the company. Symphony in C (Georges Bizet), better known as Le Palais de Cristal, premiered at the Paris Opera.
Nacho Duato composed the one-act ballet White Darkness as a requiem for his sister. The result is a masterpiece which, according to critics, has reached heights deemed hitherto impossible on the landscape of modern arts. In contrast, American choreographer Joseph Hernandez , a regular guest at Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, creates an exhilarating aesthetic universe with an urge to live and a lust for life in The Lavender Follies .
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
Divine Dancers is an exclusive dance event with some of the leading ballet stars of our time including Charles Jude, Daniil Simkin, Igor Zelensky, Delphine Baey and the exceptional young Russian dancer Polina Semyonova - acclaimed principal soloist of the Berlin State Ballet. Recorded in the sumptuous ambience of the Prague State Opera, the performances combine classical ballet pieces with modern and contemporary choreography. The Dancers present their favourite classical and modern pieces by choreographers like George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Jose Limon and Kenneth MacMillan, former director of The Royal Ballet London. The stars dance to music by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Purcell, Gershwin, Weill and Jacques Brel. One highlight of the gala is The Moor's Pavane (1949) danced to music by Henry Purcell, which lasts a good 20 minutes: This expressive one-act ballet is Jose Limon's most important and most successful ballet and one of the best known works of the American modern dance repertoire.
A rare and refined ballet, which ran the risk of falling into oblivion twice, is danced by the new generation of the Bolshoi Ballet, among which are Nina Kaptsova and Mikhail Lobukhin.
A modern and visionary work, this ballet, set to a music by Dmitri Shostakovich , was created in 1930. Its central theme was the highly moralized battle and triumph of the proletariat against the decadent bourgeoisie, set in Europe during the Roaring Twenties. Surprisingly, the score by Dmitri Shostakovich raised political controversies, probably because it borrowed much to european dance forms (and was openly inspired by jazz music) and consequently, the ballet vanished from the theaters until 1982, when Yuri Grigorovich restaged it with sets by Simon Virsaladze and a completely new libretto mainly revolving around the love story between Rita, a cabaret dancer, and Boris, an young idealist. The conflict in the original production was also recast as a clash between fishermen - the morally superior workers - and society's criminal elements.
To bring back on stage The Golden Age in autumn 2016, a few months prior to Yuri Grigorovich's 90th birthday, was a highly symbolic choice for the Bolshoi Ballet: this work, the last Grigorovich would ever choreograph for his company, hadn't been staged for...
