Legends of the Maryinsky.

St. Petersburg--no other city this century has produced so many ballet legends. But for every name known to the general public--Nijinsky, Pavlova, Balanchine, Ulanova, Nureyev, Makarova, Baryshnikov there are many others whose influence was no less significant: Diaghilev, who saved classical ballet in the West; Lopukhov, who saved classical ballet in Russia; Vaganova, who developed the school; the honorary westerners--Fokine, Karsavina, Danilova; the "forgotten" choreographers--Lopukhov, Jacobson; the "forgotten" ballerinas--Kschessinska, Preobrajenska, Spessivtseva; the male dancers--Gerdt, the brothers Legat, Soloviev, Dolgushin. The Maryinsky Ballet, now touring as the Kirov, is at Lincoln Center (June 28-July 10). The new generation of Maryinsky dancers are the living embodiment of the St. Petersburg style. Here are a few of the notables who made that style. Extracts are from the forthcoming book, St. Petersburg: A Century of Russian Ballet. Book of Days 2000, by Jeremy Noble.

MARIUS PETIPA (1818-1910)

It was a Frenchman, Marius Petipa, who became the most influential choreographer of nineteenth century Russian ballet, and whose legacy dominated its twentieth century. Petipa came to St. Petersburg as a dancer in 1847, and only much later, in 1869, did he become chief ballet master of the Imperial Russian Ballet. Petipa gave Russian ballet a structure it had lacked; he introduced the strict proportions between mime and dance and established the ensembles of the corps de ballet and the precise rules for the order of dancing in a pas de deux. For forty years, until 1903, he produced dozens of his own ballets and restaged many others. Constrained as he always was by the conservative tastes of the Imperial Theatres (his original notes for Swan Lake envisage a masked ball in Act II and a dance for white and black swans in Act III), he remained inventive to the end, with such Tchaikovsky masterpieces as The Sleeping Beauty (1890), The Nutcracker (1892, choreographed with Lev Ivanov), and Swan Lake (1895 with Ivanov); Raymonda (Glazunov, 1898); and Le Corsaire (completely rechoreographed in 1899 to Adam, Minkus, and Pugni). He worked on a large scale, with massive stage effects, yet created minutely detailed ballet steps that survive to this day.

OLGA PREOBRAJENSKA (1871-1962)

Preobrajenska possessed an iron technique, but her independence--she was a ringleader in the theater strike of 1905--and a lack of beauty hindered her progress: soloist 1896, prima ballerina 1900. She had a slight curvature of the spine and a deformed knee, but she was musical, a favorite of Petipa, and, above all, determined: "I can pride myself on saying that everything I achieved was a result of my willpower." Yet for two years she danced in the very last row of the corps, only occasionally understudying as a soloist. Her main rivals were Kschessinska, and the Italian guest artists, but she was popular with the audience at the Maryinsky (particularly for her improvised encores); her large repertory of ballets included classical roles, character dancing, and many contemporary works (as a sailor in her own comic number, Le Matelot, she would spit over the rail). She danced as a slave with Nijinsky in the Fokine Egyptian Nights in 1908 (creating the Mazurka in Fokine's Chopiniana, later Les Sylphides, the same year), and later with the young dancer and choreographer Balanchivadze (later Balanchine). She left the U.S.S.R. in 1921.

PAVEL GERDT (1844-1917)

Gerdt was the best danseur noble of his time (for more than fifty years, from 1864 to 1916), and might be said to define the Petipa period, for he danced almost the entire repertory. A strong partner, he danced only the pas de deux in a full-length ballet, while another dancer mimed the role, the practice of the time (in Swan Lake, for example, Siegfried only danced, and Benno acted). It was Gerdt who initiated the increasing prominence of the male dancer; in the Giselle of 1884, Petipa revised the choreography in Act II for him, with more aerial movements--cabrioles and assembles--but this process was not developed, for Petipa believed that the male dancer was only a porteur for the ballerina. Gerdt was nearly fifty when he created leading roles in the three Tchaikovsky ballets, but still there was very little dancing. In The Sleeping Beauty (1890) Prince Desire had only variation, in Act III; in The Nutcracker (1892), the elaborate costume for Prince Coqueluche ("Darling") hindered his movements; and in Swan Lake (1895) what we now know as the Black Swan Pas de Deux was then a pas de quatre, with no variation for Siegfried. Gerdt created the dramatic role of Abderakhman in Raymonda and even danced in some of Fokine's early ballets.

