Der Tanz der vier kleinen Schwäne, Schwanensee

Russian dance from Swan lake - Svetlana Uvarova

Best of Classical Russian Ballets

Did you know Freddie Mercury loved ballet? When Queen released “I Want to Break Free” in 1984, one moment stopped viewers short: a ballet sequence that felt strangely out of time. That’s because it was referencing a real—and once-scandalous—ballet. The work most often cited is Afternoon of a Faun, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky in 1912 for the Ballets Russes. Set to Claude Debussy’s score, Faun broke sharply from classical ballet. Nijinsky studied ancient Greek vase paintings and bas-relief sc