Ballet & Dance

• You Can Be A Ballet Dancer | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £2.60  |  Saving you £3.39 (56.60%)  |  RRP £5.99

  An instructional film for children interested in beginning ballet The film follows the basic steps for absolute beginners and takes you right through to preparing for your 'presentation class'.

• Fame | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £2.75  |  Saving you £11.24 (80.30%)  |  RRP £13.99

  This early effort by director Alan Parker is lively but jagged as it follows four students through their years in the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Rather predictably, the kids fall into four clearly defined stereotypes: brazen, gay and hypersensitive, prickly, shy. Fame makes up for a disjointed presentation with a lot of heart and a great soundtrack (for which it won two Academy Awards). The hopes and disappointments, failures and successes of these teens are fodder for emotional scenes and exuberant dancing in the streets. It also turned out to be the first of many imitators and spawned a popular television series. (It was the breakout film for the short-lived feature-film career of Irene Cara, who sang the title song.) --Rochelle O'Gorman

• New York City Ballet - The Complete Workout - 1 And 2 | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £7.79  |  Saving you £22.20 (74.00%)  |  RRP £29.99

  A deluxe edition DVD set comprised of the best-selling fitness videos New York City Ballet Workout Volume 1 and 2. These workouts are designed to help you develop the strength grace and poise of a dancer. An excellent alternative to fast paced high-energy workout routines this unique exercise program balances art life and fitness into the perfect workout for any age or fitness level. Whether you love ballet or are simply searching for an alternative workout regimen designed to produce a strong graceful body this program will deliver exceptional results.

• Tales Of Beatrix Potter | DVD | (20/11/2006) from £8.40  |  Saving you £4.59 (35.30%)  |  RRP £12.99

  Entertaining children's stories danced by the Royal Ballet wearing animal masks. Music by John Lanchbery choreography by Frederick Ashton. The adventures are alive with same energy and passion of the books and feature unheard melodies from British Museum manuscripts recovered and transcribed by composer John Lanchbery. As the characters waltz their way across set to the rhythm of the songs you'll join in with the merriment and hot step with the cast - a must see treat for the entire family.

• Christopher Bruce's Triple Bill | DVD | (12/07/2006) from £15.47  |  Saving you £9.52 (38.10%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Three features from choreographer Christopher Bruce including: 'Silence Is The End Of Our Song (1983)' 'Rooster (1994)' and 'Swansong (1989)'.

• Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (Blu-ray + 3D Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (15/07/2013) from £21.50  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  Far more than circuses featuring impressive acrobatics, Cirque du Soleil's live and filmed shows are powerful presentations that seamlessly combine daring acrobatic feats, intense artistry, and simple, yet emotionally rich stories. Worlds Away is a stunning compilation of acts from seven Las Vegas shows: O, Kà, Mystère, Criss Angel Believe, Zumanity, Viva Elvis, and The Beatles Love. The disparate acts are woven together by a poignantly romantic story of a young woman who falls into an ethereal world searching for a man she's only glimpsed, but is destined to love. The film showcases everything from synchronised water ballet to martial arts-inspired combat, aerial silk acrobatics, contortionism, and the frightening Wheel of Death. Each impeccably choreographed presentation is absolutely breathtaking in its beauty and its seeming defiance of the laws of the human body's capabilities. Viewers will leave the film feeling awed, uplifted, and completely inspired. --Tami Horiuchi

• New York City Ballet Workout 2 | DVD | (03/01/2005) from £13.97  |  Saving you £4.02 (22.30%)  |  RRP £17.99

  New York City Ballet 2, like its bestselling predecessor, is still designed to sculpt and tone your body; but this second edition has also learned the lessons of the original routine, which was difficult to use for those without formal ballet training. This second workout attempts to be accessible to all, providing a glossary explaining ballet terminology and introducing such steps as Plies and Tendus. Be warned though, this will still take practise if you are new to ballet. The routine itself is also less demanding than the first, but includes one of the best abs workouts to be found on an exercise programme. While the steps do not offer a cardio workout, they are enjoyable once mastered and will make you feel more graceful. Combining ballet and yoga is all the rage at gyms, so a good tip is to tie this in with your favourite yoga programme for that ideal posture and definition. All in all this is a great improvement on the first edition and certainly more enjoyable than watching a Big Brother celebrity's dance routine. On the DVD: New York City Ballet 2 offers pristine images and a 5.1 Dolby sound. This works wonderfully on the choice of classical and contemporary tracks. There is also the option to develop your own routine, which is useful if you are never sure how much time you have spare to exercise. The DVD also offers a movement combination which slowly takes you through the steps to learn a dance sequence. --Nikki Disney

