Classical Performers

Anna Pavlova (1882-1931)

In 1907 the choreographer Mikhail Fokine, then working with the Imperial Ballet in Russia, choreographed what became one of the most famous short ballets, The Dying Swan, to music by Saen-Saens, for the legendary dancer Anna Pavlova. This is said to be one of the most difficult ballets to perform, and the role has been handed on to only three other ballerinas working in Britain: Ninette de Valois, Marguerite Porter and recently Marinella Munoz. For two-and-a-half minutes it is almost all en pointe, and the dancer is travelling and moving across the stage throughout this process.

Pavlova
UK 1928 Dir unknown
8 mins
16mm B&W, silent
Amateur film of Anna Pavlova and her company on tour, including performances of The Fairy Doll and Don Quixote. NB: This was transferred from 9.5mm material, hence poor picture quality.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

The Immortal Swan (aka

Anna Pavlova)
UK 1935 Dir Edward Nakhimoff
56 mins
35mm B&W + DVD (Reference copy only)
A compilation, introduced by Aubrey Hitchins, on the life and art of ballet dancer Anna Pavlova. A documentary record which includes all known footage of Pavlova dancing. Pavlova recorded several short ballets in 1924 on the Hollywood set for The Black Pirate, through the introduction of Douglas Fairbanks. These all appear in this film, The Immortal Swan, and include Chopiniana and The Dying Swan choreographed by Fokine.
Archive Source: BFI National Archive

Alicia Markova (1910-2004)

English ballerina and choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet, who worked with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and was considered to be one of the great classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. She was a founder dancer of the Ballet Rambert, the Royal Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre, and was co-founder and director of the English National Ballet. She cites the dancer Olga Spessivtseva as one of her great influences.

Lord Burleigh
UK c. 1931 Prod Ballet Rambert
37ft
16mm silent B&W
With Diana Gould, Alicia Markova, William Chappell, Frederick Ashton and Rollo Gamble rehearsing for the Ballet Lord Burleigh.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Markova and Ashton
UK c. 1931 or 1936 Prod Ballet Rambert
170ft
16mm silent
Alicia Markova and Frederick Ashton perform a pas de deux from Swan Lake, followed by a solo from Markova.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Foyer de Danse
UK 1932 Dir Walter Duff
17 mins
16mm B&W + DVD (Reference copy only)
Amateur film showing Alicia Markova, Frederick Ashton, Elizabeth Schooling, and Walter Gore dancing in the ballet Foyer de Danse.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Giselle
UK 1952 Dir Henry Caldwell
31 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) B&W
A shortened and popularised version of the ballet. The leading parts are danced by Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin. The London Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
Archive Source: BFI National Archive

Graduation Ball[Also featured in the section on Margaret Dale]
UK 1960 Dir Margaret Dale
40 mins
Beta SP B&W + DVD (Reference copy only)
Studio performance of David Lichine's ballet, by London's Festival Ballet. Set in a Viennese girls' boarding school in the 1850s at their graduation ball, to which the local military cadets have been invited.
Archive Source: BFI National Archive

Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991)

Margot Fonteyn. Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Royal Ballet, danced with the company from the 1930s to the 1970s, taking the leading female roles in Giselle, Swan Lake and other ballets. She had notable dancing partnerships with Robert Helpmann, Michael Somes and later Rudolf Nureyev.

Aurora - Pas de Deux - Fonteyn
UK after 1936 Dir unknown
5 mins
16mm B&W + DVD (Reference copy only)
A performance by Margot Fonteyn (and probably Robert Helpmann, her partner at the Sadlers Wells Ballet in 1936) of the pas de deux Aurora depicting the wedding of Princess Aurora, a piece later incorporated into the ballet The Sleeping Beauty.
Archive Source: BFI National Archive

Giselle - Fonteyn (1945)
UK c. 1945 Dir unknown
12 mins
16mm B&W + DVD (Reference copy only)
Margot Fonteyn and Leslie Edwards in Act I of Giselle at Sadler's Wells.
Archive Source: BFI National Archive

