Russian Ballet. From Origins to Triumph

The book by Russian playwright, theater historian, and librettist Sergey Khudekov (1837-1928) is one of the first monographic studies of the phenomenon of Russian ballet: from "foreign dances" during the times of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov to the... era of Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Isadora Duncan, Mikhail Fokine, Tamara Karsavina...
The basis of the book is a collection by Khudekov himself, who gathered over 15,000 documents and exhibits about the history of theater. "The History of Russian Ballet" was supposed to be part of a multi-volume "History of Dance," but the fate of the book was tragic: its print run was lost in a fire at the printing house in 1918, and only a few copies miraculously survived.
Sergey Khudekov's work is not only a unique perspective of an eyewitness on the "golden age" of Russian ballet but also a panorama of the entire history of Russian ballet art - from copying Western examples to the formation of a truly national ballet school of mastery that became a standard for the whole world.
The edition is richly illustrated with rare engravings and photographs.