BALLET REVIEW : New Casting in ‘Swan’ Finale

New casting for the final Bolshoi “Swan Lake,” Friday in Shrine Auditorium, brought into balance the three major male roles of the ballet.

Dancing opposite the previously reviewed Nina Semizorova, young principal Mark Peretokin made an intelligent, idiomatic, technically efficient but largely unexceptional Siegfried. Although he proved a conscientious partner in the great duets, his most effective dancing came, oddly enough, in those transitional lakeside passages where Siegfried is literally shadowed by Rothbart.

Peretokin had himself danced Rothbart earlier in the week and this background undoubtedly helped him work with Sergei Bobrov to create a single image, a single impetus, in these eerie shadow-duets. Bobrov complemented him perfectly and delivered an unusually hot-blooded portrayal.

As the Jester, Alexander Kedrov had enough speed and precision to breeze through his showpiece choreography--but in attack he, too, matched Peretokin and Bobrov in intriguing (though less obvious) ways. A primer on new Bolshoi male style, these three.