Russia The Missing Years - History Of The Bolshoi Ballet

I decided to make a collection of DVDs of the great Russian ballet about two years ago and have been hunting down rare copies ever since. There is a real shortage of material from the wonderful age of the Bolshoi whom I first saw in London in the 1960s when they were at their prime. I remember the excitement they stirred up in the hearts of all ballet lovers then. They brought a new and very different type of ballet to us than the tidy and safe ballets we knew. Here, girls hurled themselves through the air and were caught in one handed lifts (and these were not tiny dancers- but real women sized females) The male dancers were strong and powerful, and the female dancers could act and were extremely delicately graceful. The variations (divertissements) were the most exciting short ballets I have ever seen. We applauded until our hands were raw, we cheered and gave them standing ovations. Opera a Vienne Autriche La Flute enchantee,La Chauve-Souris Concerts de Mozart et de Strauss How sad then, that the material about this great age of dance seems to be lost. There are few videos and dvds and they are mostly filmed badly in black and white. I still think of Maya Plistetskaya as one of the greatest ballerinas the world has ever known. I cannot say I saw Ulanova live, but to compare the two would be something I would love to do, and in the Fountains of Backshirai (spelling is questionable) I have a rare snippet of the two greatest ballerinas of the Bolshoi together. Surely there is a coloured recording somewhere in the archives of the Bolshoi? I recently acquired the Little Hump backed horse- a wonderful ballet for children, but the film is marred by poor quality film techniques and a producer's angle to put in cartoons and extras which detract from the wonderful dancing a bit. For those who love ballet and wish to see why the Bolshoi ballet were so exciting and great in the 60s, take a search of youtube where there are snippets to view from Walpurgisnacht and Spring Waters. Without a doubt, the Bolshoi brought us something exciting and new which reawakened the English male dancers to leap higher and longer and turn with more energy and power- they also taught us to take risks- giving their all in every performance- I have never seen ballet like it and I probably never will again, so I do hope someone somewhere finds archive material from the wonderful great age of the company and produces a good quality dvd to show all ballet lovers what they are missing. You can find two dvds (recently issued in England) on the wonderful Maya Plisetskaya now but the films are mainly in black and white, which is irritating as I am sure the BBC recorded the Bolshoi ballet in colour many years ago and filming techniques have improved so much over the years.

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