Ballet & Dance

• You Can Be A Ballet Dancer | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £3.00  |  Saving you £2.99 (49.90%)  |  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 £3.89  |  Saving you £10.10 (72.20%)  |  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

• Michael Flatley's Feet Of Flames | DVD | (12/04/1999) from £6.79  |  Saving you £8.04 (50.30%)  |  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

• Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £8.99  |  Saving you £3.04 (16.90%)  |  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

• La Fille Mal Gardee | DVD | (23/02/1998) from £10.00  |  Saving you £7.99 (44.40%)  |  RRP £17.99

  La Fille Mal Gardée ("The Unguarded Maiden"), perhaps the best-known work of composer Ferdinand Hérold, is here presented in a Royal Ballet production freely adapted, arranged and conducted by John Lanchbery. The unquestioned centre of attention is Royal Ballet superstar Lesley Collier who plays Lise, the beautiful farm girl whom her widowed mother (Brian Shaw) plans to marry to the eligible Alain (Garry Grant) despite Lise's love for young farmer Colas (Michael Coleman). This is a colourful pastoral romp with pause for tender and lyrical moments and plentiful opportunities for Collier to enchant her many admirers. Royal Ballet principal conductor Lanchbery--himself composer of the well-loved Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971)--brings all his flair for this sort of carefree entertainment to play and the result is delightful. Filmed for BBC television at Covent Garden in January 1981, the witty, energetic and romantic choreography is by Frederick Ashton (his dancing chickens are hilarious, as is Shaw's "clog dance" in Act Two) and the stage design by Osbert Lancaster, whose legacy adds charm to a much more recent BBC Royal Ballet film of Coppélia (2000). Hérold's score is filled with playfulness, melody and laughter, making this a very superior pantomime. --Gary S. Dalkin On the DVD: Presented at the original 4:3 TV ratio, the focus is soft throughout and details lacking in long shots are reduced to a formless blur. The image looks washed-out, with colours missing any sparkle or depth. The live stereo sound is much better, being detailed, full, and free of the hiss one might expect from a TV soundtrack of this vintage. The disc offers one page of credits, a three-page synopsis and a web link. The drab black and white booklet repeats this information in more detail in various languages, but offers nothing on the performers, composer or conductor. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Gael Force Dance | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £3.99  |  Saving you £0.00 (0.00%)  |  RRP £5.99

  Filmed in Belfast 'Gaelforce Dance' is a supercharged Irish dance spectacular in the vein of Riverdance. Sensual and dramatic it has brought over one million people to their feet worldwide with its energy grace passion and mix of original and contemporary Irish dance music.

• New York City Ballet - The Complete Workout - 1 And 2 | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £19.57  |  Saving you £8.60 (28.70%)  |  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 £7.99  |  Saving you £5.00 (38.50%)  |  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.

• Ballets Russes | DVD | (21/08/2006) from £4.20  |  Saving you £15.79 (79.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Ballets Russes is an intimate portrait of a group of pioneering artists (now in their 70s 80s and 90s) who gave birth to modern ballet. 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

• Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Mariinsky Ballet Orchestra) | Blu Ray | (06/10/2008) from £11.99  |  Saving you £8.00 (40.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, performed at the Mariinsky Theatre by the Artists of the Mariinsky Ballet and the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, and conducted by Valery Gergiev.

• Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £11.49  |  Saving you £4.50 (28.10%)  |  RRP £15.99

  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.

• Macmillan Ballet Classics | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £17.99  |  Saving you £7.00 (28.00%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Choreographer Kenneth MacMillan created some of the most popular ballets of the late 20th century drawing inspiration from impassioned and complex relationships from music and from young dancers whose talent he nurtured. This boxed set includes Romeo and Juliet and Manon two of the most frequently performed works in The Royal Ballet''s repertory and Prince of the Pagodas in which the role of Princess Rose was created for the young Darcey Bussell. Romeo And Juliet Prokofiev Since its first performance by The Royal Ballet in 1965 Sir Kenneth MacMillan''s masterpiece Romeo and Juliet has been one of the greatest successes in the repertory winning world-wide acclaim. His powerful and sensual choreography thrillingly captures the passion and agony of Shakespeare''s tragedy alongside Prokofiev''s glorious score. Nicholas Georgiadis'' designs colourfully evoke Renaissance Italy and provide a magnificent setting for the unfolding drama from the splendour of the Capulet ball to the cold bleakness of the vault in the last tragic moments. This classic performance filmed at Covent Garden in 1984 stars Wayne Eagling and Alessandra Ferri as the lovers both of whom convey the intensity of young love. Prince Of The Pagodas Britten Sir Kenneth MacMillan's glorious ballet The Prince of the Pagodas provides a fascinating and magnificent spectacle of classical dance on the grandest scale. Nicholas Georgiadis' enchanting oriental designs complement Britten's only ballet score inspired by the sounds of the gamelan establishing a fairy tale ambience. This production by The Royal Ballet filmed at Covent Garden in 1990 stars Darcey Bussell in dazzling form as Princess Rose and Jonathan Cope as the Prince. This is the role that launched Darcey Bussell''s career. Accompanying The Prince of the Pagodas is Out Of Line a documentary portrait of Kenneth MacMillan with extracts from many of his ballets including The Burrow Romeo And Juliet Gloria Manon and The Prince Of The Pagodas. Manon Music of Massenet orch. Lucas Kenneth MacMillan''s tragic lyric ballet is a moving tale of corrupted innocence in early 18th Century Paris in which the lovely Manon finds both happiness and grief at the hands of men who love and abuse her. Manon is one of MacMillan''s best-loved ballets and this acclaimed 1982 performance from The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden stars Jennifer Penney as Manon and Anthony Dowell as Des Grieux with David Wall as Lescaut.

