If you’re not a ballet lover, you may never have heard of the ballet Raymonda. I’ve seen it quite a few times, and although it’s not my favorite it’s still enjoyable, and I very much like the Glazunov music.

I well remember two ballerinas from American Ballet Theater whose performances in the role were stellar. Luckily, I found videos of each of them doing one of the solos. But unfortunately, the quality of the videos isn’t good; they are blurry and sometimes the music is flat. And yet, unless one goes to the Lincoln Center library and watches videos there (they can’t be taken out), it’s all we have of these great artists.

The quality of these videos makes it seem as though these performances were from 100 years ago. But these are people I saw perform when I was already an adult. The videos appear to have been taken during live performances and have some annoying buzzing and clicking sounds.

But enough complaining.

First, we have Cynthia Gregory, who was tall and elegant, restrained but lovely. This is probably from some time in the early to mid 1970s:

And then we have Martine van Hamel, who was also elegant but had a more delicate and charming quality. She is from the same era. The music is flat, the picture is blurry, but I think she is amazing:

Here is a Russian dancer from the 1980s; actually, she’s Georgian. You can see that her movements are sharper and far more dramatic. She gives it that Russian/Georgian angst. Although her variation lacks the charm and centered stillness of the first two, I like it for its drama. The video quality is much better, of course, although the first few moments of the variation are missing:

And here is a very well-known French dancer who was a technical marvel, circa 1990 or so. Her version is too austere and severe for me, and I get that sense of posing rather than flow:

I had trouble finding more recent performances, but maybe it’s just as well. I assume they’re available, though.