Bolshoi Stars of Future to Dance in San Diego

Ballet, Russia’s best-known cultural export, is conspicuously absent from the list of coming attractions for the San Diego Soviet Arts Festival. But this week, San Diego ballet fans will have an opportunity to sample the wares of 65 budding young artists from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy--training ground for the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet.

This ad hoc collective of students and recent academy graduates, directed by Madame Sofia Golovkina, will dance three different programs during its seven-performance run in San Diego this week, beginning with Tuesday’s 8 p.m. opening at the Civic Theatre. The national tour marks the group’s first appearance in the U.S. since the 1960s, and the first ever for San Diego.

Thank British impresarios Victoria Charlton and Peter Brightman for making it happen, and for pulling off a ground-breaking business arrangement with the Soviets that will promote the world-renowned Kirov and Bolshoi Ballet companies--among others--throughout the West.

“We had no cultural relations with the Soviets for more than 20 years--not in America or in Britain,” said Charlton, who is working in cooperation with San Diego Playgoers. “And eight years ago, people told us, ‘It’s not possible (to work with the Soviets). Don’t even try, because you’ll be refused.’ But my partner--he’s also my husband--and I wouldn’t let them discourage us.”

Under the banner of their London-based Entertainment Corporation, this unique husband-and-wife team paved the way for expanded cultural relations with the Soviets “by keeping all our promises to them,” Charlton said. “And they never broke their word to us either.”

Now, Charlton has an office right in the prestigious Kirov Theater building and is making long-range plans to market Soviet arts organizations world-wide.

“I guess we were just lucky,” she noted. “But it wasn’t that tough, because we had a track record with them.” (They began presenting smaller Soviet attractions in Britain seven years ago).

Although the Bolshoi Academy concert features only a few regular members of the Bolshoi Ballet, this ensemble represents the cream of the current crop of young Soviet dancers, according to Charlton.

“Madame Golovkina picked the best. The Bolshoi Academy trains dancers for three main companies--the Moscow Classical Ballet, the Stanislavsky Theatre (of Opera and Ballet) and the Bolshoi,” she said. “Ninety percent of these dancers are going to the Bolshoi, and three are gold medal winners from the international ballet competition.”

Programming selected for the San Diego performances leans toward the decorative and romantic. Fairy tale ballets, including perennial favorites Act II of “Swan Lake” and Act III of “Coppelia” head the list, which also includes excerpts from “Paquita” and “La Fille Mal Gardee.” There also are several pas de deux, including the Grand Pas from “Don Quixote” and “Le Corsaire,” and “The Bluebird Pas de Deux” from “Sleeping Beauty.” All were chosen to flaunt the dancers’ classical technique and appeal to popular tastes.

“I like to have things that make people go ‘ooh and ah,’ and that’s what you’ll be seeing,” Charlton said. “The Bolshoi is conservative in its choreography, but the dancing is abandoned. The dancers often run out of stage.”

The show-stopping “Spring Waters,” Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance,” and the “Liszt Consolation,” are also on tap for the San Diego visit, as is the newly-added “Narcissus” solo for Vladimir Malakhov, the young man who knocked the socks off audiences in his American debut with the Moscow Classical Ballet last year.

“Vladimir walked away with the gold medal (at the recent Moscow International Ballet competition),” she said. “We didn’t know if he would be ready to dance ‘Narcissus’ by the time we got to San Diego, but he’s already dancing it.”

As Charlton pointed out, there are a few Bolshoi Ballet soloists in the group, including Alexander and Svetlana Petukhov, Yuri Klitsov, and Ekaterina Besergani.

“There are always the obvious stars, like Galina Stepanyenko (from the Stanislavsky Theatre Ballet). You recognize them the minute they step out,” she said. “But then there usually is one sleeper. Ekaterina Besergani is that one.”

The ensemble, made up of dancers ranging in age from 16-24, was culled from a melting pot of nationalities.

“That’s what pleases me so,” said Charlton. “They have a real international look. We have Tartars, Georgians, Cossacks, Ukrainians--they come from everywhere in the Soviet Union. We even have an American (Michael Shannon of Los Angeles) who managed to get himself into the school.”

In true Bolshoi style, the enormous cast will be lavishly costumed for its San Diego performances. The troupe also travels with appropriate sets for all the dances. But unlike past U.S. tours, where the presence of the KGB was always palpable, this group of visiting dancers resembles typical tourists, Charlton assured.

“They go out shopping on their own. There’s none of that KGB stuff,” she said. “The only time the whole group stays together is in the morning, so we can be sure they eat a good breakfast.”

San Diego dance-buffs have already seen the fruits of Charlton’s labors, and there is much more on the horizon.

“We brought the Georgian State Dance Company (also sponsored locally by San Diego Playgoers), and we intend to bring the Kirov and the Bolshoi eventually,” she said. “You have a beautiful hall (the Civic Theatre) with great sight lines, although its seating potential is a little small.

“It’s very difficult, because of the cost of touring, and we’re not a nonprofit organization. But we have sponsors who subsidize us, so we can keep the ticket prices down. We feel that’s very important.

“There will be a lot more cultural exchanges,” she stressed. “They can let 60 dancers (from the Bolshoi) out on tour, which is enough to do a ‘Swan Lake,’ and still perform in their own theater. And the Soviets are very open to more touring arrangements. I’m hoping to see American companies (in the Soviet Union) too.”

You will need a score card to keep track of the programming for the Bolshoi Ballet Academy concerts this week. But despite about 70% overlap on the three separate programs, you will probably have to attend one of each to catch the full range. Performances are scheduled for Tuesday-Saturday evenings with matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

The curtain raiser for Tuesday’s opening concert will be Act II of the classic ballet, “Swan Lake,” followed by an excerpt from “La Fille Mal Gardee.” The rest of the program will consist of brief repertory pieces, including “Adagio,” “Gopak,” “Spring,” “Narcissus,” the pas de deux from “Don Quixote” and “Sabre Dance.” The program will be repeated Wednesday and Saturday evenings.

Act III of “Coppelia” is the centerpiece of Thursday and Friday’s concert. And the matinees on Saturday and Sunday will include the “Don Q” Grand Pas, “Spring Waters,” and another “Swan Lake,” Act II.