Customer Reviews

Black Tights & The Bolshoi Ballet

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This DVD would not be very high on my list were it not for the final 10 minute bonus at the end of the program. After the unbearably kitschy Black Tights and Bolshoi '67, we discover an unexpected little gem titled Spring Night, an early experimental dance film.

Spring Night is a lushly erotic miniature ballet in the stylistic lineage of the Ballets Russes. It was made in 1935, only a half dozen years after the death of Serge Diaghilev. It was choreographed by the beautiful and sinuous Russian dancer David Lichine, who danced with and choreographed for Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, one of the splinter companies that formed after the death of Diaghilev.

Spring Night is a Symbolist fusion of stunningly innovative dance, drama, spiritual subtext, cinematographer's art and music, produced by the very long-lived Adolph Zukor, who was one of the pioneers of the film industry. The elegant and hypnotic camera work was done by George Clemens, who went on to do the cinematography for Twilght Zone and other popular television shows.

The dancing is exquisite. Lichine's partner, Texan Nana Gollner is a lovely and inspired match for his exotic beauty, grace and elasticity. Their dancing has a mystical sensuality that is rarely seen. Lichine was a dancer/choreographer for the Ballets Russes, the same company that bore the crown jewel Nijinsky, one of the 20th century's most ingenius, mysterious and innovative dancers. Watching Lichine in the role of the Faun in Spring Night evokes images of Nijinsky as the same character, but in different works. Incredulously, there are no films of Nijinsky dancing, although photographs of him elude to something so beautiful, strange and uniquely groundbreaking that one weeps for more, and for his lost genius, stolen by schizophrenia extreme to such a degree that he had to leave the stage at a quite early age.

If you are at all interested in the Ballets Russes and its contributions to modern art, Spring Night is a gift. Especially if you have seen the outstanding, recently released documentary, Ballets Russes, you may find Spring Night to be especially important and informative. David Lichine's wife was one of the Baby Ballerinas featured in the documentary Ballets Russes, and is interviewed extensively there. There are film clips in BR of the beloved dance team David Lichine and his wife Tania Riabuchinska. She and her husband provided the dance of the Hippos in Disney's Fantasia. Ballets Russes

This short appears on a DVD with Black Tights and Boshoi '67, two lesser offerings that nonetheless have valuable moments, including a surrealistic Bolero danced by dazzling Bolshoi artists.

Black Tights does have abundant beautiful women with long, gorgeous legs. But the choreography, music and content do not appeal to me, although it may to many others because of their attachment to some of the beauteous stars of the film, like Cyd Charise, Zizi Jean-Maire and Moira Shearer of The Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffmann.

The price of this budget DVD is worth paying just to experience Spring Night, a sacred artifact from the passing age of the Ballets Russes.

My only fear is that this short is not mentioned on Amazon's description of the program (although it never was, and was consequently quite a delicious surprise). If you are interested in seeing Spring Night, I recommend you contact the seller to see if it's listed on the box.