• Don Quixote - American Ballet Theatre | DVD | (23/02/1998) from £9.38  |  Saving you £1.00 (5.60%)  |  RRP £17.99

  Baryshnikov, Harvey and Don Quixote is a combination which could hardly fail to be a crowd-pleaser, but in an era when armchair ballet audiences have a huge selection of sure-fire winners to choose from it's worth reflecting on just why this production is so good. This is the 1983 Quixote from the New York Metropolitan Opera House, full-length and, indeed, full of merit. The staging is traditional and over-designed in the best possible way, with Brian Large's video direction capturing the whole apparatus with consummate skill (this is one of the few canned ballets which won't have you fretting over there being too many or not enough close-ups, tracking shots, wide-angle panoramas and so on--they're all there, and they're all uncannily where they should be) and with the cast seemingly having an enormous amount of fun, particularly Baryshnikov himself, whose twinkly eyed Basil is totally engaging. The most intriguing performance, however, falls to Richard Schafer as Quixote. Rather than allow the character to degenerate into buffoonery, Schafer depicts the elderly knight as mysterious and, indeed, almost mystical in his delusions; here, Quixote is not so much a clown but a seer, bearing a strange dignity which contrasts poignantly with the rumbustiousness around him--an elegant twist within an already very pleasing interpretation. --Roger Thomas

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

• Michael Flatley - Celtic Tiger | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £2.79  |  Saving you £15.80 (71.90%)  |  RRP £21.99

  The international acclaimed master of dance Michael Flatley returns to the stage to spearhead his powerful new 90 minute dance spectacular Celtic Tiger. With his unrivalled skill and artistry Flatley ignites the world of dance once again with a bold dramatic and daring production which fuses the spirit of Ireland with its history with dance and music. The result is an epic masterpiece in which Irish dance is delivered as a dynamic and powerful art form. Perfromance list: Act I: 1.The Heartbeat of the Tiger 2.Dancing in the Dark 3.St Patrick 4.The Sleeping Tiger 5.The Vikings 6.Celtic Fire 7.The Garden of Eden 8.The Red Coats 9.The Famine 10.Four Green Fields 11.Bloody Sunday 12.A Call to Arms 13.The 1916 Rising 14.The Banshee 15.A Nation Once Again Act Two: 1.Freedom 2.A New World 3.The Lost Rose 5.Celtic Kittens 6.Capone 7.Forever Free 8.Cowboy Cheerleaders 9.These Colours Don't Run 10.Yankee Doodle Dandy 11.Celtic Fire II 12.The Celtic Tiger

• Darcey Bussell | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £7.79  |  Saving you £5.20 (40.00%)  |  RRP £12.99

  A unique insight to the backstage preparation of Darcey Bussell on the road and in rehearsals. Featuring Adam Cooper in Herman Schmerman by William Forsythe. Darcey Pricipal Dancer of the Royal Ballet and a performer of charismatic beauty was born in London where she attended the Royal Ballet School. Kenneth MacMillan wrote Price Of The Pagodas in which Darcey created the role of Princess Rose and also Masha in MacMillan's Winter Dreams. Darcey has performed with the New York Cit

• The Nutcracker | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £8.49  |  Saving you £7.50 (46.90%)  |  RRP £15.99

  Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker' performed by The Kirov Ballet and Orchestra conducted by Viktor Fedotov. Dancers include Viktor Baranov and Larissa Lezhnina. Filmed at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.

• Balanchine - New York City Ballet - Chaconne / Prodigal Son | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £12.49  |  Saving you £5.50 (30.60%)  |  RRP £17.99

  George Balanchine is regarded as one of ballet's greatest choregraphers and one of the great artists of the 20th Century. He had a huge impact on the cultural history of New York City. This DVD is the first half of a two disc set featuring Balanchine's best known works performed by New York City Ballet and released as part of this year's George Balanchine Cenetenary Celebrations. Features: Chaconne / Prodigal Son / Ballo della Regina / Steadfast Tin Soldier / Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux

• Christopher Bruce's Triple Bill | DVD | (12/07/2006) from £19.19  |  Saving you £5.80 (23.20%)  |  RRP £24.99

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

• Ballet Workout - Total Body Toning - Joey Bull | DVD | (24/12/2008) from £9.49  |  Saving you £5.50 (36.70%)  |  RRP £14.99

  Whether you are after a firmer bottom toned legs and abs or trimming the fat Ballet Workout will help you reach your goals! Ballet Workout takes the best fitness ingredients from the world of classical dance and presents then in a fun new workout designed to achieve impressive and lasting results. Under Joey Bull's guidance a fitter firmer you is just around the corner.... and you don't have to be a dancer! Combining easy to follow strength and cardio exercises Ballet Workout has been proven to attain tighter fitter stronger leaner bodies and improved posture poise balance and control. Here's to a fitter and firmer you!