Bolshoi Theatre Presents CLASS CONCERT, 1/23

Created in the early 1960s by Asaf Messerer, the ballet "Class Concert" has never been seen in the United States.  American balletomanes will finally have the opportunity to delight in this rarely performed ballet in a LIVE HD simulcast from Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre on Sunday, January 23rd, at 11 a.m. (Eastern) at Manhattan's BIG Cinemas Theater, 239 East 59th Street.
 
Part of the ongoing "Ballet in Cinema" series from Emerging Pictures, the ballet will star Svetlana Zakharova and Maria Alexandrova in a production staged by Mikhail Messerer, nephew of the choreographer.  "Class Concert" is a romanticized version of the ballet class rigors dancers go through daily.  From barre exercises to center stage displays of beauty and strength, the ballet zips through difficult dance combinations with gleeful panache.  The one-act ballet features music by the composers Alexander Glazunov, Konstantin Lyadov, Sergei Lyapunov, Anton Rubinstein and Dmitry Shostakovich.
 
The Bolshoi's new version of "Giselle," choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich, will follow immediately after "Class Concert."  This two-act ballet is one of the greatest and most popular works in the dance canon, with a title role among the most dramatically challenging and technically demanding ever choreographed.  The romantic ballet tells the story of the peasant girl Giselle's early love and poignant descent into madness, followed by her premature death and beyond-the-grave act of loving protection in saving her paramour Albrecht from the vengeance of a group of evil female spirits.
 
The running time of the two ballets combined is 170 minutes.
For audiences outside New York City, the back-to-back ballets will be available in select venues in the Emerging Pictures' national network of over 200 theaters.  For individual cities, local theaters and tickets, visit:  www.balletincinema.com.