SAN DIEGO COUNTY : DANCE REVIEW : Red Army Sings, Dances Way to Glasnost Victory

From the moment the Red Army Song and Dance Ensemble moved onto the Sports Arena stage Wednesday night to sing a rousing rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner,” it was glasnost all the way. The audience was on its feet and cheering even before the last strains of the national anthem reverberated across the cavernous arena.

Gargantuan-sized flags (Old Glory and the Soviet Union’s hammer-and-sickle) hung side-by-side in the background throughout the performance, creating a visual equivalent of the friendship and harmony theme being played out on stage.

But it was the highly polished razzle-dazzle--a pastiche of ethnic expressions packaged in Vegas-style glitz--that had more than 7,000 local aficionados shouting for more when the lengthy performance ended with “God Bless America.” And they got it--an encore with the whole company on stage for the fond farewell.

The most dazzling dancing of the evening wore the trappings and trademarks of traditional Soviet folk dance--flamboyant spread-eagle leaps, high-speed spins, squatting kicks, and other punishing bent-leg maneuvers, the likes of which are sometimes attempted but rarely duplicated in America. But, although flavored by show-biz shticks, this was authentic ethnic dancing from the battalion of men and women almost 200 strong.

The men in the troupe attacked all the dances with zest and never failed to deliver the goods, much to the delight of the responsive audience. At times, the makeshift stage (which spanned the width of the Sports Arena) seemed too small to contain them as they spun and jumped through their vigorous motions.

The women were no less capable than their male counterparts, although most of them danced a more subdued style. And, when they paired off with the men, the whole ensemble displayed the clockwork precision of a crack drill team.

Not all the offerings on this happy hodgepodge emanated from their homeland. Stuffed into the variety show format were songs as diverse as “Granada” and “I Got Plenty of Nothin’,” both sung with gusto by a splendid bass soloist, Barseg Tumanyan (and added, no doubt, for the benefit of American audiences on this first U.S. tour).

In fact, the singing from the Red Army’s extraordinary male chorus (close to 100 well-matched voices) was every bit as impressive as the dancing. And, when the singers broke into the rollicking “Kalinka,” the crowd could not resist clapping along.

The fine musicians in the company played ancient folk instruments, such as the balalaika (a guitar-like instrument) and the bayan (a Russian accordion), as well as familiar modern instruments, and their musicianship was as flawless as the singing.

The 61-year-old troupe was formed to entertain the Soviet troops in the front lines, and the singers and musicians still wear army uniforms while they perform. But the only show of martial arts in the performance was the thrilling saber dancing in the Cossack cavalry number.

For this colorful spectacle, the men donned red Cossack coats and black boots, charging across the stage like lightning, their steel blades crisscrossing in mock combat. The dance was a spectacular showcase for the squatting pyrotechnics these performers do so well.

The finale, “Dance of the Elbe Meeting,” pitted American and Soviet World War II soldiers against each other--but only in their dance forms. It was another solid show of glasnost, and it had the audience leaping to its feet in a loud chorus of bravos.

If the Red Army came to town to capture American hearts, it did not leave empty-handed.

Before the show, a few dozen Armenians protesting Soviet repression in their homeland and several members of the arch-conservative Young Americans for Freedom passed out leaflets and chanted anti-Soviet slogans at the Sports Arena entrance. The demonstration did not interfere with the curtain time as a similar demonstration did at the troupe’s Los Angeles debut last week.