What a Beautiful documentary! ...done with admiration,
adoration,good taste and love... a remarkable service
to dance and the history of modern dance.
- Robert Lindgren
  Founding Dean, North Carolina School of the Arts
  Past President, School of American Ballet

A New Dance for America

The Choreography, Teachings and Legacy of Doris Humphrey

Narrated by Doris Humphrey, Lindsay Crouse, and Ina Hahn
Written and directed by Ina Hahn
Featuring rare archival footage of Doris Humphrey
and the Humphrey-Weidman Company

The story of the life and works of modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) is the focus of this documentary. It leads from her birth in Oak Park, Illinois, to growing up in a theatrical hotel in Chicago where she supported her parents as a dance teacher at the age of 18, the launch of her professional career in the Denishawn Company, establishing her own company with partner Charles Weidman, to serving as artistic director and choreographer for José Limón. Historical and contemporary performance excerpts cover the span of her career from her earliest composition, Valse Caprice (1920), to her last, Brandenberg Concerto (1958), and represent some of her finest pieces such as Soaring, Passacaglia in C Minor, New Dance and Day on Earth.

Attention has been paid to placing her growth as a dance artist and her contribution to the development of modern dance within the context of twentieth century history. Interviews with former dancers who worked with her and with her son complete the picture of this indomitable woman who, along with Charles Weidman and Martha Graham, forged a new art form growing out of the national experience of pioneering, freedom of expression, wide open spaces and democratic values.

80 min., color and b&w, 2010

VWH002 $29.95

The Sleeping Beauty

Music by Tchaikovsky
With the Orchestra of
the Royal Opera House
Choreography by Petipa,
with additional choreography by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell, Christopher Wheeldon

Extra feature:
Synopsis of the story

Includes 22 page full-color booklet with the history of The Sleeping Beauty ballet in English, French, and German by Tim Scholl, Professor of Russian at Oberlin College.

132 min., First DVD release 2008, All regions

VNX129D $29.95

Giselle

With the
Dutch National Ballet

Choreography by Petipa after Coralli and Perrot

Additional Choreography by
Rachel Beaujean and
Ricardo Bustamente

Bonus materials: Interviews with the principal dancers and choreographers Beaujean and Bustamente.

158 min., Region 1

VKU149D $29.95

La Fille Mal Gardée

(The Wayward Daughter)

Music by John Lanchberry
With the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Choreography by Frederick Ashton

This comedic ballet, originally choreographed by Jean Dauberville in 1790, on the eve of the French Revolution, takes a mocking look at unsophisticated country folk. As re-choreographed by Frederick Ashton in 1960 with an abundance of slapstick humor, it owes as much to British music hall as to classical ballet. The simple story is about how two lovers, Lise and Colas, thwart the plans of Lise’s mother to marry her to a wealthy, but dimwitted suitor. Recorded in 2005.

Includes 24 page full-color booklet with the history of La Fille Mal Gardée
in English, French, and German by noted author David Vaughan

Blu-Ray, 122 min., North America only

112 min., First DVD release 2008, All regions

VNX069D $29.95

Maria Fay’s Floor Barre

3 Sample Classes,
Including 70 Exercises and Enchaînements,
Musical Accompaniment
 

The viewer is taken on a journey through 3 sample classes at different technical levels, preceded by a warm-up section. In the Warm-up are the movements which help make the dancer more pliable, loosening the joints and stretching the muscles gradually. With emphasis on breath control, the Floor Barre section contains all the exercises adapted from classical ballet barre practice in addition to some movements performed in the center that can be executed while lying on the floor.

Maria Fay, a native of Hungary, was leading dancer and choreographer for the Budapest State Theatre Ballet Company. Moving to England in 1956, she started to teach at the Royal Ballet School, the Royal Academy of Dancing, and opened her own studio. Based upon exercises developed for her own injuries, she invented others while working with injured dancers, eventually producing her floor-barre system to the benefit of the whole dance community. She has taught and coached in 26 internationally-renowned ballet companies, including the Royal Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet. The National Ballet of China, Ballet Rambert, London Festival Ballet, and the National Ballet of Spain.
 
110 min., 2005 all regions
ISBN 9781852739072
VDBL001 $39.95

Although Maria Fay’s book and DVD can be used independently, they are best used in conjunction with each other. While the word descriptions and illustrations in the book precisely describe in detail all the exercises, the DVD demonstrates the vitally important quality, speed, and dynamics of the dancer’s movements as well as the duration of the various enchaînements.

