****Excellent ***Good **Ordinary *Poor : <i> Recent releases, reviewed by Times critics.</i> : DANCE
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** “Alicia.” *** “Giselle.”
VAI. $49.95 each.
Now 66 and still dancing, the indomitable Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso dominates these two dance films--capably partnered in each by Azari Plisetski (brother of Alonso’s Soviet counterpart, Maya Plisetskaya). The crudely edited, hagiographic “Alicia” (1976) incorporates documentary footage, interview segments and excerpts from Alonso vehicles (some of them shot in black-and-white and then tinted). The longest performance segments: the Black Swan pas de deux and Alberto Alonso’s “Carmen Suite.” Letterbox format. “Giselle” (1965) finds the National Ballet of Cuba dancing Alonso’s own intelligent and spirited staging of the Romantic classic. Bizarre cinematic indulgences by director Enrique Pineda Barnet weaken this black-and-white studio production, but in Alonso it boasts a Giselle of magnificent feeling and authority. Plisetski is an effectively impetuous, weak-willed Albrecht, Mirta Pla a commanding Myrta. Information: (800) 338-2566.
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