New on DVD

Ballet Favorites

This glittering evening at the ballet features these stunning sequences:

Swan Lake:
Siegfried and Odette Pas de deux – Yulia Makhalina and Igor Zelensky (Kirov Ballet)

La Fille Mal Gardée:
The Clog Dance, The Maypole Dance, The Clog Dance – Lesley Collier and Anthony Dowell (The Royal Ballet)

The Nutcracker: Variations and Grand Pas – Galina Mezentseva and Konstantin Zaklinsky (The Royal Ballet)

Giselle: The Mad Scene, Myrtha and the Willis – Irina Kolpakova (Kirov Ballet)

The Sleeping Beauty:
The Garland Waltz, The Rose Adagio - Alessandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling (Kirov Ballet)

Romeo and Juliet:
The Dance of the Knights, Juliet’s Bedroom Pas de deux – Darcy Bussell and Jonathan Cope (The Royal Ballet)

The Prince of the Pagodas:
Act III Pas de deux – Cynthia Harvey and Mikhail Baryshnikov (The Royal Ballet)

Don Quixote:
Act I (complete) – (American Ballet Theatre)

DVD 90 min.
VKU025D $ 19.95

Peter and the Wolf

Featuring Royal Ballet Principal
Sergei Polunin as the Wolf
With Students of the Royal Ballet School

Choreography by Matthew Hart
Music by Prokofiev
Narrator: Will Kemp

A delight for children of any age, the Royal Ballet’s 2011 production is stylish and inventive. A brave young boy (danced by Royal Ballet student Kilian Smith) does battle with a big bad wolf, assisted by a mini-carnival of animal friends and a corps de ballet which at times represents a meadow, a forest, and a lake.

DVD, 30 min.
VNX121D $19.95

Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland

Featuring Laura Cuthbertson as Alice, Sergei Polunin as Jack/the Knave of Hearts, and Steven McCrae as the Mad Hatter
With artists of the
England’s Royal Ballet

Choreography by
Christopher Wheeldon
Music by Joby Talbot

This multi-million dollar spectacle, premiered in 2011, is noted for its fantastic scenery and stage effects, especially the Cheshire cat – who alternately emerges and dissolves, its body parts manipulated by dancers.

In a touch of ironic humor the entrance to the Duchess’s chaotic kitchen, a scene of furious sausage-making, is marked with a sign saying Home Sweet Home. The episodes follow the story in dance terms and relate the Wonderland characters to real people in Alice’s life, including the author Lewis Carroll (The White Rabbit), her real mother (The Queen of Hearts), and Jack, the garden boy (The Knave of Hearts). The commissioned music by Joby Talbot is especially noteworthy.

DVD, 120 min.
VNX079D $ 29.95

Now Available

Classical Ballet Lesson

A series of 8 DVDs from the beginning of Year 1 to the end of Year 8
Corresponding to the Vagonova syllabus in School of Classical Dance
by Vera Kostrovitskaya and Alexei Pisarev
Demonstrated by Galina Mezentseva, former Prima Ballerina, the Kirov Ballet
Average length of each class is 80 minutes except for 8th Class, which is 156 minutes (on 2 disks).

Dance Horizons Selection of Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, and Break Dance DVDs

Jazz Dances for Kids and Teens
With Bob Rizzo

Four full-length routines for beginner through advanced levels. There are a variety of styles including Hip Hop, Musical Theatre, Jazz, and Broadway. Each dance is performed to music, followed by step-by-step breakdowns shown from the back.

DVD 75 min.
VRB458 $44.95

Street Groove
With Derek Mitchell

Three full length street jazz routines for advanced beginner through advanced levels. Derek and his dancers teach you each dance step-by-step, slowly and clearly from the back.

DVD 60 min.
VRB486 $44.95

Tap & Glide
With Mark Goodman

Three swing-inspired tap dances for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels that will have you gliding across the floor.

DVD 75 min.
VRB491 $44.95

Contemporary Jazz Combinations and Routines With Albert Cattafi

Choreographer Albert Cattafi introduces you to his energetic style of Contemporary Jazz as he guides you through “across the floor” combinations, floor work, improvisational skills, and two routines for intermediate and advanced levels. Throughout Al emphasizes musicality, level changes, and dynamics.

DVD 60 min.
VRB416$44.95

Contemporary Turns and Jumps
With Albert Cattafi

Albert takes you step-by-step through a variety of show-stopping turns and jumps in the Contemporary style. From basic through advanced moves seen in today’s hottest music videos and TV realty shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, Albert will give you the style, skills and confidence to master these steps. Every combination has a version for different levels, with an easy-to-follow breakdown for every step. For intermediate and advanced levels.