• Michael Flatley's Feet Of Flames | DVD | (04/02/2013) from £8.95  |  Saving you £7.04 (44.00%)  |  RRP £15.99

  An expanded and more polished version of Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames was recorded at an outdoor performance in London's Hyde Park. While much of the material is familiar to Flatley fans, the production is superior in every way. It's better photographed and the editing is less frenetic. The individual segments are sharper, more self-assured, as is Flatley, who also produced and directed this version. (He also demonstrates his talents as a flutist--maybe he should call himself Lord of the Renaissance.) The outdoor setting also makes the show feel less like a Vegas act, though the proceedings have about as much relation to their Celtic folk roots as the Broadway musical Cats has to the TS Eliot children's poems on which it was based. --Richard Natale

• Sylvia | DVD | (29/10/2007) from £11.98  |  Saving you £8.23 (32.90%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Leo Delibes: Sylvia - Ballet in three acts

• Riverdance - Live From New York City | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £5.49  |  Saving you £9.50 (63.40%)  |  RRP £14.99

  The Irish hard-shoe sensation Riverdance underwent its second incarnation with Live from New York City, a 1996 performance filmed at Radio City Music Hall. The dazzling choreography and energetic score remain, but Michael Flatley was replaced by less-flamboyant Colin Dunne, a superb technician who works well with Flatley's former colead, Jean Butler. About half an hour longer than the 1995 original, Live from New York City expands upon the second act's theme of the Irish leaving their homeland for other parts of the world. In the most engaging new number, "Trading Taps", a trio of Irish dancers faces off against two urban American tappers. While much of this show will be familiar, it's different enough to be enjoyed on its own terms. It's also more stylishly shot, but that's also its biggest drawback--frenetic editing that allows only brief glimpses of the dancers and leaves the viewer dizzy. --David Horiuchi

• Ballet Class for Beginners | DVD | (07/07/2008) from £13.69  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £13.99

• Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £11.89  |  Saving you £3.10 (20.70%)  |  RRP £14.99

  Perhaps the most popular ballet video ever released, this version of Tchaikovsky's beloved work stars one of the most famous classical dance partnerships of all time, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. Nureyev choreographed this production for the Vienna State Opera Ballet. No ballet lover can afford to be without this DVD, which finds two icons of the 20th-century dance in magnificent form. Ballet authority John Lanchbery, former music director of the Sadler's Wells and Royal Ballet companies, as well as of America Ballet Theatre and Australian Ballet, conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's enchanting score.

• The Car Man | DVD | (24/12/2001) from £11.60  |  Saving you £6.39 (35.50%)  |  RRP £17.99

  This latest dance version of Carmen comes courtesy of choreographer Matthew Bourne, who has devised his own scenario of Bizet’s opera set in a garage-diner in the American mid-West, circa 1960. The Car Man toured the UK in 2000 finishing with a four-month run to packed houses at the Old Vic. This film treatment details all the excitement of the occasion. The cinematography assists in capturing the atmosphere of Bourne’s treatment--film noir with allusions to Hitchcock--through employment of chiaroscuro. The use of the split-screen technique also enhances the cinematic feel. The music sounds seductive and full-bodied, befitting the new story line (Bourne calls it an “auto-erotic thriller”) in which an enigmatic stranger, Luca, walks into town seducing both Lana (Carmen) and Angelo (Don Jose). A swarthy individual, Luca looks an unlikely dancer until his first solo galvanises the company. The single stage set adapts into eight different permutations, taking us from diner through nightclub and prison and then out on the road in a cinematic finale where the Chevrolet cars of the period are destroyed in a pile up. The period look is further enhanced with the girls in tight-waisted colourful frocks and the men in Brando-esque T-shirts and jeans. The dance ensembles are an extraordinarily versatile group: classical, jazz, modern and flamenco seem natural expressions of their body movements. Will Kemp deserves a special mention for his sensitivite portrayal of Angelo. On the DVD: the soundtrack comes in a choice of stereo or 5.1. surround sound where the subtle employment of percussion instruments in the orchestration makes a telling effect. A picture gallery of 25 stills from the production and a 14-minute interview with Bourne expressing his initial doubt about doing another version of Carmen are further assets. He needn’t have had a qualm. This Car Man is destined to give much pleasure. --Adrian Edwards

• Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £11.39  |  Saving you £6.60 (36.70%)  |  RRP £17.99

