If you love ballet or know someone who does, this is a lovely gift set of four documentaries: the 2006 "Ballerina," the 2008 "Prima Ballerina," the 2000 "Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet," and the 1994 "The Dancer."
By the dates, your really fervent ballet lover might already have all these DVDs but you never know and this DVD set has proved to be a hot commodity.
"Prima Ballerina"
This 2008 movie isn't listed in the Internet Movie Database. According to BalletConnections.com, the director Laurent Gentot is a former dancer. He studied in Paris with Raymond Franchetti and Andrei Glegolvsky and came to New York to study at Juilliard. He was a member of the Opera de Nice, Opera de Lyon, Opera de Bordeaux and Ballet du Nord. Laurent was invited to Russia and was able to shoot Svetlana Zakharova of the Bolshoi and Ulyana Lopatkina of the Mariinsky. As a former dancer Gentot wanted to understand their magic, feeling that Lopatkina has amazing musicality and intelligence while Zakharova has incredible sensuality. This 52-minute documentary is a lovely study of the two dancers.
"Ballerina"
Bertrand Normand looked at five ballerinas at the Kirov and their journeys toward being a prima ballerinas with clips of rehearsals and performances in this 77-minute 2006 documentary . When you see how the girls and women are judged, you as an American might cringe. These women know that their bodies are a means of expression, an artistic medium and provide them with the potential to be a star. That's a lot of pressure for a young girl. Normand also shows us that Russia is a different world away, where prima ballerinas are the rock stars of their country.
"Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet"
This 2000 documentary by Nils Tavernier should be seen along with the more recent Frederick Wiseman "La Dance: Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris" (2009). Like the Wiseman documentary Tavernier's movie shows rehearsals and clips of classical and contemporary works and interviews the stars of that time. The movie seems more interested in the sweat behind the scenes than the glamour of the performance.
"The Dancer"
Donya Feuer's 96-minute documentary looks at a young Katja Bjorner as she trains at the Royal Swedish Ballet School. Called "Dansaren" this is a rare find. You probably won't get an opportunity to see this film unless you buy the DVD. The Royal Swedish Ballet was founded in 1773 and is one of the oldest companies in Europe. Bjorner is still dancing and apparently still a member of the Royal Swedish Ballet although she has been making appearances in the United States this year.
The whole set is available from First Run Features, a company that distributes independent, documentary and foreign films, which depending upon where you live might mean films that will never run in your town or only have short one-day to one-weeks runs.
The set is currently available for $38.97 but has proved so popular is is backordered and temporarily unavailable.
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