MATHILDE KSCHESSINSKA (1872-1971)

Kschessinskaya's career epitomized the close relationship between dancers of the Imperial Ballet and the ruling Romanov dynasty. She was first the mistress of the czarevich, the future Nikolas II, then of his uncle, and finally of his nephew, the Grand Duke Andrei, whom she later married. Notorious for her intrigues--her victims included the reforming Prince Volkonsky, director of the Imperial Theatres, and Serge Diaghilev--she was as famous for her jewelry as for her dancing. Prima ballerina assoluta in 1895 (with Pierina Legnani, the only imperial dancer to be given that status), she was the first Russian ballerina to master the Italian technique, and the first Russian to perform thirty-two fouettes. She was an excellent actress, with a strong terre-a-terre technique, using her dramatic gifts both off- and onstage. Her most famous role was in La Esmeralda, in which she appeared with her pet goat. Her classical acrobatic style looked old-fashioned by 1900, but she resolutely kept up with the times, dancing in Fokine's ballets, and for her old rival Diaghilev in 1911. She fled Russia in 1919 after the Revolution.

ANNA PAVLOVA (1881-1931)

The legend of Anna Pavlova, perhaps the most famous ballerina of the century, began in St. Petersburg, where she was born, the daughter of a laundress and a reserve soldier. She joined the Maryinsky as a coryphee in 1899, one rank above corps de ballet. Her rise was fast: second soloist 1902, first soloist 1903, ballerina 1905, prima ballerina 1906. From the very beginning, her lightness and grace attracted favorable comment, and many fans, who called themselves "Pavlovtsi." A favorite of Petipa, she danced in his La Bayadere, Giselle (perhaps her best full-length role), Raymonda, and Paquita, and also many character roles. Pavlova was often a dancing partner of Fokine. She created leading roles in a number of his early ballets and made his Dying Swan (1905) her signature piece. In 1908, a year before Diaghilev, she took members of the Imperial Russian Ballet on tour abroad. Although she danced for Diaghilev in his first Pads season, and with Nijinsky, she remained a ballerina in the strict classical style, taking classes with Cecchetti to improve her technique. She remained with the Imperial Ballet until 1913 but was seen less and less because of her many foreign tours. She finally left Russia in 1914.

AGRIPPINA VAGANOVA (1879-1951)

As a dancer with the Imperial Ballet, Vaganova was known as the "queen of variations," renowned for her jumps and batterie, although her lack of beauty meant that she did not receive the title of ballerina until 1915, the year before she retired. She is most remembered as a great teacher of generations of dancers, taking the best of the old imperial style--romantic plasticity allied with Italian bravura--and blending it with a more athletic movement to form what became known as the Vaganova system, a method that did not isolate one particular part of the body but trained it into one harmonious whole. Instead of the hitherto vague corrections given to pupils, she used an analysis of musculature to give precise corrections for proper placement. Her most important ballets, which demonstrated the strength of her teaching style, were Swan Lake (1933) and Esmeralda (1935), particularly the virtuoso Diana and Actaeon Pas de Deux, in Act II. She was director of the State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet (renamed the Kirov in 1935) from 1931 to 1937 and later of the school that bears her name, using her position in both to fight tooth and nail for the survival of classical ballet in the face of opposition from doctrinaire ideologues.