Click here for information on the book.

Pina Bausch

Orpheus And Eurydice

A Dance-Opera

Music by Gluck
Choreography and Stage Direction by Pina Bausch
With the Paris Opera Ballet

Orpheus and Eurydice is the first DVD release of any choreography by the legendary German choreographer Pina Bausch. Conceived as a dance-opera, and premiered in 1975, the roles of the principals: Orpheus, Eurydice, and Love, are each represented by singers and dancers. The story celebrates the power of music to charm the creatures of the Underworld and their god Hades into releasing the mortally-stricken Eurydice to the upper world and to her husband, Orpheus. Though the 18th century Gluck imagined a happy ending in which Love brings Eurydice and Orpheus together, Pina Bausch, more faithful to the Greek myth, ends with Eurydice’s second death.

104 min. Filmed in 2008, first DVD release, 2009 All regions
VNX100 $30.00

Alexei Ratmansky

Bolt

Music by Shostakovich
Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
With the Bolshoi Ballet and
Orchestra of the State Theatre Bolshoi, Pavel Sorokin, Conductor
English subtitles

Includes 32-page full-color booklet in English, French and German with synopsis and history of Bolt

Special features: Avant-garde and Kitsch (a 12 minute documentary on the life and times of Dimitri Shostakovich); interviews with Alexei Ratmansky and Pavel Sorokin.

Originally premiered in Leningrad on April 8, 1931, with choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov, Bolt had exactly one performance Exiled to a ballet gulag for 75 years, it was rescued and reconceived by rising-star Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky in 2006. This Soviet-era ballet is a satire of the worker-state, where an enormous factory with many workers produces just a single light bulb. The only work that seems to take place is the work of looking busy, while the Komsomol brigade charged with upkeep devotes most of its time to leisure activity. A disaffected worker decides to sabotage the factory by throwing a bolt (of the title) into the machinery.
Bolt brings together serious and popular music and dance, and includes Komsomol routines, Red Army marches, circus acrobatics, and vaudeville antics, as it portrays proletarian culture of the early Soviet years.

Don’t miss the fascinating Special Feature documentary on Dimitri Shostakovich at the end.

145 min., 2007 All regions
VNX005 $20.00

Roland Petit

La Dame de Pique
(The Queen Of Spades)
And
Passacaille (Passacaglia)

Choreography by Roland Petit
With soloists Nikolay Tsiskaridze and Ilze Leipa, corps de ballet, and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Vladimir Andropov, Conductor

Includes 32-page full-color booklet in French and English with the synopsis of La Dame de Pique, a history of both ballets in Roland Petit’s own words, a biography of Roland Petit, and a statement by conductor Vladimir Andropov about the use of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony.
 
Special features: Interviews with Roland Petit, Nikolay Tsiskaridze, and Ilze Leipa
 
Based on a story by Pushkin, one of Russia ’s most beloved authors, to the music of Tchaikovsky’s familiar Pathétique Symphony, this live 2005 performance of Roland Petit’s La Dame de Pique (The Queen of Spades) at the Bolshoi has the audience applauding even before the curtain goes up. Petit shows his mastery of dramatic gesture in this tale of avarice and gambling. Notice the double meaning as the main character, Hermann, repeatedly studies his hands (as in a hand of cards) and to learn his fate (as in palmistry).
 
By contrast Passacaille (Passacaglia) is a modernist, abstract ballet demanding technique of the highest quality.

133 min., All regions
VNX072$20.00

The Bolshoi Ballet Boxed Set Of Three

Includes Bolt, La Dame De Pique (The Queen of Spades) /Passacaille and
The Pharaoh’s Daughter (available only in this boxed set)

Pierre Lacotte

The Pharaoh’s Daughter

Music by Pugni
Choreography by Pierre Lacotte, after Petipa.
Orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre. Alexander Slotkin, Conductor

With the soloists and corps de ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre, and students of the State Choreography Academy , Moscow

Includes 32-page black and white booklet in English and French with the synopsis and history of The Pharaoh’s Daughter.
Special features: 13-minute documentary about The Pharaoh’s Daughter, interview with Pierre Lacotte.

