DVD

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Classic Ballet Night
Starring: Kirov Ballet
Manufacturer: View Video
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

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ASIN: 6300265463
Release Date: 1996-08-01

Description

V.I.E.W. VIDEO is proud to present this great evening of live performances by the stars of the world-renowned Kirov Ballet of Leningrad, where they perform highlights from some of the most famous dances of the Classic Repertory. This exciting evening with the Kirov Ballet captures all of the thrills and intensity of these great soviet stars and is truly a unique and unforgettable "Classic Ballet Night."

THE KIROV BALLET

Home of the legendary Pavlova and Nijinsky, the Kirov is considered today to be among the six greatest Companies in the world. Starting in 1860 as the Maryinsky Theatre, they began regular ballet performances in 1880 and gave birth to most of the Petipalvanov classics as well as having premiered many of the most important Soviet ballets.

THE KIROV BALLET SCHOOL AND THE KIROV STARS

The most famous ballet school in the world was named after Agrippina Vaganova, the great ballet teacher who shaped the image of today's "Soviet Style" of ballet, a purity of style and technique characterized by supreme elegance in the great classical tradition.

Vaganova introduced increased elevation and greater fluidity of arm movemnts, resulting in the powerful leaps for which Kirov trained dancers are known today.

Former Kiro stars include: Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Makarova and the Panovs.

BALLET - DANCERS- CHOREOGRAPHER- MUSIC

1) Diana and Actheon- Tatiana Terekhova & Sergei Berezhnoi- A. Vaganova- C. Pugni
2) Esmeralda- Gabriela Komleva & Vitali Afanaskov- M. Petipa- R. Drigo
3) Flower Festival in Genzano-Natalia Bolshakova & Vadim Gouliaev- Bournonville- E. Helsted
4) The Canteen Keeper (Vivabdiere)- Alla Sizova, Boris Blankov & Kirov soloists- Saint-Leon- C. Pugni
5) The Venice Carnival- Svetlana Efrenova & Valeri Emets- M. Petipa- C. Pugni
6) Pas de Quatre- Irina Kolpakova, Gabriela Komleva, Elena Evteeva & Galina Mezentseva- A. Dolin- C. Pugni

White Night of Dance in Leningrad
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Glasnost in the Soviet ballet world

White Night of Dance in Leningrad
Starring: Kirov Ballet
Manufacturer: Kultur Video
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

Ballet & Dance | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | VHS | Video
ASIN: 6302191041
Release Date: 1992-07-28

Customer Reviews:

Glasnost in the Soviet ballet world.......2001-03-02

The performers in this 1987 French-Soviet production from are from the Kirov Ballet, directed by Oleg Vinogradov, and Maurice Béjart's Ballet of the XXth Century, from Belgium. (Although the dancers are listed at the beginning of the video, no cast list is provided. I found the information elsewhere.) My opinion of this video hinged largely on Béjart's and Vinogradov's choreography. I don't care for either, but this only partially accounts for my three-star rating.

The ballets are performed in parks and palaces of Leningrad/St. Petersburg and on the banks of the city's broad Neva River -- not the Volga, as the video jacket says. From the title of the video, I assume the outdoor performances were taped at night. However, since there's no clock visible, and since the viewer hasn't just experienced an unusually long stretch of daylight, the performances might just as well have been taped in the late afternoon. So what's the point, except to provide a catchy title?

This is the program (BXXC = Ballet of the XXth Century):

"Chopiniana" (aka Les Sylphides): Elena Evteeva, Olga Likhovskaya, Elena Pankova, Kirill Melnikov and Kirov ensemble. The waltz is well performed in a lovely park, but the look of the temporary stage detracts from the mood. Too bad it's impossible to dance on the grass.

"Rite of Spring" (Béjart): Eric Vu An (guest artist from the Paris Opéra Ballet - more on him below), Grazia Galante and BXXC ensemble. The dancers are good, but I thought the choreography was neither original nor interesting.

"Notre Faust" (Béjart): Olga Chenchikova and Evgenii Neff. Again, the dancers were good but I was unmoved by the choreography.

"La Fille mal Gardee" (Vinogradov): Xavier Ferla, Ramon Flowers, Michel Gascard, Giorgio Madia and BXXC ensemble. This clog dance is very different from the well-known Frederick Ashton version, which can be seen on "Ballet Favorites," with Brian Shaw dancing the role of Widow Simone "en travestie." Vinogradov's version uses four men and has occasional flashes of humor.

"1830" (Béjart): Farukh Ruzimatov and Kirov ensemble. Program notes would have been helpful. In their absence, I'm guessing that the ballet's theme is Belgium's 1830 revolution to gain independence. As in the preponderance of Béjart ballets, the men are bare-chested. Béjart is known for celebrating masculine beauty, but the Kirov male corps doesn't fit the bill as well as the men of Ballet of the XXth Century. Ruzimatov, however, looks just right. Besides having a flashy technique, he has the somewhat androgynous look and narcissism of many of the Béjart men and looks at home in Béjart's signature unisex dark eye makeup. As for the choreography, I don't care for Béjart's muscular, non-flowing movements. In this piece, he also "Mickey Mouses" the music in places, meaning that there is a movement corresponding to every note of the melody, as in early musical cartoons.

