Vladimir Vasiliev in peak form in a 1960s video of Narcissus and Echo

This 1960s record­ing of Kasyan Goleizovsky’s Nar­cissus and Echo with Vladi­mir Vasiliev is an extraordin­ary testi­ment to the artistry and power of the young dan­cer in his prime.

It was filmed without sound and has been engin­eered to fit a record­ing of Nikolai Tcherepnin’s music.

Kasyan Goleizovsky (1892–1970) Russian dan­cer and cho­reo­grapher. Leader of the exper­i­mental move­ment in Moscow in the 1920s.

Nikolai Tcherepnin (1873–1945) Rus­sian composer, pianist, and con­ductor. He was born in Saint Peters­burg and stud­ied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Peters­burg Con­ser­vat­ory. He con­duc­ted for the first Paris sea­son of Sergei Diaghilev’s Bal­lets Russes.

Vladi­mir Vasiliev (1940), Rus­sian bal­let dan­cer. Was prin­cipal dan­cer with the Bolshoi Bal­let, best known for his role of Sparta­cus and for his power­ful leaps and turns.