DVD 60 min.
VRB417 $44.95

Albert Cattafi, a Mr. Dance of America, trained at the Joffrey Ballet School. He assisted and danced for Emmy award-winning choreographer Mia Michaels, toured the US and Europe in A Few Good Men…Dancin’, and danced in Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance.

Hip Hop for Kids
With Roger G

An introduction to Hip Hop for children that begins with a warm up and a basic chapter, then progresses with each section getting a little harder and more challenging. Includes music CD with the dance song called The Hip Hop Bounce.

DVD 30 min.
VWM269D $16.95

School House Hop
Hip Hop Dance for
Beginners Ages 5-14
With Roger G

An easy-to-follow Hip Hop workout introducing such moves as Chicken Noodle Soup, The Snap, and Walk it Out.

DVD 45 min.
VWM288D $19.95

How to Break Dance
with Mike Garcia, also known as Breaker

How to Break Dance
Volume 1

Garcia breaks the moves down in an intelligent and concise manner. Moves covered include windmill, handspin, uprock, sixstep, glide, popping, single and double leg swipes. Breaking footage also included.

DVD 34 min.
VWM270 $19.95

How to Break Dance
Volume 2

Every move is broken down step-by-step for easy learning. Includes Headspin, Flare, Backspin, Coindrop, Robot, Turtles, and Freezes.

DVD 30 min.
VWM271D $19.95

How to Break Dance
Volume 3

Every move is broken down step-by-step for easy learning. Includes Wave Breakdown, Strobe Walk, Centipede, Moon Walk, Locking, Body Shake, The Wall, The Ball.

DVD 40 min.
VWM272D $19.95

How to Break Dance
Volume 4

Every move is broken down step-by-step for easy learning. Includes Air Flares, Hollow Back, Brooklyn Toprock, Puppet, Boomerang, Flip, Halos, Breakers, No-handed Windmills, Munchmills.

DVD 40 min.
VWM273D $19.95

Three Ballets
by Wayne McGregor

Chroma, Infra, Limen

Featuring Principals and Corps de Ballet of The Royal Ballet
24-page full-color booklet in English, French, and German included

The diversity of Wayne McGregor’s astonishing talent is demonstrated through Chroma, Infra, and Limen, each created for The Royal Ballet, for whom he is the Resident Choreographer. Employing a generous mix of classical ballet virtuosity with modern contractions, gestures, and abstracted imagery, his many-layered and beautiful dances provide visual, sensual, and kinesthetic stimulus for the viewer.

DVD 98 min., 2011
VNX025D $29.95

The Great Ballets of Rudolf Nureyev
(Boxed Set)

Dancer’s Dream

Raymonda,
Romeo & Juliet,
Sleeping Beauty,
La Bayadère

Featuring Stars and the Corps de Ballet of the Paris National Opera Ballet, including performances by Rudolf Nureyev, Elisabeth Platel, Manuel Legris, Elisabeth Maurin, Kader Balarbi, Isabel Guérin, Laurent Hilaire, and Aurèlie Dupont

4 DVDs 363 min.
VNX030D  $59.95

Don Quichot
(Don Quixote)

Choreography by Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky with Additional Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky
Featuring Anna Tsygankova as Kitri, Matthew Golding as Basilio and stars and corps de ballet of the Dutch National Ballet
Music by Ludwig Minkus

Special Features:
Behind the Scenes: filmed by a dancer using a bodycam during Rehearsal.
Interviews with the principal dancers and actors
24 page full-color Booklet in English, French, German, and Dutch

Originally choreographed by Petipa in 1869 and adapted by Gorsky in 1900 and 1902, this 2010 production contains new choreography by Ratmansky, who conducted research on the piece at the Harvard University Library. Achieving a balance between mime and dance, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are personified with poignancy and humor. Anna Tsygankova and Matthew Golding dance brilliantly.

DVD 152 min., 2011
VNX036D $39.95

2010 Production, Birmingham Royal Ballet

Cinderella

Featuring Elisha Willis and Ian Mackay  

With Principal Dancers and Corps de Ballet of the Birmingham Royal Ballet

Choreography by David Bintley

Music by Sergei Prokofiev

This new production, costing over 1.5 million dollars, is a theatrical banquet for the eyes in terms of scenery, lighting and costuming. Choreographed with real emotional resonance, it opens with the funeral of the young Cinderella’s mother and her introduction to her future stepmother and stepsisters. Flashing ahead ten years, the grown Cinderella is bullied in a dismal kitchen by her sisters who tread a nimble line between comedy and nastiness. The fairy godmother arrives and all turns to magic. The gleaming coach is brought on by mice and lizards, and the ball scene is a feast of swirling decadence. At the stroke of midnight Cinderella disappears through the whirring mechanism of an amazing clock. In the end, the prince rescues her from her greasy kitchen, but she, in turn, rescues him from a court without love.

