One of, if not the foremost ballet company in the world, the Bolshoi Ballet dates its history to 1825, and its pre-history to the original...

One of, if not the foremost ballet company in the world, the Bolshoi Ballet dates its history to 1825, and its pre-history to the original company founded in 1776.Over the course of the entire 20th century the company vaulted to the pre-eminent status it has for the most part retained to this day.Its historic legacy in names and achievements of its brilliant dancers, choreographers and productions has long since become the stuff of legend, a legacy that continues today as this 4DVD/4Blu-ray Bel Air Classiques amply proves.The four productions, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, Adam’s Giselle and Asafiev’s The Flames of Paris, all filmed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2010, feature some of the greatest of recent or current company dancers: Svetlana Zakharova, Natalia Osipova, Nina Kaptsova, Maria Allash, Svetlana Lunkina, David Hallberg and Artem Ovcharenko.