Product: Sleeping Beauty [VHS] (1996)
Rating: 5.0
Not Legends for Nothing!
This Sleeping Beauty filmed in 1964 is a treasure for any ballet lover. As they used to say in the ballet worlds of New York,London and Paris back in the 1970's, "The wrong dancers defected from the Kirov." Meaning, that instead of Misha Barishnakov and Natalia Makarova, it should have been Yuri Soloviev and Alla Sizova who defected to the West, since they were far greater and supreme dancers. Soloviev had the biggest leaps of any dancer then or now, as well as a stunning charisma. His death at the age of 37, probably committing suicide, in 1977, was a great and tragic loss. He left a daughter who became a Kirov dancer. And Alla Sisova had a back injury that she never recovered from that unfortunately cut her career short, but I'm not certain what year she stopped dancing. Their beauty and brillance captured in this filmed version of Beauty shows us that they were not legends for nothing. Also Natalie Dudinskaya dancing Carrabosse, she was probably in her 50's when this was filmed, leaves on film for posterity her greatness as a dancer. What must she have been like in her dancing when she was younger? Nureyev always revered her. And he always spoke fondly of both Soloviev and Sizova.