Ninella Kurgapkina, Sergei Demidov - PDD from ’The Humpbacked Horse’ (c1965)

This is footage of Ninella Kurgapkina, as the Czar-Maiden, and Sergei Demidov performing a pas de deux from ’The Humpbacked Horse’ in the mid nineteen sixties. It’s obviously shot in a television studio and suffers a little from stark black walls and the confined space. What I like about this film is that it shows what we think of as a traditional style of Russian folk dance. And Kurgapkina executes the choreography with real vigour, style and taste. The talking head who introduces the dancers is Natalia