Breaking the Soviet mold: Natalia Kasparova brings jazz and modern dance to St. Petersburg.

A young Russian girl growing up in Irkutsk, near Mongolia, who loves both dancing and gymnastics, must choose one or the other By seven she has made her decision. She studies gymnastics six hours a day until the age of 20, but she always feels drawn to dance. She sees videos of A Chorus Line and Cabaret, enticing her further. At 27, her hunger to study American jazz dance and modern takes her far and wide. She brings it all back to St. Petersburg and, bucking the institutional tide, opens a studio right next door to the Maryinsky Theatre, a bastion of classical ballet. Within four years her school numbers 200 students (including curious dancers from the Maryinsky Ballet), her company is performing in Russia, Europe, and the United States, and she's winning prizes in choreography.

Meet Natalia Kasparova, 33, artistic director of Kannon Dance Company and school. A shy, gentle woman with high cheekbones reminiscent of another Natalia--Makarova--she's a knockout dancer, prolific choreographer, and renowned teacher. Together with her husband, Vadim Kasparov, who manages the school and company and produces two animal festivals, they've opened St. Petersburg to American forms of dance. In a city--and country--that counts classical ballet as one of its greatest exports, this is quite an accomplishment.

As a child, Natalia favored the freestyle gymnastic events because she could make her own routines, improvise, and design costumes. In her twenties she began choreographing for artistic gymnastics, variety shows, and dinner theater, with Vadim's help as manager. She loved the freedom of jazz dance, and took a workshop with American jazz dancer Phil LaDuca in Klagenfurt, Austria early in 1997.

"Natalie absorbed the jazz idiom better than any student I've ever had," says LaDuca. "Most dancers have a hard time grasping the technique and the style. For someone to grab both and put their personality into it--that is an exceptional dancer. If she had been in New York she probably would be working with major choreographers like Ann Reinking and Wayne Cilento."

When Kasparova first saw modern dance, however, she didn't like it. "I didn't understand what they do," she said. "It was so strange for me." Then she saw the work of Yevgeny Panfilov, the Perm-based choreographer who died last year (see "Transitions," DANCE MAGAZINE, April 2003, page 87) and was astonished by his inventiveness. She also admired the work of Boris Eifman, based in St. Petersburg.

In the early 90s, Natalia told Vadim that she had a dream. She wanted to organize a school and company where she could teach, choreograph, and perform. Vadim said, "Okay, maybe I continue to be your manager."

Later in 1997 she invited LaDuca to teach in her studio, and people flocked to the classes. But when Kasparova taught, she recalled, "Only three people came to my class. It was terrible for me. I feel like, 'Oh my god, people don't like it. They like it only when Americans teach. Maybe I need to study more and then open school again.' But Vadim tell me, 'Wait. Just work and continue to focus on your school and wait.'"

Her classes eventually filled with students of all ages. The six dancers of Kannon Dance Company, who were trained by Kasparova at the school, are quite young. Anya Ozerskaia has studied with Natalia since she was 13, and started teaching jazz classes at Kannon at 16. Now, at 19, she is a vibrant, grounded, versatile dancer who can change qualities on a dime. She likes dancing with Natalia, she says, because, "She doesn't teach just one style. She allows us to make our own style and our own choreography." She also enjoys working with guest teachers and choreographers like Danny Buraczewski, Bill Young, Mark Haim, Michael Tracey, Edward Truitt (see sidebar), Bebe Qually, and Cathy Young (see www.kannoudance.narod.ru).

New York choreographer Risa Jaloslow returned from her second residency at Kannon Dance glowing about the professional attitude of these young dancers. "They have a maturity that is very different from people of the same age here," she said. "We were working five or six hours a day, and everybody did the most they could do. They have wonderful ideas and are fearless movers." Hazarding a guess as to why they work so hard, she says, "Life is not easy in Russia, and people are used to having to work at everything. Russians can have a seriousness that borders on grimness. But Natalie's dancers are fun to work with." Plus, there's Natalia's adventurousness, which can be contagious. "She has an experimental spirit," Jaroslow said.

Last September Natalia took part in Link Vostok's Mississippi/Volga Dance Exchange Project, which brought a group of Russian dancers to Minneapolis. Her most precious memento from that trip is a bunch of cards made with crayons by children at Clara Barton Open School, thanking Kannon Dance for a perfromance and workshop.

Teaching dance in public schools is a new idea for Russians. Vadim and Natalie came home all charged up to do it in St. Petersburg. The result was just the beginning, Vadim said later. Russian children, he observed, are more restrained than American kids. But they opened up and he is now trying to raise hinds to continue.

That's not the only thing Kannon Dance needs money for. Their building will soon be annexed by the Maryinsky Theatre. However, when the Maryinsky Theatre was looking for dancers to improvise for a Wagner opera last year, they came not to the Maryinsky Ballet, but to Kannon Dance.) Vadim and Natalia are looking for a new studio.

The couple continues to dream big. For the future they envision a performing arts center with a library and video archive. Vadim wants to take his Open Look smnmer festival on tour and expand his KINODANCE festival (an outpost of New York's Dance On Camera). Last month he inaugurated a choreography competition. Natalia and Vadim believe that there is a new generation of dancers who are more interested in jazz and modern than ballet or folk. And they would have nowhere to go if it weren't for Natalia Kasparova.

WEST TEXAS MEETS ST. PETERSBURG

Edward Truitt, the director of dance at West Texas A & M University since last August, tells why he invited Natalia Kasparova for a residency March 26-April 17. He plans to invite Kannon Dance Company in the fall for a collaborative performance with his resident dance company, Lone Star Ballet.

When I first taught at Natalie's studio in St. Petersburg in 1999, I was so impressed by what she was doing with what little she had. She was exploring modern and jazz in an interesting way, highly influenced by American methods. Seeing the talent she's been developing in her dancers reminded me of Charles-Louis Didelot, a figure in ballet history. He went to St. Petersburg [in the 1820s] and took the company there from knowing only twenty-five basic steps to become a world class company in a short period of time. Natalie has the potential to do that in Russia in the realm of modern and jazz dance.

I want to give students the opportunity to have a strong cultural interaction with dancers who look at life differently, who look at dance differently. I want to bring other voices into the curriculum, into guest residencies, into the performance process. I want to take these kids to national and international festivals and open their eyes to the possibilities of what dance can be for them.

Wendy Perron is DM's editor in chief.