DVD Videos

A remarkable meeting of two of the great choreographers and impresarios - and two of the great dance companies - of the modern age: Maurice Béjart’s groundbreaking Ballet of the XXth Century; and the magisterial Kirov Ballet, directed by Oleg Vinogradov. In a series of performances in the beautiful palaces, parks, and riverbank walkways of Leningrad, dancers rehearse and perform fifteen pieces, ranging from the grand, classical style of ‘The Shades’ ‘Don Quixote’ and ‘The Nutcracker’ to stark and edgy modernism in Béjart’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Le Sacre du Printemps.’ The pieces are performed during Leningrad’s ‘white nights’ – the long twilight that comes with summer solstice. Along with moments of stunning dancing, the program documents the amazing creative process achieved by the dancers, their directors, and film crews during ten intense days of rehearsal, performance, and shooting.<br><br>Discussions with both Béjart and Vinogradov reveal the artists’ mutual respect – and Béjart actually works up an entirely new piece, with great spontaneity, just for the occasion. A fascinating and beautiful cultural and creative exchange.

In the world of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Achterland (Hinterland), men fly and roll by as if unimportant to women, whose heavier, more deeply rooted movements include diving, sliding, falling and broadly flirtatious vamping. The music that drives it comes from Eugene Ysaye (3 violin sonatas) and Gyorgy Ligeti (piano etudes). The setting, a large wooden platform, to which 5 smaller platforms are added later, remains minimalist.