Kirov Dancer Gets a Soviet OK to Perform With S.F. Ballet

Until recently, Soviet dancers had to defect in order to join companies in Europe or the United States. But when the Kirov Ballet flies home today to Leningrad, Yuri Zhukov will begin a nine-month contract with San Francisco Ballet, the first time anyone in the Kirov has been allowed to become a member of an American ensemble.

During intermission Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Leningrad-born, 24-year-old dancer paused backstage to discuss his new career. Kirov press representative Igor Stupnikov helped translate the conversation.

Married less than a month ago to a former Australian dancer now living in New York, Zhukov came to the attention of San Francisco Ballet artistic director Helgi Tomasson when he took class with SFB during the recent Kirov engagement at the War Memorial Opera House. Tomasson then offered him a contract at the rank of soloist (the category between principal and corps) to run through May, 1990. Zhukov says that Tomasson has promised him leading roles and that he wants, “first of all, to dance the classics,” though he is also interested in the contemporary repertory.

In San Francisco, Tomasson confirmed that Zhukov is joining the company and described him as “a very poetic dancer with a Romantic quality. I feel there is a repertory here that he can very much dance and so I hired him.” Tomasson expects that Zhukov will be with the company when it appears at the Orance County Performing Arts Center in October.

In the Kirov, Zhukov is ranked as a corps dancer, but he has appeared in such leading roles as the Prince in “Cinderella,” Albrecht in “Giselle,” and the cavalier in “Scotch Symphony,” one of the two brand-new--and historic--productions of Balanchine ballets that the Kirov brought to America on its 1989 tour.

Not long ago, dancing Balanchine choreography would have seemed as inconceivable to anyone in the Kirov as dancing with an American company, but much has changed. Members of the Kirov, the Bolshoi and other Soviet companies have appeared as stellar guests with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and elsewhere--and, last season, Andris Liepa of the Bolshoi became an ABT principal.

Zhukov takes the new freedoms of glasnost in stride. “Times are changing,” he says matter-of-factly, explaining that there were “no difficulties” with Kirov authorities in negotiating his departure. He also says that his mother, father and sister back in Leningrad are happy with his decision.

Perhaps significantly, however, the dancers that Zhukov cites as role models are both mavericks: defector and former fellow Kirov artist Mikhail Baryshnikov (known to the new generation of Soviet dancers through performances on videotape) and veteran Bejart principal Jorge Donn. “There are many good dancers with good legs and a good school,” this elegant, coolly determined young man says with a hint of irony in his smile, “but these are the two I really admire.”