Ballets Russes

They came. They danced. Our world was never the same.

“Totally inspiring” - this film was introduced by international ballet director Maina Gielgud and current Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet David McAllister.

The Cremorne Orpheum witnessed a gala evening hosted by PKF Auditors which saw the Friends of the Australian Ballet attend the Premier showing of the film Ballet Russes. Maina Gielgud and David McAllister each gave inspired talks prior to introducing filmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine.

At the reception afterwards we were honoured to share the evening with former Ballet Russes dancers Valrene Tweedie and Anna Volkova.

“a breathless odyssey from Russia to Australia populated by a cast of charismatic, eternally young-at-heart ballet stars”- Variety.
Hear Maina Gielgud speak about this deeply inspirational film, its legacy and her current work.
Maina Gielgud (AO) is one of the greatest figures of the international ballet world today. Australians know her through her ground breaking artistic direction of the Australian Ballet from 1983 to 1996.
Filmmakers Geller and Goldfine have fashioned a dazzlingly entrancing ode to the revolutionary twentieth century dance troupe known as the Ballets Russes. The film maps the company’s Diaghilev-era beginnings in turn of-the-century Paris when artists such as Nijinsky, Balanchine, Picasso, Miró, Matisse, and Stravinsky united in unparalleled collaboration. In the halcyon days of the 1930s and ’40s, the Ballets Russes toured America and Australia, astonishing audiences with artistry never before seen. Directed with consummate invention and infused with juicy anecdotal interviews from many of the company’s glamorous stars, Ballets Russes treats modern audiences to a rare glimpse of the singularly remarkable merger of Russian, American, European and Latin American dancers, choreographers, composers, and designers that transformed the face of ballet forever.