Search - MAKING BALLET: Karen Kain and The National Ballet of Canada on DVD

A common man's point of view.

Richard Rawls | Dublin Ga USA | 12/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As you read my reviews, you will learn that I know very little about ballet, except that the music, sets, costumes ,and especially the dancers, are so very beautiful. Actually, the beauty of it all is quite enough, but I want to know a little about what it takes to put all that beauty on the stage.

I bought "Making Ballet" to learn more about the art of ballet. Another reason, is to see Karen Kain again. I only have one ballet in which she is the star, that being "Giselle" with her partner Frank Augustyn. Do you have her Giselle? Adam - Giselle / Karen Kain, Frank Augustyn, National Ballet of Canada If not, you owe it to yourself to get it. Read my review on Giselle w/Karen Kain.

In "Making Ballet", One sees that behind all the beauty on the stage, there is hard hard work, pain, and sometimes career ending injury involved. No one was injured that badly, but you could see scrapes and bruises on their feet and legs, though, we never see that on stage, do we? Karen and her choreographer James Kudelka are featured in the making of the ballet "The Actress" by the National Ballet of Canada. The ballet is choreographed to the music of Fredrick Chopin and about 25 of his Preludes. We are not told which preludes, because View Video is as stingy with information as Kultur is with theirs. It seems to be a biography of an actress (Karen Kain) as she progresses through her career, her trials and tribulations. I don't know if it is a true biography or not, but one scene shows where some one broke into her dressing room and attacked her. The music to that scene is Chopin's "Revolution" Etude. Very exciting music to a violent encounter with an intruder. I would like to see this ballet (The Actress), but I have not seen it advertised anywhere.

If you too want to see what goes on behind the scenes of making a ballet you should get this DVD. One thing that is obvious to us is, these people have a lot of FUN when they are creating a new ballet. Karen makes the point that her "life was not as dramatic or sexy or funny every day as it is in this piece, but still, it's based on a lot of true things about my world and about what I experienced and have experienced. So I would say it's about 50/50 recall and imagination to create this character". She was 43 when she made this film. She was still very beautiful and still is for that matter. She retired from the stage in 1996 but she is still very much "into" ballet. -------Richard."

See How Karen Kain and Her Colleagues of the National Ballet

J. M WILINSKY | teaneck, NJ United States | 01/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In this ballet documentary we get to watch the choreographer, James Kudelka, work with Karen Kain and others to develop and rehearse the ballet "The Actress", which was created for her. Many of the pas de deux rehearsals are covered, as well as costume fittings, and even company ballet class is shown. Karen Kain is one of the world's great ballerinas and this documentary offers a wonderful opportunity to see her "up close". Be sure to add this to your ballet documentary library!"