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 "exotic dances" in the times of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov to the era of Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Isadora Duncan, Mikhail Fokine, Tamara Karsavina...
The foundation of the book was a collection amassed by Khudekov himself, who gathered more than 15,000 documents and exhibits about the history of theater. "The History of Russian Ballet" was supposed to be part of the multi-volume "History of Dance," however, the fate of the book was tragic: its print run perished 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 eyewitness perspective on the "golden age" of Russian ballet but also a panorama of the entire history of Russian ballet art - from copying Western models to the awareness of a genuinely national school of ballet craftsmanship, which became a standard for the whole world.
The edition is richly illustrated with rare engravings and photographs.