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The tape of "The Glory of the Kirov" has clips in color from an abridged movie version of "Raymonda" with Dudinskaya and Sergeyev. A few other tapes have bits in color of Galina Ulanova dancing "Les Sylphides/Chopiniana" also from 1948. Both of these excerpts seem to be from the same 1948 dance compilation film which must have been similar to "Stars of the Russian Ballet" (Mastera Russkogo Baleta) with Ulanova, Sergeyev and Dudinskaya in "Swan Lake", Ulanova and Plisetskaya in "Fountain of Bakhchisirai" and Chaboukiani in "Flames of Paris".

What is the name of this film? What were the other portions of the film? Was the other abridged ballet "Laurencia" with Chaboukiani? More importantly, has it ever been available complete?

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i have no hard facts to provide but i've long wondered about the dudinskaya RAYMONDA, which is only known to me in bits on this or that video, and suspected that it might well have been filmed for possible inclusion in what ended up being called: STARS OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET, but, for some reason, it was excluded from the finished film in the end.

the color excerpt of SYLPHIDES w/ ulanova has a somewhat different look, if memory serves.

the LAURENCIA that i'm aware of is black-and-white, and filmed in various outdoor settings different from those in obvious stage-set surroundings of the ballets included in STARS OF THE RUSSIAN B, which has a quite different feel to it.

i have no idea how much RAYMONDA footage of this vintage there was in 'final' film once it was released. likewise, SYLPHIDES.

the NYPL seems not to have any of these as individual films: not RAYMONDA; not LAURENCIA; not SYLHPIDES.

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Faux & RG, my husband's older family members (grandparents & such) who grew up in the 1930s and 40s recall many cultural-type 'short featurettes' created for cinema-theater presentations. These featurettes used to be screened before the main show & were inteded to be part of the general 'cultural education of the masses' in that pre-TV era. There were digested operas, dramas, 'museum visits,' etc.; not just digested ballets. My husband's grandma recalled that there were several such featurettes with Dudinskaya, Ulanova, Lepeshinskaya, etc. In other words, it is very likely that these early ballet films were intended as short featurettes and that no 'long version' exists.

The Ulanova 'Romeo & Juliet' and the three-part 'Stars of Russian Ballet' -- both from the early 1950s -- were revolutionary in that they were intended as feature-length cinematic presentions.

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Faux & RG, my husband's older family members (grandparents & such) who grew up in the 1930s and 40s recall many cultural-type 'short featurettes' created for cinema-theater presentations. These featurettes used to be screened before the main show & were inteded to be part of the general 'cultural education of the masses' in that pre-TV era. There were digested operas, dramas, 'museum visits,' etc.; not just digested ballets. My husband's grandma recalled that there were several such featurettes with Dudinskaya, Ulanova, Lepeshinskaya, etc. In other words, it is very likely that these early ballet films were intended as short featurettes and that no 'long version' exists.

The Ulanova 'Romeo & Juliet' and the three-part 'Stars of Russian Ballet' -- both from the early 1950s -- were revolutionary in that they were intended as feature-length cinematic presentions.

This film seems to be a compilation of some of these shorts:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044805/

Note that it has performances by Vecheslova and Alla Shelest - both rare birds who I didn't know were filmed.

This is a documentary film on the Bolshoi:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0043351/

This seems to be the source of some of the excerpts from "Romeo and Juliet" with Ulanova and Mikhail Gabovich that are obviously different from the film of 1954 with Ulanova and Yuri Zhdanov as Romeo. Ulanova also has an early 1940 film short of the ball scene PDD from "Romeo and Juliet" with her and a very young and handsome Sergeyev.

There also is this black and white film of what seems to be an official concert for communist bigwigs:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033789/

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FauxPas - Also in this 'potpourri concert' genre is a very famous Soviet film titled "New Year" (Novy God), which is the Russian equivalent of "White Christmas" -- a film that is telecast throughout Russia on New Years Eve night, even at present. The last half of the movie is one of these gala concerts that features Soviet stars of ca-1950 in every conceivable art from ballet to jazz. I recall a pdd by Struchkova/Lapauri as one of the numbers. Even the airliner Aeroflot screens 'Novy God' on its flights to/from Russia during the holidays. There's no escaping this film!

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