BALLET REVIEW : Ananiashvili Illuminates ‘Swan Lake’

Dramatic profundity does not seem to be a high priority at the Bolshoi Ballet these days.

Most of the current stars--genuine, would-be or incipient has-been--seem content to project superficial generalities. One must assume that Yuri Grigorovich, the artistic paterfamilias, wants it that way.

Take the case of Nina Ananiashvili, the willowy and potentially dazzling ballerina who assumed the contrasting duties of Odette and Odile in “Swan Lake” at Shrine Auditorium on Thursday.

She knows, of course, that the White Swan personifies purity and innocence, and that the Black imposter represents the incarnation of erotic evil. She settled, however, for rather basic character differentiation. One swan smiles and the other doesn’t.

Did I say swan? Horsefeathers. The current Bolshoi perspective insists that the women in tutus are mere ballerinas, not otherworldly birds. The dance is the message.

Fortunately, the message was transmitted with considerable elan on this occasion. The instantly enthusiastic audience could even respond to fleeting traces of urgency.

Despite some linear distortion and a few awkward phrases, Ananiashvili danced Odette with extraordinary amplitude, using her long, undulating arms to create compelling lyrical images. As Odette, she added a welcome hint of passion, throwing herself into the fouette orgy with frenzied speed that hardly precluded precision.

Given a ballerina who dared take some chances, Alexei Fadeyechev found new degrees of ardor to elevate his strong and noble performance of Prince Siegfried. Alexander Vetrov, who had undertaken the princely duties himself the night before, returned on Thursday as his nemesis: a Rothbart more notable for primitive energy than for sinister finesse.

Otherwise, it was Bolshoi business as usual. Busy business.