109 min., filmed in 2010, first DVD release 2011
VKU060D $29.95

Great Stars of Russian Ballet

Great Stars of
Russian Ballet
Volume 1

Historic Performances
1971-1983

A series of spectacular performances of ballet classics and modern works. The first volume includes The Dying Swan (Plisetskaya), the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake (Plisetskaya & Kovtun), the Béjart Romeo and Juliet (Maximova & Vasiliev), Don Quixote (Timofeeva & Godunov), and much more.

Click for details and a complete list of performances

95 min., 2011
VVA368D  $34.95

Great Stars of
Russian Ballet
Volume 2

Historic Performances
1955-1991

The second volume in this series of spectacular performances includes Icarus (Maximova & Vasiliev), Walpurgis Night (Maximova, Yagoudin, Vlasov), Raymonda (Kolpakova & Semenov), Don Quixote (Vaslieva & Galimullin), Black Swan pas de deux (Bessmertnova & Bogatirev), La rose malade (Plisetskaya & Kovtun), and much more.

Click for details and a complete list of performances

93 min., 2011
VVA369D $34.95

Great Stars of
Russian Ballet
Volume 3

Historic Performances
1972-1992

A series of spectacular performances of ballet classics and modern works. The third volume includes Nocturne (Plisetskaya and Verdishev), Don Quixote (Maximova and Vasiliev), The Flower Festival in Genzano (Paliy and Malakhov), Grand Pas Classique (Timashova and Gorbatsevich), and much more.

Click for complete list of performances

95 min., 2011
VVA370D $34.95

Great Stars of
Russian Ballet
Volume 4

Historic Performances
1968-1992

The fourth volume in this series of spectacular performances includes Spartacus (Vasiliev), Don Quixote (Semenyaka and Baryshnikov), Swan Lake - Black Swan pas de deux (Tayakina and Kovtun), The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (Kolpakova and Selutsky), and much more.

Click for details and a complete list of performances

97 min., 2011
VVA371D $34.95

Angelin Preljocaj, Choreographer

Siddharta

Starring Nicolas Le Riche
and Aurélie Dupont

With the Corps de Ballet
and Orchestra of the
Paris National Opera

Choreography by
Angelin Preljocaj

Music by Bruno Montovani

22-page booklet in
English, French, and German included

Inspired by an extended trip to India, Angelin Prelocaj choreographed the story of the transformation of the young prince Siddharta into the Buddha, the Enlightened One, an itinerant preacher who traveled throughout northern India. The 16 scenes focus on a minimalist adaptation of Siddharta’s quest for the absolute, freed from the shackles of specified time and historical location. His journey reaches its climax with the moment of enlightenment, which sees the two dancers, Siddharta (Nicolas Le Riche) and The Awakening (Aurélie Dupont) become one.

100 min., 2010
VNX127D $29.95

Pierre Lacotte, Choreographer, after Filippo Taglioni

La Sylphide

Starring Aurélie Dupont
and Mathieu Ganio

With the Corps de Ballet and Orchestra of the Paris National Opera

Choreography by Pierre Lacotte after Filippo Taglioni

Music by Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer

15-page booklet in
English, French and German included

Bonus: La Sylphide Rediscovered

First performed in Paris in 1832, La Sylphide marks the advent of Romanticism in ballet. Unfurling against the rich backdrop of Scotland, a country dear to Romantic imagery, the story recounts the impossible love of a mortal for a supernatural creature.

127 min., filmed in 2004, first DVD release 2011
VNX073D $29.95

La Bayadère
(The Temple Dancer)

Natalia Makarova, Choreographer, after Marius Petipa

Starring Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta

With the Corps de Ballet of the Royal Ballet

Choreography by Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa

Music by Ludwig Minkus

26-page full color booklet in
English, French, and German

Extra Features:

• Cast Gallery
• Tamara Rojo on dancing La Bayadère
• Leanne Cope and Francesca Filpi on the Corps de Ballet
• Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta rehearse
• Natalia Makarova on choreographing La Bayadère

Marius Petipa’s exotic ballet, set in legendary India, is a story of love, death and vengeful judgment. The second scene of Act 2, The Kingdom of the Shades, is one of the most famous in all of ballet.

