Part 3 of 6 Perm Ballet School Documentary Captives of Terpsichore
This is part 3 of a 6 part film made in 1994, but distributed in 1995. The film focuses on one of the greatest ballet teachers of the 20th century, Ludmila Pavlovna Sakharova . Sakharova is the current artistic director of the Perm Ballet school , known as the Perm choreographic school similar to the Bolshoi Ballet school being called the Moscow choreographic school. The Perm school is one of the top 3 ballet schools in Russia, with the others being the Vaganova Academy and Bolshoi school. Sakharova was the teacher that trained her most famous student and probably the most remarkable teenage student ever, Nadezhda Pavlova . At the same time that she was teaching Pavlova , her other student, Olga Chenchikova , was winning the silver medal against older professional dancers in the 1973 Moscow Ballet Competition when 16 year old Pavlova became the only ballerina to win the Grand Prize at a major competition of that level.
The film starts with one of their foreign students, a girl from Ireland talking. The student that is the main focus of this documentary is Natasha Balakhnicheva . Her fellow classmates shown are the girl from Ireland, two Japanese students and three Russians. American reviews of this film were very critical of Sakharova’s marine sergeant domination. She was considered like an evil witch and the film producer was criticized for showing too much of the girls’ faces while being yelled at. Sakharova might have traits of a Stalin type dictator, but when you see how much energy that she puts into teaching and how she acts at the end, you see that she loves ballet and loves her students, but sometimes has difficulty showing her love to her students. Anyone who could help produce a Nadezhda Pavlova is a very special teacher. This film taught me to ignore reviews because I think that this was a very well made film from a ballet standpoint and shows a great teacher, who makes it obvious that any student wanting to become a great professional ballerina cannot expect ballet training to be a fun picnic. Ballet is difficult and the competition is rough as the students trying to get accepted into the famous ballet school find out at the beginning of the movie.
My final comment is that part of the film focuses on the 3rd International Arabesque competition held in Perm. Among the important ballet personalities involved in this competition and shown in the film are Maya Plisetskaya , Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova ( Maksimova ). An interesting note is that during the competition in 1994, the Kirov Mariinsky star , Lariissa Lezhnina is shown outside the back stage door, but only for a few seconds and probably the producer had no idea who she was. Natasha Balakhnicheva is shown in the competition dancing the pas de deux from Giselle , Carmen and a new ballet .
Duration : 0:8:35
The film follows the star student Oksana Skorik at the Perm State Ballet school in Russia. The full feature documentary film is now finished. The film is the 2nd film by Irish film director David Kinsella. The film sequence shown is the opening sequence for the film festival version of the film. The film is in 2 versions a TV version and a film festival version. 
The film follows the star student Oksana Skorik at the Perm State Ballet school in Russia. The full feature documentary film will be finished by the end of 2007. The film is the 2nd film by Irish film director David Kinsella. The sequence shown is of Oksana dreaming of being free. The film is made by Faction film of Norway. you can read more about the film at davidkinsella.com 
The film follows the star student Oksana Skorik at the Perm State Ballet school in Russia. The full feature documentary film is now finished. The film is the 2nd film by Irish film director David Kinsella. The sequence shown is of Oksana dreaming of being free. you can read more about the film at davidkinsella.com 
This is part 2 of a 6 part film made in 1994, but distributed in 1995. The film focuses on one of the greatest ballet teachers of the 20th century, Ludmila Pavlovna Sakharova . Sakharova is the current artistic director of the Perm Ballet school , known as the Perm choreographic school similar to the Bolshoi Ballet school being called the Moscow choreographic school. The Perm school is one of the top 3 ballet schools in Russia, with the others being the Vaganova Academy and Bolshoi school …