Premiered in 1862 in St. Petersburg , with choreography by Petipa, The Pharaoh’s Daughter was a huge success. Everything about it was striking: the endless processions, the sumptuous, large scale sets, the colorful costumes, the great number of group and solo dances – all adding up to a magnificent spectacle. Based upon a story by Theophile Gautier about an English Lord’s Egyptian adventures in an opium-induced dream, the plot serves up mummies that come to life, a lion hunt, wedding festivities, a drowning in the Nile, a poisonous snake, and the romance between the Englishman-turned-Egyptian and the Pharaoh’s daughter. Performed well into the early twentieth century, it was consigned to the dustbin of ballet history in Soviet times because of its “negligible artistic value.” In what will probably be its only DVD release, you will have the opportunity to make your own assessment.

130 min., All regions

3 DVD set VNX004 $40.00

The Parsons Dance Company

David Parsons displays both his choreographic ingenuity and flair for dancing in this program of seven dances, including his signature work “Caught”, in which a series of poses are frozen in flashes from a strobe light. The other pieces are Fine Dining, Reflections of Four, The Envelope, Brothers (Co-choreographed and danced by Daniel Ezralow with David Parsons), and Nacimento. Originally filmed in 1992, this is the first release On DVD.

117 min., color, first DVD release 2010
VNX109 $30.00

BACK AGAIN! The One You've Waited For

Alvin Ailey
An Evening with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Featuring:
Revelations,
choreography by Alvin Ailey

Cry,
choreography by Alvin Ailey

The Stack Up,
choreography by Talley Beatty

Divining,
choreography by Judith Jamison

100 minutes, color
VNX003 $30.00

Dancing The Big Apple 1937
African-Americans
Inspire a National Craze

This innovative documentary explores the Big Apple phenomenon of 1937. Despite troubled times, Americans from every walk of life let loose in this infectious circle dance. Cued by a caller, dancers did the Lindy Hop, Shag, Charleston, and popular jazz steps like Trucking and Pecking. Individual dancers or couples were invited to “Shine” in the center of the circle. Historic footage traces the ingredients of the Big Apple from Africa, through slavery, into the Ring Shout ceremony, to the spot’ that started the craze, The Big Apple Club of Columbia, South Carolina. Extra features include the teaching of Big Apple steps and the full Big Apple routine from the film “Keep Punching” with choreography by Frankie Manning.

40 min., 2009, color and b/w
VDP568 $39.95

History and Concept
of Hip-Hop Dance
The Street Culture that Became
a Global Expression

Conceived and Directed
by Michael Durden
Includes commentary
by Rennie Harris

What is Hip-Hop? This DVD answers the question by exploring the origins and history of this world- renowned style of dance first introduced to mainstream America in the early 1970s. It features expert opinions from the pioneers of B-Boy and party dancing, commercially successful choreographers, and the new generation of dancers and instructors.

The Director, Moncell Durden, an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University, has spent his life doing the different dance styles under the umbrella of Hip-Hop dance, including 8 years performing with Rennie Harris Puremovment.

43 min., 2009, color and b/w
VDP579 $39.95

My First Ballet Collection
Featuring  Highlights
From Favorite Ballets

Though designed for the ballet beginner, this sparkling collection of 26 of the best scenes from favorite ballets, will enchant both young and old. Includes excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, La Fille mal Gardée, Giselle, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cinderella, and Sylvia.

92 min., 2009, all regions
VNX155 $19.95

Peer Gynt

Choreography by Heinz Spoerli
With the Zurich Ballet,
Zurich Opera Orchestra
and Chorus

Music by Edvard Grieg,
withAdditional Music by
Mark-Anthony Turnage
and Brett Dean

Based on Ibsen’s play, Heinz Spoerli’s choreography gives a contemporary twist to the story  by employing two different dance styles: classical for Grieg’s music and a modern, expressive style to input from composers Turnage and Dean. Thus the 30 episodes unfold both as narrative and as visualizing Peer Gynt’s mindset, giving expression to his confusion in facing different circumstances. Particularly poignant are the dramatic stagings of The Death of Ase and Solveig’s Song. A helpful booklet provides a synopsis and list of scenes.

110 min., 2009, all regions
VNX111 $29.95

Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes

The Rite of Spring (1913)
Choreography after Vaslav Nijinsky
Reconstructed and Staged by Millicent Hodson
Set and Costume Design after Nicholas Roerich

The Firebird (1910)
Choreography and Libretto by Michel Fokine
Reconstructed by Isabelle Fokine and Andris Liepa
Set and Costume Design by Alexander Golovin,
Léon Bakst, and Michel Fokine

With the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra, Conducted by Valery Gergiev
Bonus: Documentary on the Ballets Russes and Interview with Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer

Filmed at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 2008, the sumptuous productions of these two ballets recreate the choreography, costumes, and sets of the originals.

85 min., 2008, all regions
VNX156 $29.95

 

Now Available on DVD:

Discovering Your
Expressive Body

Basic Concepts in Dance Training Utilizing Bartenieff Fundamentals™

With Peggy Hackney
Consultant: Irmgard Bartenieff

Peggy Hackney, a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, presents exercises on total body connectedness, internal support for balance, full-range mobility, weight transference propulsion, and three-dimensional movement. This comprehensive demonstration provides a basis for expanded knowledge of movement principles that lead to an articulate, more expressive body.

VDH016 49.95

The Call/
Breath of Fire

Choreography by Doris Humphrey

Analysis and Coaching
by Ernestine Stodelle

Music by Dane Rudhyar

Performed by Nina Watt of
the José Límon Dance Company

These dramatic 1929 solos, performed together, represent a statement about the early development of modern dance and the growth of the individual. Humphrey’s notes describe “the Call to a new vision followed by a shriving of the old body and old ideas through the purification of fire.”

VDH010D $39.95

Mats Ek’s Carmen

With the Cullberg Ballet

Mats Ek’s post-modernist interpretation of Carmen is a mix of bravura dancing and inventive, powerful story telling. This fiery tale is set to Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite, the Russian composer’s arrangement of Bizet’s popular opera music.

50 min., 1994 Region Code 1 (USA and Canada)

VKU050 $25.00

Violette Verdy
The Artist Teacher
At Chautauqua Institution

Featuring Violette Verdy, Jean Pierre Bonnefoux, and Patricia McBride

Speaking to students at the Chautauqua Institution and in interviews overlooking beautiful Lake Chautauqua, Violette Verdy describes her childhood in Nazi-occupied France, her training at the Paris Opera, dancing with Roland Petit’s company, recruitment by ABT, and invitation by Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet. Illustrated with rare performance clips including Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, The Still Point, and Nutcracker. Violette Verdy remains actively teaching at Chautauqua and at Indiana University where she holds students in thrall. 40 min., 2009 All regions

VVA424 $24.95

Carmen & Geoffrey

Featuring Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder
With Gus Solomons, Jr., Dudley Williams, Judith Jamison, Jennifer Dunning, Alvin Ailey, and Josephine Baker.

“What you see is more than an outstanding
five-decade creative collaboration, it’s one of
the dance world’s great love stories, too.”
– Dance Magazine

Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, two living legends in the world of American dance, are the subjects of this intimate and illuminating documentary. De Lavallade, trained by Lester Horton, achieved fame as a lead dancer of incomparable beauty and grace with Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater.  Multi-talented  Holder is not only a dancer and choreographer, but also a painter, costume designer, actor, and theater director (“The Wiz”). He and Carmen met in 1954, appearing together in House of Flowers directed by Herbert Ross, and married a year later. You will be thoroughly engaged by the story of this extraordinary “power” couple. Filmed on location in Trinidad, Paris, and New York, with many historical clips, including those of Josephine Baker.

79 min., 2006 All regions

VFR347 $24.95

Jirí Kylián Nederlands Dance Theate

Svadebka (Les Noces)
Choreography by Kylián;
Music by Stravinsky, performed by Kühn mixed choir and percussionists.

Symphony of Psalms
Choreography by Kylián
Music by Stravinsky, performed by London Symphony Orchestra and English Bach Festival Chorus

Torso
Choreography by Kylián
Music by Töru Takemitsu

68 min., 2009 All regions

VNX059 $30.00

Maya

Portrait of Maya Plisetskaya
Starring Maya Plisetskaya
With Maurice Béjart and Vladimir Vasiliev

Maya chronicles dancer, woman, teacher, iconoclast Maya Plisetskaya through her own narration, performance footage, and coaching sessions with dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet. Despite a tumultuous childhood in the Soviet Union, which included the execution of her father and the deportation of her mother, Plisetskaya emerged as a survivor and rebel, her art a shield against the repressiveness of a regime which, in the end, had no choice but to acknowledge her as her country’s prima ballerina assoluta.

