The Firebird & Les Noces

Two performers of Diaghilev Ballet Russes, shot in modern performances, designed by Goncharova.
The Firebird; The ballet, in a fascinating manner, uses the foregrounding and the backgrounding. The firebird is initially in front, Ivan as the voyeur. The rest of the piece is the male attempt to win the powerful symbolic position, to retain his lone ability to enter from the right. The key trope here is that he has to realise that he can't keep this power; it is selfish, phallo-centric. The reveal of this is wonderful.
Also interesting is the use of depth in this piece. The way that the bodies of the other dancers are used to illustrate the inability of the lovers to communicate, how they must be within the crowd and are at once held from a unsustainable immediacy through it.
Les Noces; A sharp little piece. To note here is the assymety of the sides of the stage. As we may also see the extremely cramped stage use, around the balck outlines. What actually squeezes up here is surprisingly messy fiddly; if the people are clockwork machines, then they are the thousands of un-understandable cogs of the watch. The final thing we want to say here is the brilliant way every single aspect of the piece is mediated. When some are violently moving, others stay dead still, eerily so. The stage is the stage, again, of the voyeur, it is a great move towards self-awareness, and promotes a kind of Checkovian sadness.
These were enjoyable to watch, and we look forward to seeing more ballet (on stage rather than chopped up by cameras, hopefully).