The Art of Marianela Nunez - DVD

The passionate worlds of dance and global politics collide in this explosive thriller from Academy Award nominated director Taylor Hackford (2004, Ray). In a role which hits close to home, ballet's Mikhail Baryshnikov plays Nikolai Rodchenko, a legendary Soviet dancer who has defected to the West - until a cruel twist of fate suddenly traps him back in Mother Russia. Tap dancer Gregory Hines co-stars as Raymond Greenwood, a cynical U.S.

Natalia Makarova's acclaimed production of this 19th-century classic ballet brings an exotic world of temple dancers and noble warriors to life. Featuring opulent sets by Pier Luigi Samaritani and beautiful costumes by Yolanda Sonnabend, it stars Marianela Nunez as the Bayadère (temple dancer) Nikiya, Vadim Muntagirov as Solor, and Natalia Osipova as Gamzatti, whose alluring presence challenges Solor's love for Nikiya. La Bayadere (The Temple Dancer) was originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. The ballet was staged especially for the benefit performance of the Russian Prima ballerina Ekaterina Vazem, who created the principal role of Nikiya. From the first performance the ballet was universally hailed by contemporary critics as one of the choreographer Petipa's supreme masterpieces, particularly the scene from the ballet known as The Kingdom of the Shades, which became one of the most celebrated pieces in all of classical ballet.

Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company has been headed since 1990 by Ohad Naharin an incredible dancer with musical training, who has a true passion for movement. Through his InchGagaInch technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company it's finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann's documentary InchMr. GagaInch paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, it's influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. This diptych aims to broaden the Batsheva videography by, as a showcase of Naharin's aesthetics and demanding technique, featuring two of the most emblematic works in the company's current repertoire, both filmed in Paris Naharin's Virus and Last Work. A collective creation, Naharin's Virus is, in a way, a dialogue between Naharin's choreographic style and the Batsheva dancers'. It's starting point is the text Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience) by the Austrian playwright Peter Handke. An aesthetic manifesto, it is also a political piece it is worth noting, for instance, that it features traditional music written by a Palestinian composer... A carefully negotiated balance between frenzy and meditation, a frail and unstable whole saturated with an enigmatic opacity and symbolism, Last Work is also a politically committed, ethically-charged piece reflecting on war, peace, oppression and coercion. While dance is stretched up to it's limits, Naharin's choreographic gesture calls for a new outlook on our contemporary world, it's violence, it's possibilities, it's future.