  One of his earliest pieces of choreography, Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker is also one of his most charming and imaginative. Moving the Christmas party from a comfortable middle-class home to a Dickensian orphanage whose proprietors starve their wards to spoil their own children, it then shifts to a wonderland where sweets and sugar are a none-too-subtle metaphor for sexual awakening. In both worlds, Clara (Etta Murfitt) has to struggle to be heroine, or even a participant, in her own story and her struggle for the muscular, sexy Alan Vincent with her bitchy rival Sugar (Soranne Curtin) is not resolved until the last moments of the ballet. Along the way, Bourne finds charming and sexy ways to make all of the well-known genre moments of the score fresh and new--the Chinese dancers are a bunch of daffy marshmallow girls in pink, for example, whose dance is all strutting cuteness. There is a truly stunning transformation scene at the beginning of the waltz, which like much else in the score becomes a complex ensemble in which all the character dancers have their own things to do. Bourne's Nutcracker has become a popular favourite, and deservedly so. On the DVD: Matthew Bourne's Nutcrackercomes to DVD with no additional features. It is presented in a 16:9 anamorphic ratio and has sumptuous sound in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and L-PCM Stereo that does full justice to the Royal Philharmonic's eloquent performance of the score. --Roz Kaveney

• Tocororo - A Cuban Tale | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £12.49  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £19.99

  ""Billy Elliot in Havana"" is how the Evening Standard described this sensational dance and music extravaganza featuring 19 dancers and a live Cuban band. The Daily Telegraph enthused ""Soaring sexy and spontaneous.."" and certainly Carlos Acosta the star and creator of this brilliant new production filmed live at London's Sadler's Wells is considered by many to be the greatest dancer in the world right now. Some even describe him as the new lord of dance! All the soul and passion o

• Swan Lake/Sleeping Beauty/The Nutcracker - Pas De Deux | DVD | (17/03/2008) from £13.93  |  Saving you £6.06 (30.30%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Three of the most enchanting Ballet's brought together for the first time as a specially packaged gift for any aspiring ballet dancer

• Margot Fonteyn - A Portrait | DVD | (20/04/2001) from £12.08  |  Saving you £7.91 (39.60%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Just two years before she died in 1991, Margot Fonteyn finally allowed a documentary to be made about her life and legendary career as the most romantic prima ballerina of all. Fortunately, the task fell to Patricia Foy. Together with her later appreciation of Rudolf Nureyev, this study offers an invaluable insight into the two dominant and most widely popular dancers of the 20th century. Fonteyn talks directly to camera, with disarming simplicity, about a professional career which endured for more than 40 remarkable years. Reminiscences of a childhood and youth in which she entertained ideas of being a tap dancer (it took Ninette de Valois to spot her unique talent) give way to archive footage of famous performances and interviews with key collaborators including Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann. Fascinating home movies give a brief glimpse of a hard-working but jet-set lifestyle which included sailing on Onassis' yacht with Maria Callas. But Fonteyn was that rarest of beings: a genuine celebrity who didn't appreciate her own authentic claim to greatness for many years. The understated way in which she discusses her marriage to Panamanian diplomat Roberto de Arias, her arrest and deportation during his unsuccessful attempt at a coup and later, the paralysing effect of a gunshot wound which would leave him a permanent invalid in her constant care, is deeply moving. Ultimately though, there is the dancing, and that partnership with Nureyev. Fonteyn was 42 when they first joined forces and she was anxious not to appear as "mutton dancing with lamb". How ironic. The erotic charge which they generated is still palpable in extended excerpts from Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake. Essential viewing for balletomanes of every age. On the DVD: Apart from a trailer for other Arthaus releases, there are no special features. The mono sound does the musical extracts no favours, but it's the interviews that make this an archivist's treat. Well-produced, with the customary detailed booklet. --Piers Ford

• Paris Opera Ballet - Swan Lake | DVD | (01/01/1995) from £N/A  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £17.99

  The Paris Opera Ballet present an unforgettable performance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

• Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake | DVD | (26/07/2007) from £17.09  |  Saving you £5.90 (25.70%)  |  RRP £22.99

• Carmen Flamenco | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £12.88  |  Saving you £5.11 (28.40%)  |  RRP £17.99

  Based on the story and music of Bizet's masterpiece Carmen Spanish choreographer Rafael Aguilar has created a fascinating erotic dance drama that fuses the expressionism of modern ballet with traditional Spanish dance. The audience itself is drawn into a maelstrom of emotions: a hot mixture of flamenco and bolero with subliminal dance scenes and sensual choreography. Using these elements in Carmen Flamenco Aguilar has created a timeless piece of dance drama that sets him apart f