VASLAV NIJINSKY (1889-1950)

Nijinsky is the dancer whose very name characterizes the image of the male dancer, yet his charismatic style was one of a kind. Born in Kiev, the son of two Polish dancers, at the age of ten he entered the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, graduated at eighteen, and danced for only four seasons with the Imperial Ballet at the Maryinsky Theatre. He changed the history of ballet in one famous night in Paris in 1909, with the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev, with whom he was living. His career is a paradox: no film exists of his dancing, so his famed technique remains a legend of history. His work with Fokine, whose choreography made him famous abroad, began as a student in St. Petersburg, yet, except for Chopiniana (1908), he never danced in Russia the Fokine ballets that made his name--Le Spectre de la Rose, Petrouchka, and Scheherazade. At the Maryinsky, his official status was that of coryphe (one rank below soloist), yet he partnered Kschessinska in his first season, and later Pavlova, Preobrajenska, and Lubov Egorova. His classical repertory at the theater was limited to interpolated pas de deux and cameo roles, yet the critics consistently singled him out for praise and newpapers covered his every move, like a film star of today. His one leading role, as Albrecht in Giselle (1911), precipitated a scandal over his costume, forced his resignation, and so obscured the uniqueness of his interpretation. His career in Russia was over, and he was only twenty-two.

VAKHTANG CHABUKIANI (1910-1992)

Chabukiani was the first great exponent of the Soviet virtuoso style, setting the standard for future generations of male dancers, in both Russia and the West --when Baryshnikov executed cabrioles at an unorthodox sixty degrees, it came from Chabukiani. He was blessed with the trinity of technique, beauty, and acting ability. His talent was such that he had already danced the role of Siegfried by the end of his first season. His bold style made him the very model of a Soviet action hero, and he created leading roles in The Flames of Paris (1932, choreographed by Vasily Vainonen), Esmeralda, 1935, choreographed by Vaganova), Taras Bulba (1936, choreographed by Fyodor Lopukhov), and his own ballet, Laurencia (1939). He was the first Soviet dancer to tour the U.S., in 1934, with Tatyana Vecheslova. He is best remembered today for his 1941 restaging of La Bayadere (which gave to Solor the famous variation in Act III) and his editing of the pas de deux in Le Corsaire and Don Quixote, which emphasized the athleticism of the Russian male dancers we see today.

YURI SOLOVIEV (1940-1977)

A golden boy of St. Petersburg ballet, a schoolmate and friend of Nureyev, and a reluctant star who preferred fishing to dancing, "cosmic" Yuri (so called because of the height of his jumps) made his debut at the Kirov in 1958 as the Bluebird in The Sleeping Beauty, one of his finest roles, in which his soft landings and ballon remain the benchmark for dancers today. His stocky build and musculature were softened with a fluency and clarity of line that allowed him to show off his bravura technique, as in The Stone Flower, and to gracefully subsume this technique to interpretation, as he did as Albrecht in Giselle. He embodied the ideal of Soviet youth, open and apparently uncomplicated, and thus he was cast as The Man in Konstantin Sergeyev's Distant Planet (1962), the Youth in Igor Belsky's Leningrad Symphony (1961), and the title role in Belsky's Icarus (1974). He played up the comic role of God in Natalia Kasatkina and V. Y. Vasiliov's Creation of the World (1972), and showed a talent for contemporary choreography in Leonid Jacobson's Land of Miracles (1967), Georgi Aleksidze's Oresteia (1968), and Oleg Vinogradov's Two (1969). But his greatest successes were in roles in which his pure dancing allowed him to reveal the ambiguities of his personality: the soft plastique of Ferkhad in Yuri Grigorovich's Legend of Love, the otherworldly amplitude of Solor in La Bayadere, the sexual ambivalence of Le Spectre de la Rose. In 1977 he was found dead at his dacha outside Leningrad, a gun lying nearby.

Jeremy Noble is the director of the Foundation for Russian Ballet; he has written about dance for the St. Petersburg Times, the Washington Post, and the London Literary Review.