The Nutcracker [also featured in section on Maragaret Dale]
UK 1958 Dir Margaret Dale
59 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) B&W
Live studio production of the Tchaikovsky ballet. Directed and produced by Margaret Dale, designer Guy Sheppard. Script by Marius Petipa, choreography by Lev Ivanov, revised choreography by Peter Wright. With Margot Fonteyn, Michael Somes.
Archive source: BFI National Archive + BFI Special Collections: Camera Script December 1958

Cinderella
UK 1960 Dir Mark Stuart
70 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) B&W
The Royal Ballet Company in Frederick Ashton's production of Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella, the title role danced by Margot Fonteyn, the prince by Michael Somes.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Margot Fonteyn introduces the London Festival Ballet
UK 1961 Dir Rodney Greenberg, Julian Field
65 mins
Beta SP B&W + DVD (Reference copy only)
Two ballets performed by The London Festival Ballet. The Sanguine Fan (music: Edward Elgar) with Ben Van Cawenbergh, Nigel Burgoine, Manola Asensio and Graduation Ball (music: Johann Strauss) with Trevor Wood, David Long, Andria Hall, Lucia Truglia. The Sanguine Fan setting: Carlton House Terrace, a summer evening 1905. 'Graduation Ball' setting: an end-of-term party at a girls' school, Vienna 1840.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

The Bolshoi Ballet in London
USSR 1966 Dir Anatoly Koloshin
33 mins
16mm B&W
The Bolshoi Ballet's trip to London, including rehearsals and performances. Dancers include Margot Fonteyn (in a scene from The Firebird) and Galina Ulanova.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Margot Fonteyn: Birthday of a Ballerina (Omnibus)
UK 1969 Prod Patricia Foy
63 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
A profile of ballerina Margot Fonteyn on her fiftieth birthday, with interviews from colleagues and excerpts from television recordings of ballets in which she has appeared. These include The Sleeping Beauty (tx 20/12/59), Act I Rose Adagio: Margot Fonteyn, John Chesworth, Bob Stevenson, Peter Wright, Jelko Yuresha; Giselle (from Music in Camera tx 11/6/62), Act II pas de deux: Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev; Swan Lake (from Gala Performance tx 19/11/63), Act II pas de deux: Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev; Ondine (from Gala Perforomance tx 22/4/66), Act I Shadow Dance pas de deux: Margot Fonteyn, Attilio Labis; Romeo and Juliet (from Gala Performance tx 18/3/65), Act I balcony scene pas de deux: Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev (Penman catalogue no. 128). Titles: Ominbus Presenting Margot Fonteyn; Birthday of a Ballerina: Fonteyn dancing the Rose Adagio; Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dance the pas de deux from Act II of Swan Lake, and the pas de deux from Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

The Magic Of Dance: Reflections By Dame Margot Fonteyn
UK 1979 Dir Patricia Foy
6 x 60 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Six episodes, 60 mins each:
1 The Scene Changes
2 The Ebb and Flow
3 What Is New?
4 The Romantic Ballet (see below for more details)
5 The Magnificent Beginning (see below for more details)
6 Out in the Limelight, Home in the Rain (with Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn)
A series on aspects of the history and development of ballet. A personal survey by Dame Margot Fonteyn from the time of Louis XIV to the present day, with examples from all forms of dance and all types of dancers; including footage of performances by Nureyev, Baryshnikov and others.

The Magic of Dance: The Romantic Ballet
UK 1979
60 mins
Beta SP + DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Margot Fonteyn charts the story of the Romantic Ballet and its greatest exponents. Looks at Marie Taglioni, who epitomised the Romantic Age which was later revived by the Russians in 1909 when they brought Les Sylphides to Paris. Includes part of this ballet, danced in its original setting by Margot Fonteyn, Marguerite Porter, Yoko Morishita and Ivan Nagy.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

