I was wondering if anyone had seen this documentary, and if its any good, etc, as Im considering purchasing it.

Solor, the DVD includes a short history of the ballet's origin and of Nureyev's staging his version, with footage of him being applauded at the premiere. There are also interviews with Guerin, Platel, Hillaire, Bart and Lefrevre. But the bulk of the film consists of rehearsal footage, mostly of the principals, in the studio and onstage, with shorter clips of the staged production. Guerin is rehearsed by Ghislaine Thesmar. It's good!

As kfw writes, there are interviews with the dancers, Lefevre, Patrice Bart and the set and costume designers. They talk about Bayadere (plot, characters, dances etc) but they also talk at length about working with Nureyev.

It goes rapidly over the history of the ballet (Sakuntala etc), but not in great detail. I don't think there will be anything about the history and the plot you will not have read/heard somewhere else. The best part are the long rehearsal excerpts. You see the dancers work on most significant scenes of the ballet, little details, gestures etc. Ghislaine Thesmar is the repetitrice. Very interesting.

1h 40', video & sound of the high quality one expects of POB and TDK.

It's a good documentary, albeit a bit dry, as it touches mostly on the details of the reconstruction. There are extensive interviews with Guerin, Platel, and Hilaire, the original etoiles of La Bayadere. Lots of rehearsal footage. IMO, a better "Dancer's Dream" documentary is "Raymonda" because there you have LOTS of etoiles and some of them are very colorful. Also you get to see rare footage of etoiles that unfortunately weren't often filmed, like Platel. If there's a Dancer's Dream doc to get, I'd pick Raymonda as the "must have" and "Bayadere" as the one for "die-hards."

I agree with canbelto about the Raymonda Dancer's Dream. I particularly liked the footage of Guizerix and the interview footage with Hilaire, Platel, and de Vulpain.

POB is doing Nureyev's La Bayadere Mar 3 - Apr 8, 2006... I may have to fly out to see that. Paris in April and La Bayadere...