Leningrad Ballet Performance in S.D. Canceled

The May 12 performance by the Leningrad State Ballet has been canceled by its sponsor, the California Ballet, because of a continuing dispute over the ownership of works created by the Soviet company’s late founder Leonid Jakobson.

The company, under the direction of former Kirov Ballet dancer Askold Makarov since Jakobson’s death in 1975, is battling with Jakobson’s widow and son over copyrights to more than 100 Jakobson works, including the “Choreographic Miniatures,” which were to have been performed in San Diego.

The dispute involves international copyright laws, but also Irina Jakobson’s displeasure with her husband’s successor.

“It’s a question of copyrights,” said California Ballet director Maxine Mahon. “The Leningrad Ballet owns the rights, according to Soviet law. But Jakobson’s widow filed copyright papers with the American copyright office March 30, and we don’t want to put the California Ballet in jeopardy by going ahead with the concert.”

Mahon said she received a fax message from a Soviet agency Friday, advising her not to present the Jakobson works by the Leningrad company.

M. J. Bogatin, a San Francisco attorney representing the Jakobson family, discounted Mahon’s claim.

“She’s wrong. The copyrights are absolutely the property of the widow, and the Leningrad State Ballet has no claim of rights whatsoever of ownership to these copyrights,” he said. “They are entitled to perform them in the Soviet Union under compulsory rights, but not in the United States.

The local performance would have been the company’s U. S. debut. A six-city East Coast tour is still scheduled for late May, although the company will not perform any Jakobson works, according to producer Lev Eynisfeld. Mahon said California Ballet would not present the Leningrad company in a program without works by Jakobson, “because that’s what we’ve been promoting for a year and a half. We had made a commitment and felt we would take it in the chops if we delivered something else.”

Paul Epstein, a lawyer with the New York firm of Proskauer, Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn, has also been retained by the Jakobson family. He confirmed that American copyrights were filed “recently” and said the choreographer’s widow, Irina Jakobson, who is now a teacher at the San Francisco Ballet, has “presumptive ownership in this country.”

Bogatin added that Jakobson’s widow “has always been amenable to the licensing of the choreography to the California Ballet, but through her own sanctioned instructors and performers. She would welcome the opportunity for more exposure, but can’t sit idly by while unsanctioned performances take place.”

In March, Jakobson told The Times that Makarov is not maintaining her husband’s work properly. She cited this as the reason that she and her son don’t want California Ballet learning the works from Makarov and his dancers.

Makarov has been in residency at the San Diego-based company to set the Jakobson pieces on the local dancers.

“He’ll stay on for several weeks,” said Mahon, “and he’ll be teaching the dancers other (non-Jakobson) works. Fortunately, the dancers haven’t (left) Leningrad yet, so we just decided to cancel before they had to leave.”

Mahon estimates that about 50% of the tickets had been sold to the performance in the 3,000-seat Civic Theatre and said cash refunds will be available to all ticket holders.