In Yugoslavia, dance won't give up the ghost.

BELGRADE--Though the effects of the ongoing civil war are felt everywhere in the former Yugoslavia, many of the country's ballet companies continue to perform.

In Belgrade's National Theater, in May 1993, choreographer Lidia Pilipenko offered the premiere of La Dame aux Camelias, using music from Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata adapted by the conductor Angel Surev. At the end of last season, a guest from Kiev, Anatolij Sekera, created a classical Romeo and Juliet. Vladimir Logunov will revive The Sleeping Beauty, after Marius Petipa, for the coming season. In April 1994, Milorad Miskovic will create new choreography for Seribia's most famous national ballet, The Legend of Ohrid, with music by Stevan Hristic.

Last season the ballet company of the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad performed Logunov's stagings of Maurice Ravel's Bolero, the Georges Bizet-Rodion Shchedrin Carmen Suite, and Serenade, with music by Peter llyich Tchaikovsky. In 1993-94 the same company will present serveral ballets set to scores commissioned from domestic composers. The first of these pieces already saw the light of day at the beginning of the season. This was the balletic poem The King's Autumn, based on a play by Seribian poet Milutin Bojic and set to a commisioned score by Jugoslav Bosnjak. The libretto, direction, and choreography were all by Krunoslav Simic. Banovic Strahinja, to the music of Ksenija Zecevic, and Hasanaginica, to the music of Ivana Stefanovic, are two other premieres in Novi Sad.

Last season the ballet ensemble of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb revived Devil in the Village, an internationally known piece to music of Fran Lotka, following the version by Pio and Pina Mlakar. Portuguese choreographer Vasko Velenkamp, from Gulbenkian Ballet, worked on the premier of Ballades ... Coming With the Wind, set to a score of Portuguese folk songs arrangfed by Igor Savin and interpreted by Amalia Rodriguez. In addition to Ballades, two other pieces, set to music of Carl Orff--Triumph of Apjrodite, choreographed by Milko Sparemblek, and Carmina Burana, choreographed by Dragutin Boldin--have been planned for the Zagreb ballet's visit to Australia in 1994.

Swan Lake has been revived in the Ivan Zajc Theatre in Rijeka. In the Croatian National Theatre in Split a ballet concert has been choreographed by Anton Marinic, and Slavko Pervan presented the premiere of Teuta, to a new score by Boris Papandopoulo. Before leaving the martyred town of Sarajevo, in Bosnia, Pervan directed and staged the musical Hair.

Three new national ballets were given premieres in the Macedonian National Theatre in Skopje during the course of last season. To the Unknown (a ballet adaptation of the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh), was created by the fledging choreographers Dusanka Gradiski and Vladimir Milcin, who both wrote the libretto and directed.

The theatrical spectacle Mansard was choreographed by Jagoda Slaneva to music of Slatko Oridjanski. The History of Macedonia, billed as the first national Macedonian ballet, choreographed by Olga Milosavleva to music of Gligor Smokvarski, was revived for the 1993 Ohrid Summer Festival, with libretto and direction by Ljubisa Georgievski. A number of traditional ballet classics are planned for next season.

The ballet ensemble of the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubljana is incorporating a revival of Giselle in its repertoire this year, along with a new national ballet called The Praying Machine, set to Laibah band music, and choreographed by Dragan Zivadinov. This piece was performed in Antwerp in October. The Ljubljana ballet is also reviving Nutcracker. Planning for the future, Vlasto Dedovic is preparing a ballet concert set to music of Slavonic composers.