VASILIEV OUSTED FROM BOLSHOI THEATER.

Former Bolshoi Ballet superstar Vladimir Vasiliev was dismissed as director of the Bolshoi Theater August 28 in a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though Vasiliev's status had been the subject of speculation for months, he only learned about his dismissal from hearing it on the radio.

Vasiliev's removal was described as part of a government-ordained restructuring but appears to have been an expression of discontent at the highest levels of government with Vasiliev's leadership at the Bolshoi Theater, of which the Bolshoi Ballet is a constituent company. Vasiliev's deputy, Vladimir Kokonin, was also removed and both positions were eliminated.

A few days later, Anatoly Iksanov, former head of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Drama Theater, was appointed general director and Gennady Rozhdestvensky, an orchestra conductor whose recordings are widely circulated in the West, was named artistic director. Alexei Fedeyechev will stay on as director of the Bolshoi Ballet for at least another year and a half, when his contract is set to expire.

Americans remember Vasiliev as the god-like hero Spartacus and as an ardent Albrecht in Giselle, as well as for his spectacular leaps and turns. Five years ago, he was appointed by then-President Boris Yeltsin to direct the entire Bolshoi complex in an effort both to recapture the past glory of the Bolshoi and to introduce new works.

During Yeltsin's reign, the Bolshoi was directly under presidential control, but under President Putin, all major arts organizations are under the control of Mikhail Shvydkoi, the minister of culture. Shvydkoi cited the project to renovate the 143-year old Bolshoi Theater as the reason for the reorganization. In an interview with the Moscow newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti, he implied that the five-year renovation plan will require a more financially capable administrator than Vasiliev.

According to Sergei Danilian, president of Ardani Artists Management, which represents Russian dance artists like Boris Eifman, the Russian government disapproved of Vasiliev's leadership for other reasons. Both artistically and economically, the Bolshoi under Vasiliev proved disappointing to the powers that be, and he has been accused of failing to fulfill the promises he made to revitalize the companies. David Eden, who produced the Bolshoi Ballet's recent American tour and hopes to produce another one in 2002, said, "It's always dangerous when you promise so much. Vasiliev promised many new choreographers, and it sounded impressive. But none of it happened, for whatever reasons." But, as Vasiliev said in a statement issued to Dance Magazine Executive Editor Richard Philp, he staged twice as many new productions as in the previous five years under Yuri Grigorovich--thirty-four as opposed to seventeen--and he also cultivated younger dancers. The recent American tour was certainly successful. Eden reports, "They played to 100 percent capacity everywhere on tour. The audiences and the presenters were euphoric." Critical response varied from favorable to raves.

Of Vasiliev's summary dismissal, said Danilian, "Really, it was the same five years ago, what they did to Grigorovich. They have no respect. This dismissal is typical Soviet-style behavior."