167 min., filmed in 2009, first DVD release 2011
VNX070D $29.95

A Midsummer
Night’s Dream

George Balanchine, Choreographer, with Alessandra Ferri

Starring Alessandra Ferri
and Roberto Bolle

With the Corps de Ballet of
the Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Choreography
by George Balanchine

Restaged by Patricia Neary
and Sara Leland

Music by Felix Mendelssohn

16-page booklet in English, French, and German

Balanchine’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy of star-crossed lovers is a ballet for the entire family. The spectrum of dance is broad, ranging from the aristocratic classicism for Oberon and Titania to the shirt-sleeved workmen in the artisan scenes. A combination of both styles is seen in the duet for Titania and Bottom wearing a donkey’s head.

104 min., filmed in 2007, first DVD release 2010
VNX076D $29.95

Loïe Fuller: Dancing
in the Light Fantastic

Featuring reconstructions of Night, Fire Dance, and Lily

A Momenta production, funded by The Illinois Humanities Council, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Illinois General Assembly
For the first time, this DVD offers a comprehensive look at Loie Fuller’s life, work, and her influences on today’s dance and film artists. It is divided into four sections:

1. 1834-1889: Family beginnings in the Illinois farmland.
2. 1889-1895: Early performing and the shaping of her distinctive style.
3. 1895 & 1900: Fame in Paris. Three famous dances are reconstructed.
4. 1900-Present: Fuller’s influence on dance, film, costuming, staging and theater.

Includes archival film and photographs as well as contemporary reconstructions.

66 minutes, 2010
VMN001 $39.95

Three Ballets by Kenneth MacMillan

Elite Syncopations (1974)
Music: Scott Joplin and others

The Judas Tree (1992)
Music: Brian Elias

Concerto (1966)
Music: Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 2

Featuring Artists of the Royal Ballet with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Kenneth MacMillan’s versatility is celebrated here in three very different ballets: the humorous romp Elite Syncopations, set to the easy-going rhythms of ragtime, is in stark contrast to The Judas Tree, that depicts the horrific fate of a woman at the hands of 13 men. Concerto, danced to the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2, is an abstract work of beauty, exuberance, and reflection.

114 minutes, first DVD release 2010

VNX160D $30.00

Also available on Blu-ray

Kaguyahime The Moon Princess

Performed by the
Nederlands Dans Theater

Choreography by Jirí Kylián

Music composed for
traditional Japanese instruments
by Maki Ishii

This Asian-fusion ballet, loosely based on an ancient Japanese legend, combines both modern and ballet styles. It opens with the conductor and musicians in a silent movement ritual before the music starts. The story is about a beautiful otherworldly girl (the Moon Princess) who rejects five suitors bearing gifts. She is eventually wooed by the Emperor, but she rejects him as well – wishing to bring peace, she only succeeds in provoking conflict. Realizing that she is not a part of the world and certainly not the world of the 21st century (symbolized by a backdrop of automobiles), she returns to her home in the moon and to the mythological past.

In the original tale, the Emperor is so distraught that he burns her farewell letter to him on the top of a mountain, which can still be seen as the wisp of smoke emerging from the summit of Mount Fuji.

69 minutes, first DVD release 2010
VKU176 $30.00

What a Beautiful documentary! ...done with admiration,
adoration,good taste and love... a remarkable service
to dance and the history of modern dance.
- Robert Lindgren
  Founding Dean, North Carolina School of the Arts
  Past President, School of American Ballet

A New Dance for America

The Choreography, Teachings and Legacy of Doris Humphrey

Narrated by Doris Humphrey, Lindsay Crouse, and Ina Hahn
Written and directed by Ina Hahn
Featuring rare archival footage of Doris Humphrey
and the Humphrey-Weidman Company

The story of the life and works of modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) is the focus of this documentary. It leads from her birth in Oak Park, Illinois, to growing up in a theatrical hotel in Chicago where she supported her parents as a dance teacher at the age of 18, the launch of her professional career in the Denishawn Company, establishing her own company with partner Charles Weidman, to serving as artistic director and choreographer for José Limón. Historical and contemporary performance excerpts cover the span of her career from her earliest composition, Valse Caprice (1920), to her last, Brandenberg Concerto (1958), and represent some of her finest pieces such as Soaring, Passacaglia in C Minor, New Dance and Day on Earth.

Attention has been paid to placing her growth as a dance artist and her contribution to the development of modern dance within the context of twentieth century history. Interviews with former dancers who worked with her and with her son complete the picture of this indomitable woman who, along with Charles Weidman and Martha Graham, forged a new art form growing out of the national experience of pioneering, freedom of expression, wide open spaces and democratic values.

80 min., color and b&w, 2010

VWH002 $29.95