Dance

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new documentary, Ballets Russes, just out on DVD. It tells the story of ballet after the death of Sergei Diaghilev, who founded and ran the company until 1929.

Ballet's history is not just about choreography and technique -- it's also a history of nationalization, the changing ways we view the body, shifting gender norms and class struggles. Historian Jennifer Homans chronicles the art form in a new cultural history, Apollo's Angels.

"One of the great iconoclasts in 20th-century art," Merce Cunningham revolutionized modern dance, pioneering abstract movement with his partner John Cage. Cunningham died July 26 at the age of 90.

Shakespeare's tragedy — and Prokofiev's ballet — are plenty familiar, but critic Lloyd Schwartz says Mark Morris's new staging isn't: It's based on a forgotten manuscript recently discovered in Russia, and it's truer to Prokofiev's original intent.

John Waters' movie Hairspray, about a full-figured teen who bops her way to popularity (and fights for racial integration) on a TV dance show in '60s Baltimore, was a cult camp classic that became a hit Broadway musical. Now that stage musical has been re-adapted into a film — starring John Travolta, no less, in the role created by Waters' drag-queen muse Divine.

We talk with director and choreographer Adam Shankman, who directed The Wedding Planner and choreographed Boogie Nights — not to mention the legendary musical episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.

Fayard Nicholas was part of the famous acrobatic dancing team the Nicholas Brothers. He died earlier this week at the age of 91. Fayard's brother and tap partner Harold Nicholas recalls their career together.

A new collection of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers DVDs from Warner Home Video is out, called the Astaire and Rogers Collection, Vol. 1. It includes "Top Hat" and "Swing Time."

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the material of choreographer George Balanchine available on DVD and CD. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Balanchine's birth.

Gregory Hines died Saturday at the age of 57. He won a Tony Award as best actor in 1992 for his portrayal of Jelly Roll Morton in Jelly's Last Jam. His film roles include Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club, White Nights in which he danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Tap. This interview first aired February 8, 1989.

He is the Tony-Award-winning choreographer of Broadway's The Lion King. He's also the founder and artistic director of the critically acclaimed Garth Fagan Dance group, and a Distinguished University Professor of the State University of New York. He's won many awards and fellowships, including a Guggenheim. His troupe is currently on tour. This interview first aired October 29, 2001.