Marius Petipa: The French Master Of Russian Ballet

Fascinating. Early early history before the Bolshoi. Describesthe role of tchaikovsky. Clips of modern reinactments. I watched it twice.

Very enjoyable documentary. Good quality of sound ans pictures. My only criticism is the lack of documentation of the old style of Ballets before Petipa. How can we measure the extent of the revolution he efffected, if we do not have what preceded it? Only the pictures on the cover of the dVD gives us an idea. Quite an appetiser, but not enough! Otherwise Denis Sneguirev has done an excellent jof of research and editing.

The pictures are fascinating - scenes of old cities, pictures of old costumes and dancers, interspersed with modern videos of dancing and interviews with people.Unfortunately, the subtitles and information banners are almost unreadable - they have chosen bad text fonts and colors that do not stand out from the images. Without them, it's hard to make sense of the story, but it is enjoyable to watch.

I loved this documentary, it is really well done. Totally recommend to any ballet fan, dance fan or even interested in history.