84 min., 2009 All regions

VVA373 $24.95

Ballerina

An Intimate Portrait of Five Ballerinas from the Kirov

This documentary focuses on the selection and rigorous training of ballerinas at the Kirov, culminating in the graduation performance in which they achieve stardom.
It is an unvarnished view of the years of dedication and discipline needed to succeed.

The five dancers profiled in this revealing film are tough, insightful, and exceptionally talented. An inspiration for young women who set their sights high.

77 min., 2006 All regions

VFR344 $24.95

Giselle - Royal Ballet

Choreography by Petipa after Coralli and Perrot, with additional choreography by Peter Wright

Music by Adolphe Adam

Featuring Alina Cojocaru as Giselle and Johan Kobborg as Count Albrecht

Extra Features: Illustrated Synopsis and Cast Gallery

A sparkling production of a traditional favorite, given the “Royal” treatment.

112 min., 2008 All regions

VNX056 $30.00

Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About

As shown on the PBS American Masters Series, February 18, 2009

A not-to-be-missed 130 minute documentary on Robbins featuring excerpts from his personal journals, archival performance footage, never-before-seen rehearsals, as well as interviews with Robbins himself and over forty others, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jacques d’Amboise, Suzanne Farrell, Peter Martins, Chita Rivera, and Stephen Sondheim.Covers his transformations from modern dancer to ballet dancer, to master of the Broadway Musical, and to one of the greatest ballet choreographers. Includes excerpts from his ballets: Fancy Free, Les Noces, The Cage, Dances at a Gathering, Other Dances, The Goldberg Variations, Watermill, Dybbuk, Antique Epigraphs, In Memory Of... His Broadway choreography is represented by selections from On the Town, The King and I, Peter Pan, West Side Story, Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. 130 min.

VKU175 $30.00

Cinderella

Paris Opera Ballet

Rudolf Nureyev’s colourful, “movie-star” version of Prokofiev’s Cinderella retains the classic Perrault story but sets it in America during the difficult years of the Great Depression in the 1930s and 1940s. Agnès Letestu stars as Cinderella who, living with her alcoholic father, tyrannical stepmother and two spiteful stepsisters, dreams of escape and stardom in Hollywood. After a promising screen-test during which The Film Star, suavely portrayed by José Martinez, falls head over heels in love with her, she is fearful that her new-found happiness is too good to be true and will vanish with her youth. Fortunately, her magical protector (in the form of The Producer) and her lover move heaven and earth for a ‘happily ever after’ ending. 185 min.

VNX007 $39.95

Tales of Beatrix Potter

The Royal Ballet

Created by Frederick Ashton for a film in 1971, Tales of Beatrix Potter brings alive, with rich characterisation and invention, the famous images and stories of Beatrix Potter. Swept up in the ballet’s childlike exuberance, the entire cast delivers outstanding portrayals of such colorful figures as Jemima Puddle-Duck, Jeremy Fisher, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and the irrepressible Peter Rabbit. Ashton’s warm and witty, yet demanding, choreography creates a piece of charm and grace for all ages. 76 min.

VNX061 $29.95

Murray Louis in Concert

Medea (1780)

Choreographed by Jean-Georges Noverre Staged and recreated by Judith Chazin-Bennahum Presented by the University of New Mexico Department of Theatre and Dance Includes the dance documentary Recreating Medea by Mariel McEwan. 64 min.

VDH034D $39.95

Early Dance
Part 1: From the Greeks to the Renaissance

Produced by Isa Partsch-Bergsohn Directed by Hal Bergsohn

This concise history of Greek through Elizabethan dance uses engravings, prints, and paintings with accompanying music and narration. Period-costumed dancers demonstrate the pavan, galliard, saltarella, canarie and volta. 22 min.

VDH119 $39.95

Early Dance
Part 2: The Baroque Era

Doris Humphrey Legacy
Water Study
Coaching, Analysis,
and Performance

This is one of the first works Humphrey composed as an independent choreographer. Imagistic conceptions performed in silence, the dance calls for subtle yet complex ensemble work. 91 min.

VDH045 $39.95

Doris Humphrey Legacy
The Shakers
Coaching, Analysis,
and Performance

Based on Shaker ritual, this dance weaves Humphrey’s fascination with the sect and her interest in formal dance composition. Stodelle protégé Corbin coaches technical aspects of the choreography and Stodelle give and examination of Shaker life with still photographs and engravings. 91 min.

