Ballets Russes

Balletomanes are bound to adore Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine's lavish documentary Ballets Russes (2005), which recalls the glory days of that legendary emigré dance troupe through rare footage of its opulent performances and interviews drawn from a 2000 reunion of its surviving stars, most of them in their eighties...

By Bill Gallo

March 30, 2006

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Balletomanes are bound to adore Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine's lavish documentary Ballets Russes (2005), which recalls the glory days of that legendary emigré dance troupe through rare footage of its opulent performances and interviews drawn from a 2000 reunion of its surviving stars, most of them in their eighties and nineties. But even those who don't know a jeté from a pas de deux may be fascinated by this excursion into the past (1932-1962), three decades in which neither artistic rivalries nor a calamitous world war nor sheer greed could put the famous company to rout. Included: the recollections of ballet stars Alicia Markova, Nathalie Krassovska, George Zoritch and Irina Baronova, who collaborated with twentieth-century giants such as Balanchine, Fokina, Stravinsky, Debussy, Picasso and Matisse.

Ballets Russes will screen Monday, April 3, as part of the University of Colorado's International Film Series. Shows are at 7 and 9 p.m. in Muenzinger Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus; for information, call 303-492-1531 or go to www.internationalfilmseries.com.

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