Ballets Russes (2005)

Ballets Russes is a 2005 American feature documentary film about the dancers of Monte-Carlo's Ballet Russe. Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller directed it, and it starred Irina Baronova, Alicia Markova, George Zoritch, Tatiana Riabouchinska, and Tamara Tchinarova, among others. Marian Seldes narrated it, and Zeitgeist Films released it.

Ballets Russes dancers traversed the world, breaking records and raising the company's name to new heights by collaborating with painters and filmmakers. Despite its closure in 1968, the Ballets Russes is largely regarded as one of the most successful ballet companies in history. The documentary focuses on a reunion of the troupe's surviving members in 2000.

Filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have created a dazzlingly mesmerizing ode to the revolutionary twentieth-century dancing ensemble known as the Ballets Russes by unearthing a treasure trove of archive video. What began as a group of Russian refugees who had never danced in Russia evolved into not one, but two competitive dancing troupes engaged in the infamous "ballet battles" that dominated London society prior to World War II.

Ballets Russes, directed with consummate ingenuity and infused with juicy anecdotal interviews from many of the company's glamorous stars, offers modern audiences a rare glimpse of the singularly remarkable collaboration of Russian, American, European, and Latin American dancers, choreographers, composers, and designers that transformed the face of ballet for generations to come.

Director: Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller
Casts: Irina Baronova, Alicia Markova, George Zoritch
IMDb: 7,9