Bolshoi Best Yet to Come?

Bolshoi Ballet Opera House, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington, D.C. June 11-16, 2002

The Bolshoi Ballet was stingy, bringing only a few lead dancers for Swan Lake and La Bayadere, its two big productions here, and for the gala it shared with its sibling at the Bolshoi Theater, the Bolshoi Opera, which featured its chorus here. Three ballerinas had been announced--Anna Antonicheva, Nadezhda Gracheva, and Anastasia Volochkova--but Antonicheva danced not only her own scheduled performances, but also those of the indisposed Gracheva. Parts for second ballerinas and first female soloists, too, were given predominantly to just a couple of company members--Maria Alexandrova and Maria Allash. While there was a bit more variety in casting the major male roles, one good thing about the restricted roster was that the audience really got to know the leads.

Antonicheva has long, beautifully arched feet, legs that unfurl forever, a slim torso, finely boned arms, and a tapering neck topped by the small oval of her head. She articulates movement immaculately, yet her performances early in the week were mechanical. Perhaps she was jetlagged and overwhelmed by having to do double duty with two different partners--her own (Nikolai Tsiskaridze) and Gracheva's (Andrei Uvarov). It was only at the last performance, as Nikiya in Bayadere, that Antonicheva added passion and achieved harmony in her dancing. In contrast, the compact Volochkova was fully on all the time, even at the opening night gala, which she lit up by letting her footwork compete with her fan. It flicked over every few fouettes in her variation for the Don Quixote duo-and-divertissement. Alluring and uncomplicatedly beautiful, this Kirov-trained ballerina is a skilled dance actress. In her solo in Bayadere, just before Nikiya dies, Volochkova used phrasing more than facial expression to establish a transition from the plaintive opening to the feverishly elated climax. Her Nikiya became a woman incrementally possessed by a vain hope, despite deep doubts. For the lyricism of classical adagio, though, Volochkova wasn't ideal. She did the steps well, of course, but what seemed to fail her was continuity. After a few phrases, she appeared to run out of impetus and had to start up again. This required patent effort.

Alexandrova, whose Kitri in the full Don Q sparkled like dew during the Bolshoi's visit two years ago, was even stronger now. As Gamzatti or the third-solo Shade in Bayadere and the Spanish candidate bride in Swan Lake, her balances exuded utter assurance, and she always appeared to possess power in reserve. What she didn't seem, though, was as refined as she had been. Allash, too, has made technical strides--not to super-strength, but without sacrificing freshness and nuance.

Last time, Tsiskaridze came closer than any of his colleagues to the star power of the Bolshoi men of yore. This time, he seemed a more restrained showman and a thoughtful actor, making Bayadere's Solor rather macho and Swan Lake's Siegfried anything but. His dancing is sensual and prone to mistakes. The proud Uvarov and the straightforward Evgeny Ivanchenko (from the Kirov, guesting as Volochkova's partner) concentrated on being classical danseurs. All three men could have used a bigger stage.

The productions showcased Yuri Grigorovich, former director of this ballet company, as stager and choreographer. He's perplexing! The pageantry he mounted for both classics was heavy-handed. The tripping soldiers and treading priests in the Act II march of Bayadere looked like cartoon figures bouncing and pounding on the music's beat. Was Grigorovich being serious and vulgar, or was he sardonic and pointing up Marius Petipa's original version as vulgar? The endings of the two ballets were subtle but anti-theatrical, with Swan Lake's Siegfried and Bayadere's Solor left in emotional abandonment. Grigorovich is capable of good work, too, as demonstrated by his dances for the prospective brides in Swan Lake. There were five of them--Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, Neapolitan (there was no Italy yet), and Polish. Each was backed by a small but crucially different ensemble, and for each Grigorovich set a classical variation based on the traditional steps of her birthplace. This choreography was inventive and stylish.

The famous classical passages of the two ballets were best when Grigorovich left them untouched. Danced body and soul by the Bolshoi's women's corps, these measures became luminous.

The run provided a few other eye-catchers--Alexander Gorsky's La Fille mal gardee duo on the gala, in a tight but precise rendition by Nina Kaptzova and Denis Medvedev; Morihiro Ivata or Medvedev in Grigorovich's grotesque takes on Swan Lake's Fool and Bayadere's Golden Idol; ballerina emerita Marina Kondratieva teaching a public master class. It is too soon to give Boris Akimov's new regime a full report card nor can its predecessor, the short-lived Vasiliev/Fadeyechev administration, be given a final grade. The Bolshoi remains in transition.