Ballets Russes:Straightforward Documentary Features Colorful Characters

Dance and film naturally go together. For both forms, motion, rhythm, and tempo serve a story or concept. Daniel Geller's and Dayna Goldfine's Ballets Russes is a documentary about the famous rivalry between the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the Original Ballet Russe, two avant-garde ballet troupes that introduced American audiences to ballet in the first half of the twentieth century.

The film features interviews with surviving members of both groups, including some very colorful characters who truly embody their titles of "prima donna." Tatiana Riabouchinska, Maria Tallchief, Raven Wilkinson, Irina Baronova, Frederic Franklin, and the comically narcissistic Mia Slavenska animatedly discuss their lives in the ballet, working with choreographers like George Balanchine, Leonide Massine, Michael Fokine, and Agnes de Mille, among others.

Through the history of the ballets Russes, love affairs, egos, and artistic temperaments mixed with truly innovative choreography, set and costume designs by the likes of Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, and Salvador Dali, to create rare dance experiences featuring the graceful forms of youthful ballerinas - some beginning as young as 12.

As a film, Ballets Russes is not particularly innovative. In fact, it is pretty rough in terms of both structure and production values. That being said, the film does tell a little known story and provide a behind-the-scenes look at a ballet company of great stature.

Archival footage shows the actual performances, including the magnificent sets and costumes created by Matisse and Miro. Graceful, strong performers dance against the backdrop of a bleeding, eviscerated swan set designed by Surrealist Salvador Dali. This is footage that documents a time when there still was an avant-garde.

Likewise, the new footage captures some remarkable moments. Dancers like George Zoritch and Nathalie Krassovka, both of whom are close to 90 years old, dance together at a 2000 reunion of the Ballet. Some real gems are found in these contemporary scenes. Watching 85-year-old prima donnas dance with premier danseurs, you can see the joy that they still get from the controlled form of their bodies in motion.

Ballets Russes is not a great work of art itself, but it does document some talented men and women of all different backgrounds who came together for a few decades of ballet . Their interviews reveal people who truly loved their work and who did it simply for the art of it.