The Magic of Dance: The Magnificent Beginning
UK 1979
60 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
Margot Fonteyn introduces the programme from King Louis XIV's great palace at Versailles. (King Louis founded the first real ballet school in 1669). She tells the story of how seventeenth century courtly dancing in France led to contemporary ballet. She visits the Court Theatre at Drottningholm in Sweden where ballet is performed in the original settings and under the original conditions. The programme also includes performances of parts of La Fille Mal Gardee, (first performed in 1789 just two weeks after the outbreak of the French Revolution), and a much more recent French ballet, Roland Petit's Carmen (1948)
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Fonteyn and Nureyev: The Perfect Partnership
UK 1985 Dir Peter Batty
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
115 mins
Documentary on the partnership between Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev between the years 1962 and 1979. Extracts from Romeo and Juliet; Marguerite and Armand; Les Sylphides; Birthday Offering; Hamlet; Prelude; Lucifer.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Margot Fonteyn (Dance on Four)
Patricia Foy
UK 1989
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
88 mins
Profile of the ballerina Margot Fonteyn to mark her 70th birthday. She talks about her life and recalls memorable events from her personal life and career. Among those with her are Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton and Rudolf Nureyev.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Secret Lives: Margot Fonteyn
UK 1997 Dir Madonna Benjamin
51 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
The secret life of ballerina Margot Fonteyn, charting the history of her marriage to playboy Roberto Arias and her love affair with Rudolf Nureyev, which ended when Arias was crippled in an assassination attempt by the husband of one of his mistresses, and Fonteyn left Nureyev to nurse her husband for the next 25 years.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993)

Nureyev's stage performances were filmed on many occasions, from early film documents to the TV studio productions of the 1960s and 70s (for British and various international television stations), and from commercial films documenting European ballet productions on stage to his own film of Don Quixote (1973), designed for camera, in which one can see dance movement and camera working in tandem.

The BFI National Archive collection's holding of films by Margaret Dale includes the Omnibus documentary of 1974, which is based on a live interview with Nureyev by the film-maker Lindsay Anderson and contains archive footage of Nureyev's early life and performances in the USSR, newsreel footage of his defection to the West in 1961, and dance footage from other documentary films as well as rehearsal footage. Nureyev himself was keenly aware of the visual image created by his movement on stage; and it is clear that he used this visual imagination in directing and choreographing his own production of Don Quixote for cinema in 1973 (also excerpted here in this Omnibus documentary). Nureyev's partnership with Fonteyn began with a performance of Giselle in 1962 and is explored in the Omnibus biography of Fonteyn, Birthday of a Ballerina (1969).

Rudolf Nureyev (Monitor)
UK 1962 Dir Nancy Thomas
6 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) B&W
An interview with Rudolf Nureyev by Clive Barnes. Barnes interviews Rudolf Nureyev at the Arts Educational School in London about the differences between dancing in Russia and in the West. Nureyev and others are seen in rehearsal.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Gala Performance
UK 1963 Prod Patricia Foy
c. 51 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
First programme in a series showcasing classical music and dance, presented in the television studio. Includes Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev dancing a pas de deux from Khachaturyan's Gayaneh Suite and a pas de deux from Swan Lake.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Gala Performance
UK 1965 Prod Patricia Foy
c. 53 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Classical music and dance in the television studio. Yehudi Menuhin plays `Havanaise' by Saint-Saëns, and later introduces Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, who dance the balcony scene from Act I of Prokofiev's ballet `Romeo and Juliet', choreography by Kenneth Macmillan.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Nureyev's Nutcracker/ De Stijl (Release)
UK 1968 Prod Colin Nears
10 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
With Rudolf Nureyev, Merle Park. Choreography to Tchaikovsky's score by Rudolf Nureyev, Vassily Vainonen.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Gala Performance
UK 1970 Prod Patricia Foy
c. 61 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Classical music and dance acts, introduced from the Sadler's Wells Opera at the London Coliseum. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in the pas de deux from Le Corsaire; Placido Domingo and Teresa Stratas.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Gala Performance
UK 1971 Prod Patricia Foy
c. 64 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Classical music and dance introduced from the London Coliseum. Includes Nureyev and Makarova, dancing together for the first time. They dance the black swan pas de deux and variations from Act 3 of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, choreography by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Nureyev (Omnibus)
UK 1974 Dir Margaret Dale
47 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Nureyev talks to Lindsay Anderson. Documentary based on an interview between Nureyev and Lindsay Anderson at the Royal Ballet School, with extracts from commercial films and BBC programmes. Includes archival footage and comments from Nureyev about his early life and training in Russia, his defection to the West in 1961, and his views on modern dance and classical ballet, including his belief in the expansion of the male role. Includes footage of Nureyev dancing in Russia, in rehearsal in London with Merle Park for The Nutcracker (choreographer Frederick Ashton), and dancing with Margot Fonteyn in Marguerite and Armand. Extracts also from Field Figures choreographed by Glen Tetley; and from Le Corsaire choreographed by Petipa. Extracts from Nureyev's film of Don Quixote, intercut with production scenes. Film sequences from Captivated By Siberia, Down the Belaya River, When the Spirit Soars in Flight, I Am a Dancer, An Evening with the Royal Ballet and Don Quixote. Extracts from BBC programmes Monitor (Tx 25/2/62), Release (Tx 2/3/68) and Review (Tx 29/11/69.)
Archive source: BFI National Archive + BFI Special Collections: Commentary Script January 1974, Background notes. Large format photographs.

