City to screen Russian ballet performances

There's good news for ballet lovers in Mumbai. Five of last year's staged productions of the internationally renowned Bolshoi Ballet of Russia will be screened at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, from April 14 to August 22. Riddhi Doshi reports.

There's good news for ballet lovers in Mumbai. Five of last year's staged productions of the internationally renowned Bolshoi Ballet of Russia will be screened at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, from April 14 to August 22.

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The ballets set to be screened are Swan Lake, La Esmeralda, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer) and La Sylphide (The Sylph).

"It is very expensive to bring ballet companies to the city," said Deepa Gahlot, head of programming (theatre & film) for the NCPA. "So this beautiful dance form is hardly ever seen in Mumbai. That's why we decided to screen the performances of one of the best companies in the world."

Along with the ballets, backstage action and interviews with the artists will be shown too.

The screenings are being organised in association with Pathé Live, a European company that distributes alternative content for cinemas, and are part of a nationwide initiative launched by the NCPA two years ago, to screen cultural content not easily available in India.

Last year, for instance, the NCPA screened productions of New York's Metropolitan Opera.

In end-April, the NCPA will also screen a guided tour of the art exhibition Manet Portraying Life, featuring the works of French Impressionist master Édouard Manet, currently being held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.