"Conte Russe" (Béjart): BXXC. I thought this was the most interesting of the Béjart works. It features the Béjart men in all their exposed beauty, with the doll-like female characters enclosed in heavy, elaborate costumes by Gianni Versace. Without program notes, I'm at a loss to say what the ballet is about, but at least it has interesting images.

"Swan Lake": Galina Mezentseva, Konstantin Zaklinsky and Kirov ensemble. The park setting for the Act 2 pas de deux provides a nice atmosphere, and the white birds that skim over the small lake in the background can, with some imagination, be seen as swans. But by no stretch of the imagination do the cars and trucks in the more distant background fit into the ballet. Mezentseva and Zaklinsky perform with their usual controlled elegance.

"Potemkin" (Vinogradov): Elena Kamalova, Gennadi Babanin and Kirov ensemble. Like Béjart, Vinogradov likes to use large groups of men, but not to great effect, from the excerpts of his works that I've seen. This one ends with Death coming to claim a female sailor(?) from the battleship Potemkin. It is has some inventive dancing-with-a-corpse choreography.

"Suite Grecque" (Béjart): Philippe Lizon, Michel Gascard and BXXC ensemble. Two male soloists dance, in turn, to Greek music. A female chorus enters and doesn't do much. (I think being a female dancer in Béjart's company would be unrewarding.) What bothered me most about this piece is that I couldn't see what it had to do with the music. I felt it could just as well have been danced to any music.

"Arepo" (Béjart): Eric Vu An/Lynne Charles. Eric Vu An's solo is why I don't regret having bought this video. He is an excellent technician with a beautiful, lithe, sinuous way of moving. A duet for Vu An and Ruzimatov could have been spectacular. Why did no one choreograph one?

"Le Corsaire": Altynai Asylmuratova and Kirov ensemble. On the Kirov Theatre stage, Asylmuratova makes the Act III adagio ("Le Jardin Animé") come alive.

"Heliogabale" (Béjart): Asylmuratova and Ruzimatov. This bit of nonsense wastes the talents of two excellent performers. Any dancers could have performed this piece.

"La Bayadere": Kirov ensemble. The famous entrance of the Shades is taken out of its usual setting and performed on a temporary stage on the banks of the Neva, with changing camera angles showing various beautiful vistas. I couldn't decide whether the scenery distracted from the dancing or the dancing distracted from the scenery. Probably the latter, because there was a lot of uncharacteristic wobbling among the dancers.

"Le Soldat Amoureux" (Béjart): Michel Gascard, Vadim Gulyayev, Ruzimatov, Jorge Donn (Béjart's long-time star) and Kirov/BXXC ensemble. Once again, program notes would have helped. Maybe the ballet is about an amorous soldier. My research revealed nothing about the subject of the ballet, but I did discover that the title comes from the music, a traditional Neopolitan song ('O Surdato 'Nnamurato, in Neopolitan dialect). I also learned that this song was often sung for soccer player Diego Maradona when he played for Napoli, so maybe the ballet has something do with soccer. I couldn't get any clues from the costumes, because the men wore -- what else? -- tights and no tops. The ballet was recorded in a studio, with the other members of the Kirov and Béjart companies sitting on the floor and watching the action, calling out and singing along. The piece ends with everyone dancing and skipping around, exuding camaraderie.

In sum, this balletic manifestation of glasnost was probably a significant event for the Russian dance world, but not a great artistic achievement. If you are a Béjart fan, this video would be a good buy. As for me, I'll probably just keep the tape rewound to Eric Vu An's solo. The scenery's nice, though.

Grand Pas in the White Night
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Andromeda

Grand Pas in the White Night
Starring: Ballet of the Xxth Century , Bejart , and Kirov Ballet
Manufacturer: Immortal
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000BKVRJW
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Customer Reviews:

Andromeda.......2006-02-09

I thoroughly enjoyed this candid view of these Russian superstars in preparation and performance. I was fascinated by the Russian dancers and how they applied their makeup and carried on in a scene where they just all tried to outdance each other after a performance. The views of them rehearsing outside with local people watching was the sort of thing I love to watch even more than actual performances because I like to see how they work on their craft. I was also impressed with the final product of their labors, especially of a rather modern pas de deux set to the music of the great church hymn, Crucifux, which I sang in church choir and loved to perform. If you like to view commentary-type DVDs, this one is for you.

Average customer rating:

Classic Ballet Night
Starring: Kirov Ballet
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

Ballet & Dance | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | VHS | Video
ASIN: B00008EPMK
Release Date: 1991-10-22

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