Don Quixote
UK 1976 Dir Robert Helpmann and Rudolf Nureyev
110 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
Adaptation of Marius Petipa's 19th century Russian ballet by Rudolf Nureyev, with Robert Helpmann and Rudolf Nureyev. Co-directed by Nureyev, who uses the camera to reflect and enhance the balletic movement.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Aureole (Invitation to the Dance)
UK 1980 Dir Thomas Grimm
25 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
The first programme in a series of short ballets. Rudolf Nureyev and members of the Royal Danish Ballet perform Aureole to the music of Handel's Concerti Grossi.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Nureyev
Bob Ando
UK 1981
50 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Profile on the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who, in conversation with Mavis Nicholson, talks about his life and career on the twentieth anniversary of his defection from Russia.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Double Work (Dancer)
Derek Bailey
UK 1984
50 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Second programme in a four part series looking at the art of the male dancer, introduced by Peter Schaufuss. He considers the male dancer's work as a partner. Excerpts shown from various ballets, including Romeo and Juliet, Act I balcony scene.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Fonteyn and Nureyev: The Perfect Partnership
UK 1985 Dir Peter Batty
115 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Documentary on the partnership between Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev between the years 1962 and 1979. Extracts from Romeo and Juliet; Marguerite and Armand; Les Sylphides; Birthday Offering; Hamlet; Prelude; Lucifer.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Rudolf Nureyev (The South Bank Show)
Patricia Foy
UK 1991
90 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Profile of and interview with Rudolf Nureyev, presented by Melvyn Bragg.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Dancing for Dollars: The Kirov in Petersburg (Dancing for Dollars)
Angus MacQueen
UK 1997
124 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
The second part of Dancing for Dollars takes a look at the difficulties faced by the Kirov Ballet under the leadership of chief choreographer Oleg Vinogradov, set against a rich artistic history. As communism gives way to capitalism, artistic integrity faces new problems. Combines personal accounts with archive footage of notable performers, including Mikhail Barishnikov and Rudolf Nureyev. Those reminiscing include backstage workers, the ticket collector who started as a dancer but whose ambitions were thwarted when he contracted scarlet fever, and wardrobe mistress Antonia Arefyeva who came temporarily during the war but is still there. With Archive footage of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Dance on Four: Nureyev Unzipped
UK 1998 Dir Ross MacGibbon
26 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
A profile of the dancer Rudolf Nureyev which asks whether he was truly great or a mediocre technician who beguiled audiences by force of personality. It also looks at the role played by the media in shaping his public image.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Bourne to Dance
UK 2001 Dir Ross MacGibbon
76 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
Matthew Bourne looks at a history of male dance and some of the influences on his own work as a dancer and choreographer, including Nijinsky, Nureyev and Baryshinkov, and dance in Hollywood films.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Natalia Makarova (1940 - )

Russian-born American prima ballerina, who also won awards as an actress portraying a prima ballerina in the Rodgers and Hart stage musical On Your Toes.