VDH041 $39.95

The New Dance Group
Gala Historical Concert Retrospective 1930s-1970s

A 1993 production by the American Dance Guild.
In this remarkable DVD, The New Dance Group Gala Historical Concert: Retrospective 1930s -1970s, although some of the footage is a bit grainy, viewers will enjoy viewing dances of the most influential Modern Dance pioneers from the 1930s-1970s including: Mary Anthony, Ronne Aul, Talley Beatty, Valerie Bettis, Irving Burton, Jane Dudley, Jean Erdman, Eve Gentry, Joseph Gifford, Hadassah, Sophie Maslow, Donald McKayle, Daniel Nagrin, Pearl Primus, Anna Sokolow, Joyce Trisler, Charles Weidman. 160 min.

VDP588 $59.95

Program:

Swan Lake

Maya Plisetskaya and the Bolshoi Ballet, with Bogatirev and Efimov

Choreography by Grigorovich after Petipa &Ivanov, Music by Tchaikovsky

Maya Plisetskaya performed the dual roles of Odette and Odile in Swan Lake more than 800 times, an astonishing statistic, especially considering the sheer technical demands this ballet places upon the ballerina. For this historic even Plisetskaya was joined by her highly esteemed partner, the charismatic Alexander Bogatirev.

VVA421 $34.95

Plisetskaya Dances

A fascinating look at the one of the most charismatic prima ballerinas of the 20th century. Includes movements from her most famous dances: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Spartacus, The Little Humpbacked Horse, The Dying Swan, Raymonda, The Stone Flower, Romeo and Juliet, Walpurgisnacht and Don Quixote. Male stars of the Bolshoi Ballet take part.

VVA393 $34.95

Don Quixote

Nina Ananiashvili with Alexei Fadeyechev and Aleksandr Astafiev and the Tchaikovsky Perm State Ballet

Choreography by Petipa & Gorsky, revised by Ledjakh, Varlamova & Azarin-Messerer

Music by Leon Minkus

This film is the only record of Ananiashvili in one of her signature roles. Virtuosity is very much on display in this performance by the Ballet during its Japanese tour. Ananiashvili’s Kitri benefits greatly from her astonishing technical gifts, her natural charm and a flair for comedy.

VVA420 $34.95

Swan Lake

Nina Ananiashvili with Alexei Fadeyechev and Sergei Zagorulko and the Tchaikovsky Perm State Ballet

Choreography by Petipa, Ivanov & Gorsky, Music by Tchaikovsky

Ananiashvili first performed Swan Lake at the age of seventeen and the ballet has been a mainstay of her repertoire ever since. Physically and dramatically it is a role neatly tailored to her exceptional gifts. This performance, taped while the company was on tour in Japan, is the only available video of Ananiashvili in Swan Lake. She is joined in this production by Alexei Fadeyechev, her partner of a dozen years, “a fantastic partner.”

VVA422 $34.95

Romeo and Juliet

Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev with the Bolshoi Ballet

Choreography by Lavrovsky, Music by Prokofiev

Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed young lovers has inspired countless variations, including successful permutations in dance, opera, concert music, film and musical theater. As a ballet, set to one of Prokofiev’s greatest scores, it has become a repertoire favorite. It is, however, the Kirov Ballet of Leningrad and Moscow’s Bolshoi that can claim an authentic relationship to this dance masterpiece. Here is a landmark performance, brilliantly illuminated by the performances of Maximova and Vasiliev.

VVA419 $34.95

Katia & Volodia

Ekaterina Maximova & Vladimir Vasiliev, A Portrait in Dance

Maximova and Vasiliev in a film by Dominique Delouche

Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev formed one of ballet’s supreme partnerships in their years as leading dancers with the Bolshoi Ballet. Each brought something distinctive to their individual work. Vasiliev ignited the stage with movie star looks and charisma, and a technique second to none. Maximova was enchanting and charming with the skills of a great actress. That they are husband and wife explains, in part, the unique chemistry of their collaborations.

VVA418 $24.95

Violette & Mr. B.

