Gypsy Dancers Offer a Taste of the Real Thing

One of the nicest fringe benefits of glasnost for American audiences is the open-door policy it provides Soviet artists, including some of the more obscure ones.

Until recently Moscow’s Roman Gypsy Theatre was not permitted to perform in the United States, and the so-called Gypsy dancing we did see--primarily in cabaret settings--was steeped in stereotypes. The Gypsy man with bandanna-wrapped head and wicked smile was always accompanied by a barefoot and be-spangled siren who writhed to whining music.

San Diego will have its first authentic experience this weekend of the vibrant and emotion-charged dances and songs that sprang to life centuries ago in the Gypsy communities of Europe and India.

The Russian Gypsy Dance Troupe, a 20-member spinoff of the Moscow Roman Gypsy Theatre, will debut at the Spreckels Theatre, with performances at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, before continuing on a 28-city American tour.

Director Sergei Reshetov, a former opera singer and director, explained the genesis of the company during a recent overnight stay in San Diego:

“This group was organized from the Roman Gypsy Theatre especially to tour in America,” he said through an interpreter. “The project took about a year because of all the red tape. All of the performers were chosen because they are the best we have. Some of the dancers toured here with the Roman Gypsy Theatre, but this is the first time this group will be performing here. We have an entirely different program now.”

San Diego dance audiences have seen their share of Russian dancing in the past couple of years--everything from the Bolshoi Ballet’s classic repertory to the folk dances and martial-art forms of Soviet Georgia. But, Reshetov said, “this is absolutely different from the ballet, which is very restrained. Gypsy dancers have passion and fire.”

“The Gypsies never assimilated. They always followed their own rules, no matter where they lived. If you see real Gypsies, they look just like other people,” Reshetov said. “But they preserve their traditions. They respect their own ideas. They even speak their own language.”

Nevertheless, Gypsy dancing represents a melting pot of styles--with fragments borrowed and adapted from the myriad cultural influences the nomadic people were exposed to through their travels.

“The Gypsies lived in Spain, Russia, Hungary, everywhere,” he said. “But even when they added elements from the lands they came through, they never lost their traditions. There are a lot of Gypsy influences in the dances of these countries as well.”

The genesis of flamenco dance, for example, was among the Spanish Gypsies.

Although most of the performers in this Roman Gypsy Theatre group are Gypsies, their director is Russian. Reshetov laughed at the suggestion that he actually leads the troupe.

“That’s why I have these gray hairs,” he said, pointing to his silver mane. “Gypsies usually keep to themselves. They’re organized on their own, but they respect me. I have worked with them for 20 years, and we have developed a strong friendship. They always ask my advice.”

The troupe’s parent company draws inspiration from Russian literature by Pushkin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. But, Reshetov said, “our goal is a little bit different. We’re not as interested in the plays. We would like to show the different Gypsy (expressions)--Spanish Gypsies, Russian Gypsies, Hungarian Gypsies. They’re not all the same.”

“We try to reveal in dance the Gypsy character,” Bolshoi Choreography School graduate Vassily Mountyan, one of the choreographers for the Russian Gypsy Dance Troupe, said. “They use their arms, their feet--almost like American tap dancing,” said Reshetov, “and we have the greatest tap dance artist in Russia with us on this tour,” he said, referring to Anatoly Verbetsky.

Verbetsky, who choreographed the Russian-style Gypsy dances on the program, is considered a virtuoso, but the artist brushed off the question about his dance education.

“I learned in the school of life,” he said with a laugh. “When I was young, we traveled from place to place, and I learned from everybody.”

This 20-member ensemble is small by Soviet standards. Only 14 of the Gypsy performers are dancers, although some of the singers and musicians do double duty. That compares to upward of 100 performers that make up most Russian dance troupes, including the Bolshoi Ballet, which performed in San Diego this summer.

“That’s what Gypsy dancing is like,” Verbetsky said. “There would be a small band of Gypsy dancers, and one would get up and dance, and then another would join in. According to Gypsy tradition, the groups are always small.”

“And we took only the best with us. We have excellent musicians as well. We have a violinist, who is tops in Russia,” said Reshetov, referring to Boris Krepker, an artist who gained admittance to the the Moscow State Conservatory at the age of four. Boris Vassilevsky, also of the Roman Gypsy Theater, is one of the lead singers on the program.

Although Gypsies were often outcasts in their adopted lands, they were always respected artists in Russia, Mountyan said.

“The Gypsies entertained the Russian aristocracy. The royalty never had a party without inviting Gypsy dancers and singers to perform,” he said. “There was never a problem about accepting their art.”