Swan Lake
UK Dir John Michael Phillips 1980
135 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Performance of Tchaikovsky's Ballet from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Choreography by Lev Ivanov, Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Frederick Ashton, Rudolf Nureyev. With dancers Natalia Makarova, Anthony Dowell.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Natalia Makarova (Omnibus)
UK 1979 Dir Derek Bailey
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
50 mins
Documentary about ballerina Natalia Makarova, dancer with the Royal Ballet Company, which features her with Anthony Dowell in Los Angeles; working on new choreography with Glen Tetley; performing Giselle with Baryshnikov; and performing the pas de deux from Act II of 'Swan Lake' with Ivan Nagy.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Body and Soul (Ballerina)
UK 1987 Dir Derek Bailey
60 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
First programme in four-part documentary series on the art of the ballerina, written and presented by Natalia Makarova. She examines what it means to be a great ballerina: "You must bring into an ideal balance the body of a superb athlete and the soul of an artist". With on-screen participants Frederick Ashton, Maurice Béjart, Kirsten Ralov, Jerome Robbins, Maya Plisetskaya. Dancers Carla Fracci, Sylvie Guillem, Antoinette Sibley and others.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Natasha
UK 1985 Dir Derek Bailey
65 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
Dance programme hosted by Russian ballerina Natalia Makarova, featuring extracts from a number of ballets and a performance of Natasha a dance number choreographed for this programme by Norman Maen.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Great Roles (Ballerina)
UK 1987 Dir Derek Bailey
60 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Third programme in four-part series on the art of the ballerina, written and presented by Natalia Makarova. The great classical roles that are the pinnacle of the ballerina's art – Swan Lake, Giselle and Sleeping Beauty – and the classics of the future. Makarova dances with Reid Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Anthony Dowell, Stephen Jefferies and Derek Rencher.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Handing on the Torch (Ballerina)
UK 1987 Dir Derek Bailey
58 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Fourth programme in four-part series on the art of the ballerina, written and presented by Natalia Makarova. Makarova looks to both the past and future, emphasising the essential tradition of classical ballet, and profiles three young dancers she believes could be the great ballerinas of tomorrow: Cecilia Kerche from Rio de Janeiro, Mette Bodtcher from Copenhagen and Sylvie Guillem from Paris.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Swan Lake
UK/Denmark 1989 Dir Thomas Grimm
116 mins
Beta SP + DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Natalia Makarova introduces her production of Tchaikovsky's ballet.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

La Bayardère
UK 1991 Dir Derek Bailey
121 mins
DVD Col (Reference copy only)
A performance by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House of the Russian ballet. Choreography by Natalya Makarova, dancers include Altynai Asylmuratova, Darcey Bussell and Irek Mukhamedov.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Mikhail Baryshnikov (b.1948)

Originally a dancer with the Kirov Ballet in Russia, Baryshnikov defected to Canada in 1974, dancing briefly with the National Ballet of Canada. From 1974-78 he was principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and worked with Balanchine in the New York City Ballet, and as a guest dancer with the Royal Ballet. He became Artistic Director of the American Ballet Theatre in 1980, promoting modern dance and working with choreographers including Twyla Tharp and others. He founded the touring company the White Oak Project in 1990.

Theatre [10/12/75] (Arena)
UK 1975 Prod Julian Jebb
25 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Mikhail Baryshnikov rehearses with Natalia Makarova for a gala performance for the BBC for the New Year. Kenneth Tynan gives a profile of actor Albert Finney who opens in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Gala Performance [02/01/76]
UK 1976 Dir Patricia Foy
51 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Classical music and dance acts, introduced from Sadler's Wells Theatre by Joseph Cooper. Includes Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing together for the first time in Britain. They dance the pas de deux from Act III of Don Quixote, choreography Marius Petipa, and the pas de deux from Act II of Giselle (concert version without corps de ballet).
Archive source: BFI National Archive

