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January on icon: Ballet

Dancers rehearse for a Royal Ballet production in London.
Dancers rehearse for a Royal Ballet production in London.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • The first non-Russian for more than a century to take command of a major Russian company
  • Icon explores the relationship between shoemaker and ballerina
  • Icon is guided through the New York City Ballet by the company's Chief Ballet Master

(CNN) -- As Natalie Portman and Darren Aronofsky's controversial ballet-horror film "Black Swan" rolls out internationally, CNN's arts and culture show icon steps into the world of pointe shoes and tutus.

Monita Rajpal travels to St Petersburg, where iconic figures such as Nureyev, Ballanchine and Baryshnikov honed their art.

The city is home to the famous Kirov Theatre and its lesser known rival the Mikhailovsky. And its here that a Russian Revolution is taking place as the renowned Spanish choreographer becomes the first non-Russian for more than a century to take command of a major Russian ballet company.

He says he plans to brush the cobwebs off the old masters and drag Russian ballet into the 21st century.

London is the home of the Royal Ballet and the famous ballet shoe manufacturer "Freed of London" which supplies 250,000 pairs of pointe shoes each year to ballet companies across the world.

icon explores the relationship between shoe maker and ballerina in the company of one of the Royal's principal dancers.

George Ballanchine left St Petersburg to join Diaghalev's famous Ballets Russes in France, but ended up in the U.S. where he formed the New York City Ballet and created scores of new works which have themselves become classics.

Ballanchine himself appointed the brilliant Danish dancer and choreographer Peter Martins, who became the company's Chief Ballet Master. Martins guides us through the development of one of the world's most iconic ballet companies.

Watch the show at the times (GMT) below:

Thursday 27 January: 1230, 1830

Saturday 29 January: 0730, 1600, 2330, 0430

Sunday 30 January: 0830,1930