Violette Verdy in a film by Dominique Delouche

Violette Verdy, best remembered for her years as one of George Balanchine’s prima ballerinas at the New York City Ballet, has, in her retirement from the stage, been deeply involved in the training of young dancers. In this fascinating film, Ms. Verdy is shown coaching principal and guest artists at the Paris Opera Ballet in works of Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Her deep respect for the dances and her supportive work with her dancers define the qualities of a great teacher.

VVA423 $24.95

Dancing for Mr. B

Through interviews and performance excerpts, ballerinas Mary Ellen Moylan, Maria Tallchief, Melissa Hayden, Allegra Kent, Merrill Ashley and Darci Kistler salute their legendary teacher, George Balanchine, and share the impact he had on their lives.

VKU351 $29.99

Isadora Duncan
Masterworks
1905-1923

Isadora Duncan Dance Ensemble
Artistic Director: Dr. Andrea Mantell-Seidel
Artistic Advisor: Julia Levien

DVD 52 min., 2008

VDH055 $49.95

Firestone Dances:
Ballet Highlights

Among the treasures from the Voice of Firestone archives are Rudolf Nureyev’s American television solo debut; the legendary team of Jacques D’Amboise and Melissa Hayden; the brilliant Maria Tallchief; Carla Fracci in a rare Pas de quatre set to the music of Pugni; as well as principal dancers of the Royal Danish Ballet and a performance by the Ballet Espanol Ximenes-Vargas.

DVD, 49 min., b&w

VKU127 $20.00

Hans van Manen Festival

Staged by The Dutch National Ballet to celebrate the work of choreographer Hans van Manen for his 75th birthday. International guest artists from companies such as the Kirov Ballet, and Nederlands Dans Theater, joined Dutch National Ballet to perform some of van Manen’s most celebrated ballets.

DVD, 130 min., color

VKU349 $30.00

Stravinsky:
Once At A Border
A Film by Tony Palmer

This biographical film about one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century includes documents, photographs and film never seen publicly before. Stravinsky’s three surviving children talk about their father and there are contributions from the late Madame Vera Stravinsky and many friends and colleagues. Included in the film are important performances from Les Noces, Petroushka and also a priceless film of Stravinsky himself.

DVD, 166 min., color/b & w

VKU347 $25.00

La Bayadère -
Kirov Theatre

This production was filmed live at the Kirov starring Gabriella Komleva as the temple dancer, Nikia; Tatiana Terekhova as Gamzatti, the Rajah’s daughter, and Rejen Abdyev as Prince Solor. This performance exhibits the perfection achieved by the Kirov corps de ballet. The orchestra, under the baton of Victor Shirokov, plays Minkus’ scintillating music. A piece of history, and a work of art, La Bayadère is quite simply a gem to be savored again and again.

DVD, 130 min., color

VKU181 $30.00

Swan Lake - Bolshoi Theatre

The aristocratic beauty of the Bolshoi Ballet brings this acclaimed production of Swan Lake alive with ennobling presence and artistry. Natalia Bessmertnova is soft and lyrical in the dual role of Odette and Odile; her eminently feminine quality makes her the ideal interpreter of this classic. The elegance and magnetism of Siegfried is masterfully portrayed by Alexander Bogatyrev. With exquisitely designed sets, and a dance corps whose skill rivals that of the principal ballerinas. This historic production was choreographed by the critically acclaimed master Yuri Grigorvich, with Tchaikovsky’s timeless score performed by the Moscow Symphonic Orchestra under the baton of Algis Zhuraitis.

DVD, 130 min., color

VKU348 $30.00

Gala Tribute To Tchaikovsky

Gala Performance to honor Tchaikovsky on the centenary of his death.

Artists of The Royal Ballet
The Royal Opera Chorus

Includes dances from The Nutcracker , The Sleeping Beauty, and Anastasia

DVD, 137 min., color

VKU350 $30.00

Shape Up
with David Howard

A unique exercise program designed by America’s foremost ballet master David Howard. These energizing and strengthening exercises provide a complete workout for all fitness levels and offer a varied mixture of aerobic techniques that target your body’s core muscle groups, toning and conditioning them.

DVD, 60 min., color

VKU276 $20.00

Ballet Class For Beginners

David Howard’s Ballet Class for Beginners is an excellent learning and teaching tool especially designed by America’s foremost ballet master to introduce the beginning student to the technique and vocabulary of classical ballet, with the emphasis on posture, placement and movement potential.

DVD, 40 min.

VKU021 $20.00