Bolshoi Ballet

Swan Lake tells the timeless tale of redemption through love. It is probably the best-known, best-loved of all the classical ballets, and, for the prima ballerina who dances the dual role of Odette and Odile, the supreme test of the dancer's craft.

Written in 1898, Raymonda is deemed to be Glazunov's finest ballet, stately and melodious. Raymonda bids farewell to her betrothed Jean de Brienne, who presents her with a silk shawl as a farewell gift and goes to fight in the Crusades. She dreams of him, but her dreams are frequently interrupted by the ocurrence of a Saracen warrior. Abderakhman is fascinated by the beautiful noblewoman and ultimately attempts to abduct her, duelling with Jean who, by this time, has now returned home.

This three-act ballet occupied Prokofiev near the end of his life. Prokofiev took the fairy tale The Stone Flower as his ballet subject; it came from a collection of stories about the miners in the Ural mountains. The ballet is quite philosophical and much pantomime is required to bring out the complicated plot. At the base of it, sculptor Danila is torn between perfecting his art and his love of Katerina. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain offers her minerals as well as herself to him but in the end Danila chooses Katerina and one of those big wedding celebrations so important to many ballets concludes the work.

Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Mikhail Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.

The story of the ballet is a tad convoluted. We begin with a group of dancers, venturing into the countryside to celebrate the end of the harvest. It transpires that one of the land girls has previously studied ballet in the City but gave it up to marry the man of her dreams. Irritatingly, this same man repays her by attempting to seduce a beautiful ballerina of the company. And coincidentally, the land girl and the ballerina are best friends! Thereafter, the plot becomes complex and involves much cross-dressing, seduction of elderly neighbours and men in dog costumes.

Radical version of classical play, proposed in the Bolshoi theater in 1997. When Vladimir Vasilev created his production of Giselle, he gifted the title role to the young, eighteen-year old dancer, Svetlana Lunkina.

Live from the Bolshoi Theatre. This 1978 remake is a truly spellbinding version of this Christmas classic. Tchaikovsky's beloved melodies combine with superb dancing to create pure delight. Starring Ekaterina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliev, Victor Levashev, and Sergei Radchenko.

Asaf Messerer's 80th birthday gala at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1982, it is actually the Concert-class choreographed by him, with all the legendary stars of that time: Akimov, Lavrovsky, Vasiliev, Maximova, Semenyaka, A. Liepa, Vasyuchenko, Ananiashvili, Timofeyeva.....

Flames of Paris (original Russian title Plamya Parizha) is a classical ballet with music by musicologist and composer Boris Asafiev based on songs of the French Revolution.

The sumptuous 1954 Technicolor production of Romeo and Juliet stars Galina Ulanova as a radiant Juliet and Yuri Zhdanov as an ardent Romeo.