Taking Balanchine to Leningrad

When George Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations” is danced on the stage of the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad on Feb. 21, it will not be the first Balanchine work to be staged for a Soviet company. But it will be, according to Francia Russell, who has set the ballet on the Kirov, “the first time a Balanchine work is given on the stage where he danced as a boy.”

At this premiere performance--which will be shared with Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony” as staged by another Balanchine protegee, Suzanne Farrell--Russell will see the results of a month-long visit she paid the Kirov company in September. Co-artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and a longtime Balanchine associate, Russell returns to Leningrad today for eight days of rehearsals before the first performance.

“Yes, I’m apprehensive about what I’ll find when we get together again on Tuesday,” Russell acknowledged by phone from Seattle.

“When I left the company last, they had learned all the steps, but were still struggling with the style. . . . it’s not just a matter of understanding the work intellectually--the body has to accept it, kinesthetically. The muscles must understand. I’m hoping that has happened in the months since then.”

The Balanchine style is not something the Kirov dancers have experienced before, Russell says. “Sure, they’ve all seen tapes and film--somehow, they’ve gotten access to tapes from both New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre performances, some of them not available through normal channels. But it’s still new to them as dancers.”

Among other elements unfamiliar to the Soviet dancers, Russell names Balanchine’s approach to music: “These dancers are used to altering tempos in any way that suits them, whereas Balanchine’s idea of musical tempos was exact, and not changeable.

“Also, they take long preparations for movements where Balanchine expected no preparation. That’s been a difficult adjustment for them.”

Russell’s experience as a re-creator of Balanchine works dates back to the early 1960s when the choreographer himself assigned her to set his works on companies he chose not to visit.

Since then--and while pursuing her own career as head of, first, Frankfurt Ballet, and, for the last 11 years, Pacific Northwest Ballet--Russell has traveled the world, taking the Balanchine canon to places both familiar and remote.

One thing she noticed immediately with the Kirov dancers: “They have a different approach to rehearsal, and, as a result, their rehearsal etiquette is not like ours. They talk more, for one thing, and that is no doubt because they have more time. Being state-sponsored artists, Soviet dancers are hired for life.”

ON THE ROAD: In May, the San Francisco Ballet will make its first appearances in France. It will appear at the Festival de Paris as part of the Bicentennial celebrations of the French Revolution, in the Theatre des Champs Elysees, May 18-25. The only other major ballet company invited to appear at the Festival de Paris this year is the Stuttgart Ballet of West Germany