Maris Liepa and Natalia Bolshakova - 'Le Spectre de la Rose'

Choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1911, 'Le Spectre de la Rose' was based on a poem by Théophile Gautier, adapted by Jean-Louis Vaudoyer. The ballet was set to music by Carl Maria von Weber's 1819 piano work 'Invitation to the Dance', in the Hector Berlioz orchestration of 1841. The set and costumes were designed by Léon Bakst. The ballet premiered on April 19th 1911 by the Ballets Russes in the Théâtre de Monte Carlo, with Vaslav Nijinsky as the Rose and Tamara Karsavina as the Girl. A debutante falls asleep after her first ball. She dreams she is dancing with someone she admired earlier that evening. Her partner now in this reverie is a fusion of that man and the rose he gave her, the blossom having its obvious sexual symbolism. This footage here has some rather disconcerting and on-going set changes, which I suspect were introduced by the television producers to make the work for 'happening' for non-ballet aficionados in their audience. Judith Booth happily made an identification of the dancers here - Marus Liepa and Yelena Yevteyeva. Enjoy!