Backstage at the Kirov

Great Ballet Documentary Featuring Altynai Asylmuratova and Konstatin Zaklinsky
This film was shot in 1981 and shows what life is like for the professional dancers(and some of the students) at the Kirov Ballet. It is the only documentary that shows us both Konstatin Zaklinsky and his wife, Altynai Asylmuratova, rehearsing together and separately for the principal parts of Swan Lake. Other dancers are also shown, such as Galina Mezentseva. Many classroom scenes are presented and they are very interesting and exciting, showing very difficult combinations and dancers getting very exhausted and laughing about it. I especially enjoyed seeing what happens to Zaklinsky practicing when he gets too tired and falls out of many of his pirouettes; he musters one last bit of energy and completes his pirouettes successfully and throws in the towel. It is nice to see this video finally come to dvd, since it has been on VHS.

Backstage at the Kirov - review for collectors
'Backstage at the Kirov' was one of the first ballet documentaries I ever saw and, like many ballet film collectors, I have long prized my ailing, ancient VHS recording of this classic program. I was delighted to see it made available on DVD, but also cautious - after all, not every transfer of an old film to DVD is a success. So, what's the verdict?

Well, the good news is that this transfer isn't too bad. If you're looking to replace a tired and battered video then don't hesitate to snap up this release. There are just a couple of things worth noting. My main criticism is that the DVD version looks a lot darker than my video copy and I had to adjust the backlighting, contrast and brightness on my TV quite substantially to avoid missing much of the detail in the dimmer scenes.

The overall sharpness of the picture is nevertheless much better than video (as you'd expect!), and the film looks pretty much as it always did. No one has interfered with the voiceovers...

A chance to view the elusive world of Soviet Era ballet
I love this movie! I really enjoy seeing some of the "children" from the theater street documentary grown and dancing as corp members. For any lover of Russian ballet, this video is a "must-have" for your library!

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