Saturday, February 21, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOW REVIEW: Moscow Festival Ballet delights crowd

Awkward lighting, slips mar show

Dancers in Las Vegas are generally better known for their glitter than their grand jetes. Ballet is still less common than big feathers. The Nevada Ballet Theatre does offer an option this weekend, and the Moscow Festival Ballet brought a varied classical performance to the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday.

The company, founded in 1989 by former Bolshoi Ballet dancer Sergei Radchenko, is on an 88-city tour of the United States. It has also toured Europe and Asia, and includes 22 principal dancers as well as 30 members of the corps de ballet. (Not all perform every evening).

The program here, before an audience of about 1,100, included selections from "Sleeping Beauty," as well as a version of "Paquita" and the "Carmen Suite."

The performance was generally lovely and technically proficient, though marred with some slips and one awkward lighting cue. More emotion, however, would have made a stronger show.

The evening opened with three selections from "Sleeping Beauty" by Tchaikovsky and the classic choreography of Petipa. Here, and throughout the evening, the dancers performed on essentially a bare stage; Ham Hall didn't have the space for the ballet's elaborate sets, so they simply stayed on the truck. This allows the audience, of course, to focus on movement but detracts from the spectacle.

In the opening pas de deux, Ussina Gaukhar was the perfect prima ballerina in her delicate white tutu and small sparkling crown, with partner Serzhan Kaukov showing his skill in his series of grand jetes and multiple revolutions in the air. Dark, slicked-back hair flying, he offered one of the most dynamic performances of the evening.

They were followed by sets of four and then five dancers with more selections from the same show, demonstrating the precision that is so typical of undaunting Russian ballet.

"Paquita" was billed as the ballet itself, but more accurately should have been termed as a series of dance selections. No one could find a plot here, as this was instead a showcase for a half-dozen soloists and the corps.

Principal dancer Marina Rzhannikova, playing the title role and clad in a red and black tutu, offered an impressive series of pirouettes in her varied repertoire on stage. But a momentary slip during another step toward the end of her featured performance seemed to instill caution in the rest of her dance, causing her following action to be weaker than the corps behind her. Mikhail Bessmertnov, her Lucien, is notably muscular and showed why during his own commanding leaps and other moves around the stage.

What seemed to be a computer light cue gone awry brought up the house lights and darkened the stage as the dancers gathered for their curtain call. Correct lighting returned in moments.

After intermission, rare Russian emotion was demonstrated aptly by a coquettish Olga Grigorieva in the title role of "Carmen." Her leotard was fringed in black and the red rose atop her hair bun set the tone for a flirty performance that blended moves that resembled gymnastics (without the flips and somersaults) with ballet. The choreography and the costuming, including generally black ensembles for the men, complete with eye masks, and black-and-bright leotards for the women, gave this dance a more contemporary feel.

This is not and never will be the Bolshoi, or even the Kirov. It is, however, a showcase of a style and manner of dance that is important to any ballet devotee.