Bag of Ballets

(Keep checking this page, we will be filling it with lots of ballet fact cards! Feel free to use the comment form below if you have any suggestions for our bag of ballets.)

Click on links to read about different ballets, their backgrounds & stories:

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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }

balletmom December 24, 2009 at 5:58 am

Do you have any info or recommended links to Midsummer’s Night Dream?

Emilia December 24, 2009 at 5:18 pm

Balletmom,

BalletMet has v. good webnotes on Nixon’s version, including a list of all the other balletic versions of Midsummer’s Night Dream:

http://www.balletmet.org/Notes/Midsummer.html

Let us know in case you are looking for more info on other versions. We intend to do a fact card for Ashton’s The Dream in due course.

Best,

E.

Lady Red August 3, 2010 at 3:36 pm

Can you shed any light on the storyline of Le Corsaire please? I am going to see the Bolshoi production tonight and am not familiar at all. Wikipedia wasn’t much use other than background. Thank you ballet fans. :)

Linda August 3, 2010 at 3:44 pm

Hi! We will write (at some point) a fact card on Le Corsaire but given that you have little time and you are going today, here is a synopsis: http://bit.ly/bNps49
The good thing about the Bolshoi’s production is that Ratmansky and Burlaka made sure that the storytelling was clear. I took a friend yesterday and without telling her much she was able to follow the narrative.

Enjoy Osipova+Vasiliev. I’ll be there so if around please say hi! :)

Rarar November 4, 2010 at 11:15 pm

What about Coppelia and Don Quixote? ):

Emilia November 4, 2010 at 11:18 pm

Great! Suggestions noted!

Cathrine Katsigianni November 19, 2010 at 12:33 pm

I am a postgraduate student of Ballet Studies at Roehampton University(London)and I would like to find some material about tradition (historical and social/cultural aspects)in the arts and dance for my essay.Could you please point me to some resourses?
Many thanks Catrhrine

Linda November 20, 2010 at 8:50 am

Hi Cathrine

There are many books out there and it is hard to give a recommendation without knowing exactly what you are looking for. Books on ballet history often deal with the social and cultural aspects of the time in which the art form shaped itself, and how the tradition was passed on. It depends if you are looking at a particular ballet tradition or company or even country. We’re currently reading Homans’s Apollo’s Angels, a ballet history book dealing with the social and political background of the art form. Another good resources is the Cambridge Companion series. There is one devoted solely to ballet.

Sarah Alice April 6, 2011 at 1:29 am

La Bayadere would be a lovely addition (:

Linda April 6, 2011 at 9:58 am

We will have a Bayadère fact card soon, we promise! :)

Beth February 7, 2012 at 12:01 am

Could you do one for Don Quixote?I really would like to find a video link for the march in act 3.

Emilia February 7, 2012 at 11:45 pm

Hi Beth, suggestion noted, we’ll try to get one sorted soon :)

Bethany April 18, 2012 at 3:47 am

I don’t know if this is still a little new, but is it possible to get Alice In Wonderland?

Natalie May 16, 2012 at 8:06 pm

Don Quixote would be much appreciated!

Abigail November 22, 2012 at 6:36 pm

Is it possible if you can add Raymonda to the list too please? c:

Emilia November 30, 2012 at 5:03 pm

We’ll try to add Raymonda soon, thanks!

Alyssa Grady February 25, 2013 at 9:34 pm

Linda & Emilia-

Could you possibly add Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? I’m going to see the ballet in May (I’m very excited to see it!), but I know little of the synopsis. From what I’ve read, it kind of sticks to Lewis Carroll’s original story. Could you provide me with a complete synopsis?
It would be much appreciated. And just to let the two of you know, I love your website! I’m a big balletomane too. :)

Emilia March 3, 2013 at 4:51 pm

Thank you for your suggestion Alyssa, we’ll add to the list :) ! In the meantime, there’s a good wiki for Wheeldon’s Alice here -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland_(ballet)

Alyssa March 3, 2013 at 11:31 pm

Team Ballet Bag -

This is completely off topic to this section of your website, but I couldn’t find anywhere else more suitable to comment.
Have either of you – Emilia or Linda – heard of Emerging Pictures? It is a website I came across after going to our local movie theater. At Emerging Pictures, there is a section completely dedicated to ballet (there is also one for opera).
If you click on ballet, you come to a section titled Ballet In Cinema. By clicking on different links, such as for the Royal Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty or the Bolshoi Ballet’s Esmeralda, you can go see these ballets in cinemas near you (they offer dates and times for viewing, photos, synopses, etc)! Different principal dancers such as Lauren Cuthbertson and Svetlana Zakharova star in them. So far, at my local cinema, I’ve seen the Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty and the Bolshoi Ballet’s La Bayadere. It is very cool and I believe the two of you would enjoy it. It is a way to see some of the greatest ballets ever without flying to London or Moscow. (Plus, you get a better view of the stage. The filming is superb!)
Here is a link to the website (you’ll have to type it in as the web address): http://www.emergingpictures.com/ballet/

Hope you enjoy. :)

Alyssa May 23, 2013 at 8:25 pm

How about The Pharaoh’s Daughter?

Alyssa May 27, 2013 at 9:03 pm

Manon?

Emilia May 28, 2013 at 3:58 am

Manon we (partially) covered here:

http://www.theballetbag.com/2011/04/16/10-reasons-why-we-love-manon/

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