Customer Reviews

Dancer's Dream: The Great Ballets of Rudolf Nureyev - La Bayadere

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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This is not a performance of the full ballet. Ir is, instead, a commentary, a review, a discourse, a critique, using discontinuous excerpts from the ballet and its rehearsals. Excellent if you are already familiar with the ballet. Disappointing if you hoped to see more than merely separate beautiful pieces of it.

This is another dvd in the "Dancer's Dream" series of ballet documentaries put out by the Paris Opera Ballet. Since France is the origin of ballet, this series is of great value to all students of ballet, both dancers and academicians. If you also want to see the actual stage performance of this same ballet, it is also available(performed by the Paris Opera Ballet and available through Amazon.com). ("Romeo and Juliet" is another one in this series where both the documentary and the performance dvd's are available.) One star in this dvd not mentioned in the credits is the great ballerina Ghislaine Thesmar. She coaches the principal dancers in this performance and there is a lot of time devoted to her coaching here. It is a great window into the mind of this great ballerina. It is also wonderful to see how she coaches with such sensitivity and caring. This is a first class production, as are the others in this series!

This was a great description of the history of this ballet from its oriental roots and there is historical footage of the original dancers and how the choreography and music evolved. There was also coverage of stage backgrounds and costumes. Other fascinating highlights were the corps de ballet learning the scene of the shades, and different rehearsals of various parts of the ballet. There is extensive coverage of Isabelle Guerin who is Nikya and how she develops her solos. The male dancer is also interviewed along with Elizabeth Platel, and there are scenes of them learning their parts together. This is a very informative and entertaining video. Also delightful was hearing the music to the ballet and watching footage of parts of an actual performance in contrast to rehearsals.