DANCE REVIEW : Fun in Leaps and Bounds at the Civic

The needle on the entertainment meter went over the top at the Civic Theatre this week. The nearly full house whoa-ed and wowed--not at a pop band with flashing lasers, but at the very special effects of folk dancers from Moscow.

As Ed Sullivan used to say, it was a reeeally big show.

The Moiseyev Dance Company, in San Diego through Sunday for seven performances, on Tuesday presented 12 works of the typical folk dance variety, dances that include animal totems, tricksters, courtship rituals, sword fighting and memento mori galore.

But what got the audience gasping was the array of derring-do acrobatics incorporated into the dances--virtuoso leaps, no-hands flips, high-in-the-air splits and more. Of further delight was a clever theatrical artistry based on humor. None of the fun, whether silly or subtle, was lost on the audience in the tightly staged and carefully paced show.

Behind this highly effective formula is 85-year-old company founder and choreographer Igor Alexandrovich Moiseyev, who made an early reputation with his choreography for the Bolshoi Ballet. In the late 1930s, however, he formed his own company to rework folk dance forms of the various Soviet states for formal theater presentation.

Moiseyev’s dances on the 2 1/2-hour program spanned 54 years. “Tartar Dance” (1939), the earliest, and the elegant “Greek Suite,” which had its premiere in Moscow last January, were the least exciting pieces, but only relatively speaking, since excitement was keen from the first.

The show opened with a six-part exercise, which served as an introduction to the variety of folk dance moves to come. A synchronized routine for men and women in warm-up wear at the barre evolved into a showcase of male soloists executing midair spins, rolls and splits, along with the signature squat-kicks.

This company has more male soloists than female, numbering 47 men in all, according to the program. Their prowess, both athletically and artistically, is a veritable recruitment campaign for male dancers.

Without the distraction of costumes in this first piece, one could watch the dancers’ efforts more closely, taking in the muscular control needed for acrobatics and the finer articulation of balletic nuance.

For the rest of the dances, the costumes were wonderfully festooned with spangles, spurs, sequins and exotic ornamentation. Some were richly colored, some ingeniously designed. In “The Partisans,” a 1955 tribute to “mountaineers who banded together to fight the Nazis,” dancers scurried, glided, cantered and charged across the stage under stiff, black, high-shouldered capes. The costumes made the fighters look like stylized bats, and the whole piece was inimitably “Russian” in its darkly comic tone.

Costumes were also elemental to “Masks,” a story dance originally created in 1947 and updated for this tour. Inspired by a Mongolian legend, the piece indulges in high theatrics, complete with stage fog, crashing cymbals, a fragile holy man, ghastly devils and monsters and a nightmarish beheading. The bad dream brightened into an amusing denouement, as evil forces whimpered and slithered away at the tinkling of a bell.

Two rag dolls kicked and wrestled in “Two Boys in a Fight.” The “dance” is hilarious but the costume--well, it’s a surprise and not to be revealed here for those who haven’t seen this classic routine.

Silly antics gamboled and tumbled through “Dance of the Buffoons,” and a soft-pedaled burlesque underscored “Old City Quadrille.” A quadrille is an old dance form, usually stately, that features four couples comporting in a geometric square. In this case, a village square was implied to heighten the punning humor. Four accordionists, two balalaika strummers and one upstart on a tambourine sat center stage and accompanied the couples promenading before them. Men wooed their sweethearts with ribbons, candy and their manly chest displays. Inevitably, competitions and partner-swapping flirtations slipped into the priggish doings.

The live music for this concert mixed folk and symphonic instruments and was snappy and bright throughout. Under Anatoli Gusj’s direction, the 16 musicians and dozens of dancers stayed together even through the fleetest of tempos.

After the spinning finale, Igor Moiseyev joined his dancers to acknowledge the cheers and standing ovation. A brief encore--a few square-dance turns and a march to “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here”--were a polite nod to American folk dance.

Folk troupes--from Cambodia, Bulgaria, Africa and Mexico, for example--have toured through San Diego this year, but Moiseyev, the “State Academic Ensemble of Popular Dance of the U.S.S.R,” should not be missed.

Moiseyev Dance Company performs through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Shows are at 8 p.m. today through Saturday, with a 2 p.m. matinee Saturday. Sunday’s only show is at 3 p.m. For ticket information, call 236-6510 or 278-TIXS.