Sulamith Messerer and Asaf Messerer in ’Don Quixote’, Bolshoi Theatre

This clip shows two Bolshoi dancers from the first in the first half of the C20 in a pas de deux and a ballerina solo from ’Don Quixote’. They are the brother and sister Sulamith and Asaf Messerer, the first Soviet dancers to tour Western Europe. Asaf trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School under Mikhail Mordkin. And Sulamith trained under Vasily Tikhomirov and Elisabeth Gerdt. After Sulamith’s sister Rachel Messerer-Plisetskaya was arrested in the Great Purge, Sulamith legally adopted Rachel’s daughter Maya Plisetskaya, and coached her into the prominence she achieved. I’ve reposted this footage because I now have a clearer version and with a piano accompaniment - obviously added later to the original silent film.