Marius Petipa: The French Master of Russian Ballet

Marius Petipa was an unlikely artistic revolutionary. A middling dancer, he bounced around European cultural centers until he finally washed up in St. Petersburg in 1847 at age 29 — hired, sight unseen, by the Imperial Ballet as a principal dancer. A skilled socialite, he curried favor with the right people and within a decade staged his first ballet: the massive epic The Pharaoh's Daughter.

MARIUS PETIPA: THE FRENCH MASTER OF RUSSIAN BALLET traces Petipa's career from his early, crowd-pleasing choreography to the works that would become his masterpieces: Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Their stunning choreography and Tchaikovsky's music elevated ballet for the first time to one of the world's great art forms.

The film features stunning performance and rehearsal footage, along with intriguing period artwork and colorized photography. Once celebrated, Petipa's name has been largely forgotten outside of ballet. MARIUS PETIPA makes a significant contribution in re-introducing us to the life and work of this central figure.