"Actor: The Royal Danish Ballet"

• Romantic Ballet Collection - Swan Lake/La Syphilde/Giselle | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Choreographer Matthew Bourne has achieved worldwide artistic and popular success with his innovative new versions of classical ballets. His groundbreaking work has attracted an enormous new audience for dance both at home and internationally. SWAN LAKE: Matthew Bourne''s triumphant modern re-interpretation of Swan Lake with its cast of male swans has turned tradition upside down and taken the ballet fraternity by storm. Never has such a contemporary re-working of a traditional ballet thrilled both ardent critics and modern dance enthusiasts in such equal measure. This is the recording made in 1996 of the original multi award-winning production. The cast includes: Adam Cooper Scott Ambler and Fiona Chadwick. 'Matthew Bourne has turned Swan Lake on its head he has given it a sex change and catapulted it into another universe.''some of the best performances you will ever see on a ballet stage.' The Times NUTCRACKER!: This delicious production is full of Matthew Bourne's trademark style of wit pathos and theatrical magic. Nutcracker! follows Clara's journey from a bleak Christmas Eve at Dr Dross' Orphanage through a shimmering ice-skating wonderland to the spectacular candy folk of Sweetieland. Tchaikovsky's much-loved score and Anthony Ward's stunning designs combine with Bourne's sizzling choreography. This is the recording made in 2003 of the original production starring Etta Murfitt Alan Vincent Saranne Curtin and Scott Ambler. 'Utterly delicious - a Dazzling Extravaganza' Sunday Telegraph THE CAR MAN Matthew Bourne uses the stirring and passionate music of Bizet's Carmen as the basis for a completely new and original tale. The dreams and passions of a small 1960's mid-western community are shattered by the arrival of a handsome stranger. Fuelled by heat and desire the inhabitants are drawn into a spiral of greed opportunism sex and murder. This is the original production filmed in 2001 and starring Alan Vincent Saranne Curtin Will Kemp Etta Murfit and Scott Ambler. 'Electrifying a dynamite dance of desire' Daily Mail Includes interview with Matthew Bourne.

• Nina Ananiashvili & International Stars Vol. 1 | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In 1991 a troupe of international ballet stars headed by the brilliant young Russian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili visited Japan presenting a program which underscored the considerable talents of a new generation of virtuoso dancers. Fortunately for ballet fans the performance was videotaped preserving an extraordinary demonstration of balletic wizardry.At the centre of all the excitement was Miss Ananiashvili herself demonstrating an exuberance and impetuosity coupled to a technique that can only be described as breathtaking. In these excerpts from the 1991 program her art can be viewed from a variety of perspectives: As the young girl in Le Spectre de la Rose she embodies the first stirrings of adolescent desire; in the Grand pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty she reigns as the quintessential Prima Ballerina Assoluta; the more modern vocabulary of Moods brings a deep sensuality to her dancing while the extended Grand pas from Don Quixote shows off Ananiashvili's awesome virtuosity.