The Classics Reclassified.

KIROV BALLET OF THE MARYINSKY THEATRE OPERA HOUSE, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS WASHINGTON, D.C. FEBRUARY 12-17 AND 19, 2002

The Kirov brought us its grand experiments in time travel--back to Petipa and catching up with the more recent past of Balanchine. The futuristic technique of the company's new generation clearly emerged as well. Seats for this first often annual seasons sponsored by Alberto Vilar of the White Nights Foundation were sold out weeks in advance, with people lining up Saturdays at dawn for the following week's standing-room tickets.

Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty proved the most controversial of the three programs. Was it worth three hours and forty minutes of our time to see so much pageantry, ornate costuming, and highly detailed scenery? Couldn't the tale of the princess awakened from 100 years of sleep by a prince's kiss have been danced to suit the suburban commuter, like the New York City Ballet version? Those who complained were called wimps by those who loved every moment.

Sergei Vikharev's careful reconstruction of the 1890 St. Petersburg original has fleshed out since New York saw it in 1999. Characterizations are richer, the story atmosphere more consistent, the meaning surer. King and Queen were absolute monarchs, yet fallibly human. (Vladimir Ponomarev and Elena Bazhenova deserve awards for their portrayals.) The vengeful fairy Carabosse, who casts a death curse on the royal couple's baby daughter, was ugly and introverted in Islom Baimuradov's personification, but off-handsome in Igor Petrov's force-of-nature interpretation; both concepts worked. The Lilac Fairy, who softens the curse to one of sleep in which the entire court participates, radiated warmth and wisdom. Veronika Part (as ripe a plum now as the role's creator, Petipa's daughter, Marie) was perfection and her alternate, Daria Pavlenko, was more than promising. Those functionaries of royal entourages, ingratiating Catalabutte and presumptuous Galifron, were distinct foils for their masters. (Andrey Iakovlev, who portrayed both, even showed that Catalabutte gained humanity and dignity after waking from the spell.)

Aurora, the beautiful princess at the center of this fairy tale, was danced by a different ballerina at each of Beauty's five performances. Two were new-breed Kirov dancers, Diana Vishneva and Svetlana Zakharova. They differ from the traditionally trained dancers not so much in having skyscraper extensions and construction-crane stretch as in never seeming to be fully at rest. The efficient Vishneva, since 1999, has added a hint of characterization to her Aurora, and in the Vision Scene her dancing has become silken. Zakharova was a regal Aurora, imbuing her adagios with a velvety texture. Traditional training showed in Zhanna Ayupova's and Irma Nioradze's Auroras, although the two women differ. Ayupova's performance grew from joyous and gentle to one in which her centered poise and the encompassing embrace of her arms summarized Imperial Russian ballet. Nioradze was an interesting miscast in the role. She's glamorous in a real-world way, has a fabulous balance, but for true classicism seemed too loosely jointed (due, perhaps, to recent motherhood). Natalya Sologub, not yet a principal dancer, started delightfully as the 20-year-old Aurora, but hasn't yet grown with the role.

Sleeping Beauty's varied all-dance parts were shaped skillfully by the Kirov's principals, soloists, and corps, and borrowed Washington Ballet children. The tempi chosen by conductor Boris Gruzin differed. He took the Prologue's fairy variations so fast on opening night that that the dancers seemed to be doing a parody of classicism, though one with wit. When Gruzin's tempi were slower, the cast was given the chance to let the steps breathe. There was individuality in the Prince's role: dashingly done by Igor Kolb, purely danced by Anton Korsakov, looking the most storybook in Andrian Fadeyev's impersonation, and the most human and humane in Danyil Korsuntsev's. Vasily Sherbakov's Blue Bird hovered with several partners.

For Balanchine's Jewels, the Kirov was at its best in the last section, "Diamonds." This is the Russian, the Tchaikovsky portion of the three-part ballet, with an incredibly sustained duo adagio. Zakharova brought a black-diamond sensuality to it. Her alternate, Pavlenko, was inconsistently brilliant. Korsuntsev, cast with both, partnered with dignity and warmth. The corps sections became not just filler for allowing the principals to rest but a necessary amplification of that rich, uniquely mellow classicism in the manner of choreographer Lev Ivanov, to which Balanchine was alluding. "Rubies," the Stravinsky mid-piece of Jewels, was fun. It emerged more as Old Country buffoonery than as a distillation of American melting-pot ingredients. Irina Golub and Fadeyev alternated with Vishneva and Viacheslav Samodurov as the perky lead couple. As the unpaired second ballerina, Maya Dumchenko alternated with Sofia Gumerova, who turned the role into a character in a singles bar. Not surprisingly, the opener, "Emeralds," was least successful. It is always difficult to bring off because of the Impressionism foreshadowed in Faure's music and the references to Paris Opera dancing. (Of late, Miami City Ballet has done "Emeralds" wonder fully.) The Kirov broke up its "Emeralds" by allowing the dancers (led by Ayupova, Part, Victor Baranov, and Denis Firsov) to take extended bows between passages. Also, the lighting (which had been so right in Sleeping Beauty) lacked atmosphere.

At the Tchaikovsky opera/ballet gala, Balanchine's Serenade could have used subtler lighting too, but the soloists (Sologub, Korsuntsev, Dumchenko, Gumerova, Baranov) and the ensemble displayed remarkable plasticity. Dramatizing some passages was justified for a program with very dramatic scenes from Tchaikovsky operas, and even Vishneva in Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux played with her part and partner (Samodurov) charmingly.

No one could quibble with the Kirov's choice of repertoire. Even if there are improved passages in some revisionist stagings of Sleeping Beauty, the chance to see the unsentimental original was a treat. That the company's new super-stretched and hyperextended technique can produce solo and ensemble dancing that's pure (the Vision Scene of Sleeping Beauty, "Diamonds," Serenade), shows that ballet is evolving while remaining true to classicism's idea.