Ballet Legends: the Kirov's Ninel Kurgapkina; Kirov Stars: Shakespeare Dance Trilogy

At the risk of being called a philistine, I once again confess myself unmoved by the latest dance videos from V.I.E.W. Video. Ballet Legends: The Kirov's Ninel Kurgapkina, under the guise of something called a "gala performance," offers a series of scenes of Kurgapkina dancing selections from Minkus' Don Quixote, Drigo's Harlequinade, Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, and waltzes by Strauss and Shostakovich. Barring a short text biography at the close of the video, the program offers nada in the way of narrative or textual guidance.Shakespeare Dance Trilogy is not much of an improvement. Here members of the Kirov Ballet perform three "one-act ballets," based on the Bard's Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello, the two former set to Tchaikovsky scores while the latter is set to music by Henry Purcell. With the notable exception of the striking choreography in The Moor's Pavane (Othello), the pieces--which were all filmed on location at a medieval castle--share numerous examples of poor lighting, a quality which tends to diminish appreciation of the admittedly fine dancing.Hard-core ballet junkies might sit still for these, but they are not recommended for general audiences. (R. Pitman)