Prima Ballerina Assoluta
Omnibus features a study of a great dancer, presented by writer and ballet critic Clement Crisp.
The sensation of Rudolf Nur eyev's defection to the West in 1961 was renewed nine years later when MAKAROVA became the first female ballet star to ask to stay in the West.
This film is about the qualities that have earned her the most extravagantly complimentary title of all - 'assoluta'. She has been blessed with a beautiful body; she has had the world's best training at the Vaganova School and in the Kirov Company in Leningrad; and she brings to the stage a magical theatrical presence, a unique combination of personality and intellect. But none of these advantages replaces the need to work: the constant process of rehearsing old roles and learning new ones.
This film is about Makarova at work and in performance; with Anthony Dowell in Los Angeles ' doing class ' and working on new choreography with Glen Tetley; extracts from her legendary Giselle with Mikhail Baryshnikov ; and in performance in the Pas de Deux from Swan Lake: Act II with Ivan Nagy of American Ballet Theatre.
Film cameramen
PHILIP BONHAM-CARTER , RICK ROBERTSON Film editor JON GREGORY Directed by DEREK BAILEY