New DVD set offers three contemporary works from the Paris Opera Ballet

The new DVD box set The Paris Opera Ballet from BelAir Classiques compiles three recent contemporary evening-length works originally filmed for French television: Angelin Preljocaj’s Le Parc, Carolyn Carlson’s Signes and Roland Petit’s Proust.

The directorial choices in filming the ballets seem well-considered and wise. Oftentimes, filmed ballet can be disappointing: It’s frustrating to watch an intimate duet that looks as though it was filmed in a long shot from the highest balcony or an ensemble piece that’s shot in close-up that rushes around trying to track the movement. In some films, we’re either offered a single static shot of the entire stage or worse: directors will go for a series of fast cuts to try to capture the rhythm and motion of the performance.

But here those problems are averted. The films offer a nice balance, a natural rhythm, between long-shots and close-ups. There’s a relaxed quality—an aesthetic exhaling—rather than an anxiety about catching every last movement in its entirety. The filmmakers understand that a story can be told by what’s left out of the frame as much as by what’s left in: A beautiful close-up of a dancer’s slow-moving arm, when caught at the right moment, doesn’t make us miss the fact that we can’t see her foot.