White Night of Dance in Leningrad Ballet Performance [VHS] - Classic Russian Ballet Film for Dance Enthusiasts & Collectors

The performers in this 1987 French-Soviet production from are from the Kirov Ballet, directed by Oleg Vinogradov, and Maurice Béjart's Ballet of the XXth Century, from Belgium. (Although the dancers are listed at the beginning of the video, no cast list is provided. I found the information elsewhere.) My opinion of this video hinged largely on Béjart's and Vinogradov's choreography. I don't care for either, but this only partially accounts for my three-star rating.The ballets are performed in parks and palaces of Leningrad/St. Petersburg and on the banks of the city's broad Neva River -- not the Volga, as the video jacket says. From the title of the video, I assume the outdoor performances were taped at night. However, since there's no clock visible, and since the viewer hasn't just experienced an unusually long stretch of daylight, the performances might just as well have been taped in the late afternoon. So what's the point, except to provide a catchy title?This is the program (BXXC = Ballet of the XXth Century):"Chopiniana" (aka Les Sylphides): Elena Evteeva, Olga Likhovskaya, Elena Pankova, Kirill Melnikov and Kirov ensemble. The waltz is well performed in a lovely park, but the look of the temporary stage detracts from the mood. Too bad it's impossible to dance on the grass."Rite of Spring" (Béjart): Eric Vu An (guest artist from the Paris Opéra Ballet - more on him below), Grazia Galante and BXXC ensemble. The dancers are good, but I thought the choreography was neither original nor interesting."Notre Faust" (Béjart): Olga Chenchikova and Evgenii Neff. Again, the dancers were good but I was unmoved by the choreography."La Fille mal Gardee" (Vinogradov): Xavier Ferla, Ramon Flowers, Michel Gascard, Giorgio Madia and BXXC ensemble. This clog dance is very different from the well-known Frederick Ashton version, which can be seen on "Ballet Favorites," with Brian Shaw dancing the role of Widow Simone "en travestie." Vinogradov's version uses four men and has occasional flashes of humor."1830" (Béjart): Farukh Ruzimatov and Kirov ensemble. Program notes would have been helpful. In their absence, I'm guessing that the ballet's theme is Belgium's 1830 revolution to gain independence. As in the preponderance of Béjart ballets, the men are bare-chested. Béjart is known for celebrating masculine beauty, but the Kirov male corps doesn't fit the bill as well as the men of Ballet of the XXth Century. Ruzimatov, however, looks just right. Besides having a flashy technique, he has the somewhat androgynous look and narcissism of many of the Béjart men and looks at home in Béjart's signature unisex dark eye makeup. As for the choreography, I don't care for Béjart's muscular, non-flowing movements. In this piece, he also "Mickey Mouses" the music in places, meaning that there is a movement corresponding to every note of the melody, as in early musical cartoons."Conte Russe" (Béjart): BXXC. I thought this was the most interesting of the Béjart works. It features the Béjart men in all their exposed beauty, with the doll-like female characters enclosed in heavy, elaborate costumes by Gianni Versace. Without program notes, I'm at a loss to say what the ballet is about, but at least it has interesting images."Swan Lake": Galina Mezentseva, Konstantin Zaklinsky and Kirov ensemble. The park setting for the Act 2 pas de deux provides a nice atmosphere, and the white birds that skim over the small lake in the background can, with some imagination, be seen as swans. But by no stretch of the imagination do the cars and trucks in the more distant background fit into the ballet. Mezentseva and Zaklinsky perform with their usual controlled elegance."Potemkin" (Vinogradov): Elena Kamalova, Gennadi Babanin and Kirov ensemble. Like Béjart, Vinogradov likes to use large groups of men, but not to great effect, from the excerpts of his works that I've seen. This one ends with Death coming to claim a female sailor(?) from the battleship Potemkin. It is has some inventive dancing-with-a-corpse choreography."Suite Grecque" (Béjart): Philippe Lizon, Michel Gascard and BXXC ensemble. Two male soloists dance, in turn, to Greek music. A female chorus enters and doesn't do much. (I think being a female dancer in Béjart's company would be unrewarding.) What bothered me most about this piece is that I couldn't see what it had to do with the music. I felt it could just as well have been danced to any music."Arepo" (Béjart): Eric Vu An/Lynne Charles. Eric Vu An's solo is why I don't regret having bought this video. He is an excellent technician with a beautiful, lithe, sinuous way of moving. A duet for Vu An and Ruzimatov could have been spectacular. Why did no one choreograph one?"Le Corsaire": Altynai Asylmuratova and Kirov ensemble. On the Kirov Theatre stage, Asylmuratova makes the Act III adagio ("Le Jardin Animé") come alive."Heliogabale" (Béjart): Asylmuratova and Ruzimatov. This bit of nonsense wastes the talents of two excellent performers. Any dancers could have performed this piece."La Bayadere": Kirov ensemble. The famous entrance of the Shades is taken out of its usual setting and performed on a temporary stage on the banks of the Neva, with changing camera angles showing various beautiful vistas. I couldn't decide whether the scenery distracted from the dancing or the dancing distracted from the scenery. Probably the latter, because there was a lot of uncharacteristic wobbling among the dancers."Le Soldat Amoureux" (Béjart): Michel Gascard, Vadim Gulyayev, Ruzimatov, Jorge Donn (Béjart's long-time star) and Kirov/BXXC ensemble. Once again, program notes would have helped. Maybe the ballet is about an amorous soldier. My research revealed nothing about the subject of the ballet, but I did discover that the title comes from the music, a traditional Neopolitan song ('O Surdato 'Nnamurato, in Neopolitan dialect). I also learned that this song was often sung for soccer player Diego Maradona when he played for Napoli, so maybe the ballet has something do with soccer. I couldn't get any clues from the costumes, because the men wore -- what else? -- tights and no tops. The ballet was recorded in a studio, with the other members of the Kirov and Béjart companies sitting on the floor and watching the action, calling out and singing along. The piece ends with everyone dancing and skipping around, exuding camaraderie.In sum, this balletic manifestation of glasnost was probably a significant event for the Russian dance world, but not a great artistic achievement. If you are a Béjart fan, this video would be a good buy. As for me, I'll probably just keep the tape rewound to Eric Vu An's solo. The scenery's nice, though.