The Turning Point
US 1977 Dir Herbert Ross
119 mins
35mm Col
Twentieth Century-Fox fiction film, with Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Deedee and Emma are rivals in the dance trade, and their lives take a different turning when Emma continues with her career as a ballet dancer while Deedee sacrifices her career for marriage and motherhood. Choreography by Kenneth MacMillan.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Carmen

(Invitation to the Dance)
UK/FR 1980 Dir Dick Sanders
44 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Zizi Jeanmaire and Mikhail Baryshnikov perform in the modern version of Roland Petit's ballet, Carmen.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Dancing for Dollars: The Kirov in Petersburg (Dancing for Dollars)
Angus MacQueen
UK 1997
124 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
The second part of Dancing for Dollars takes a look at the difficulties faced by the Kirov Ballet under the leadership of chief choreographer Oleg Vinogradov, set against a rich artistic history. As communism gives way to capitalism, artistic integrity faces new problems. Combines personal accounts with archive footage of notable performers, including Mikhail Barishnikov and Rudolf Nureyev. Those reminiscing include backstage workers, the ticket collector who started as a dancer but whose ambitions were thwarted when he contracted scarlet fever, and wardrobe mistress Antonia Arefyeva who came temporarily during the war but is still there. With Archive footage of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Sylvie Guillem (1965 - )

French ballet dancer, the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet from 1984 to 1989, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London and performing contemporary dance as an Associate Artist of London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. Her most notable performances have included those in Giselle and in Rudolf Nureyev's stagings of Swan Lake and Don Quixote.

Zoltan Solymosi and Sylvie Guillem: Manon Lescaut (Artists for Bosnia)
UK 1993 Dir Nigel Wattis
9 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Solymosi and Guillem dance the pas de deux from Act I, scene II of Manon Lescaut.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Sylvie Guillem (The South Bank Show)
UK 1993 Dir Nigel Wattis
53 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Profile of Sylvie Guillem who left the Paris Opera ballet company to become Principal Guest Artist with the Royal Ballet in 1989 because it gave her the freedom to perform with other companies. Her loss to France was debated in the National Assembly. Despite her star status, she shuns publicity and has hardly ever allowed her work to be filmed. She performs extracts from Swan Lake with the Kirov; her solo ballet Sissi; and a new collaboration with the choreographer Mats Ek.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Sylvie Guillem: Smoke [tx26/12/95]
UK/Fra 1995 Dir Mats Ek, Gunnilla Wallin
Dance piece exploring the relationship between a man and a woman. Dancers Niklas Ek, Sylvie Guillem. Music by Arvo Part.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Darcey Bussell (1969 - )

Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pembleton Crittle (Darcey Bussell) was a Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet, widely considered to be one of the greatest English ballerinas of all time and has appeared as a guest artist with leading ballet companies worldwide.

Prince of the Pagodas 1990
UK 1990 Dir Derek Bailey
130 mins
DVD (Reference copy only) Col
Performance of Kenneth Macmillan's ballet by the Royal Ballet, to the score by Benjamin Britten, recorded at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Call Me Madam
UK 1998 Dir Ross MacGibbon
Documentary celebrating the 100th birthday of Dame Ninette de Valois. The programme includes archive footage and interviews with friends, colleagues, and former pupils. The archive footage includes Dame Ninette in interview, teaching at the Royal Ballet School and rehearsing two of her best known ballets The Rake's Progress and Checkmate. The tribute also includes Darcey Bussell, Sarah Wildor and Joseph Cipolla rehearsing roles from her ballets The Gods Go A-begging and The Prospect Before Us.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

Omnibus: Darcey Bussell
UK 1998
Col
Video
A profile of Darcey Bussell, now at the peak of her career as an international ballerina.
Archive source: BFI National Archive

3 Minute Wonder: Farewell, Darcey Bussell Creative Partnerships
UK 2007 Dir Michael Nunn, Billy Trevitt
Third of four short films celebrating the career and imminent retirement of ballerina Darcey Bussell. Looks at how she was admired by and inspired choreographers such as Sir Kenneth Macillan and Christopher Wheeldon, who were fascinated by her technical abilities and her natural on-stage combination of confidence and vulnerability.
Archive source: BFI National Archive