In this episodic animated fantasy from France, an art teacher interprets a series of six fairy tales (each involving a prince or princess) with the help of two precocious students. Princes and Princesses was created using a special style of cutout animation, with black silhouetted characters performing the action against backlit backdrops in striking colors.
A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. She rises to be the land's fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal – an act that begins to turn her heart into stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading King's successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom – and to Maleficent's true happiness as well.
The wicked fairy Carabosse is furious she wasn’t invited to Princess Aurora’s christening. She gives the baby a spindle, saying that one day the Princess will prick her finger on it and die. The Lilac Fairy makes her own christening gift a softening of Carabosse’s curse: Aurora will not die, but will fall into a deep sleep, which only a prince’s kiss will break. The masterful 19th-century choreography of Marius Petipa is combined with sections created for The Royal Ballet by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell and Christopher Wheeldon. Recorded live as part of the Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season 2019/20 with encore screenings broadcast online during the #OurHousetoYourHouse programme.
A young princess named Snow White is sent away from her palace to live in the woods due to the jealousy of her stepmother.
A prince has a romance with a barmaid before he must give up personal happiness for duty.
A crippled puppeteer rescues an abused young boy and turns the boy into a great ballet dancer. Complications ensue when, as a young man, the dancer falls in love with a young woman the puppeteer is also in love with.
Lively scenes of Paris, all narrated by Maurice Chevalier, link together four dramatic ballet choreographies by Roland Petit: La Croqueuse de diamants (The Gold Digger), Cyrano de Bergerac, Deuil en 24 heures (A Merry Mourning), and Carmen.
War Dancing tells the tale of Slammer, a small-time hood whose life changes when he is allowed to take part in a music video shoot. He begins to feel that a career in music might get him on the right track, but the video's choreographer dismisses Slammer's attempts at dancing. This gives Slammer the righteous anger he needs to improve his skills and show everybody he can besuccessful.
Sara's dream of finding the perfect mate is realized when boyfriend Daniel proposes marriage, but there is one tiny hitch. It turns out he is the real-life prince of a small European monarchy, and his marriage requires the approval of his royal parents. Commoner Sara will have to do more than simply impress the in-laws-to-be. If she wants to become Daniel’s wife, she’ll have to prove she’s got all the makings of an honest-to-goodness princess.
A prince from Europe meets a charming waitress when he travels to America during the Christmas holiday to escape an arranged marriage.
A fairy tale of the misadventures of a beautiful but temperamental Neapolitan peasant, Isabella, when she meets the ill- tempered Spanish Prince Rodrigo Ferrante y Davalos. The King of Spain has ordered Rodrigo to choose a wife among seven Italian Princesses, but he is smitten by the lowly peasant.
An Arab prince born and raised in the desert and a beautiful Frenchwoman from Paris fall in love and marry, but the tremendous differences in their backgrounds and the cultural differences between their two different societies put strains on their marriage that may well prove irreparable.
It is a reincarnation story about the love between Leela and her lover, which is left incomplete because one of them has been murdered. The story comes to circle after 300 years; when Leela has taken birth as Meera and her lover's character is also reborn.
This is the story of a fateful encounter and the life-changing choices that led to one of Australia's and the world's most recognisable and romantic love stories.
Birgit Cullberg's 1950 dance adaptation of Miss Julie was the breakthrough for modern dance in Sweden. 30 years later one of her sons plays the role of Jean in this adaptation for TV.
Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) is one of the choreographer's most joyous and colourful creations. Inspired by his love for the Suffolk countryside, the ballet is set on a farm and tells a story of love between Lise, the daughter of Widow Simone, and Colas, a young farmer. It contains some of Ashton's most stunning choreography, most strikingly in the series of energetic pas de deux that express the youthful passion of the young lovers, performed here by Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae. The ballet is laced with exuberant good humour, and elements of national folk dance, from dancing chickens and a maypole dance to a Lancashire clog dance for Widow Simone, performed by Philip Mosley.
Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle perform in this 2004 La Scala production of the Tchaikovsky ballet conducted by James Tuggle.
A drama of a dynastic proportion, a young prince must decide between duty and desire when his parents reject his choice for a wife.
Inspired by dark and gripping real life events, this Royal Ballet classic depicts the sexual and morbid obsessions of Crown Prince Rudolf leading to the murder-suicide scandal with his mistress Mary Vetsera. The oppressive glamour of the Austro-Hungarian court in the 1880s sets the scene for a suspenseful drama of psychological and political intrigue as Rudolf fixates on his mortality.
The Royal Ballet's 1980 production of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet.