DANCE AND MUSIC REVIEWS : Festival ’90 : Ex-Bolshoi Dancers in Local ‘Giselle’

Since leaving the Bolshoi Ballet in 1989, principal dancers Alla Khaniashvili-Artyushkina and her husband, Vitali Artyushkin, have made their way teaching and appearing as guests with fledgling companies.

Unfortunately, they did not prove an ideal match when they danced the principal roles in “Giselle” with the student Palos Verdes Ballet on Saturday at the Norris Theatre for the Performing Arts in Rolling Hills Estates.

A lyrical if sometimes steely dancer, Khaniashvili-Artyushkina proved playful, engaging, a bit all-too-knowing in the first act; bold, strong but unquiet in the second. She also eliminated steps, chopped up phrases and displayed moments of technical insecurity.

Artyushkin brought rugged, impetuous magnetism but no hint of the requisite nobility to the role of Albrecht. He danced with gusto and springy elevation, but also did not sustain line or mood.

Dancing was to taped accompaniment. Choreography was credited to Coralli and Perrot, but the ballet was staged by Uta Graf-Apostol, identified as a member of the company board of directors. Graf-Apostol simplified the action and made cuts in the score but somehow managed to squeeze eight children into Act I.

As the only man in the village, Hilarion, the lithe, accomplished but histrionic Alexander Greschenko, got to work double duty. He danced his own role and also, nonsensically, the truncated (no variations, no coda) peasant pas de deux, with Leah Chang.