‘Stars of the Bolshoi’ Shine in Thousand Oaks

With not a single dancer named in the program booklet or any announcement, the paying audience had to take the “Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet” company on faith, Wednesday at the Probst Center in Thousand Oaks. Not exactly easy, since this tour group has been denounced by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow over both its roster of artists and the alleged unauthorized use of the company name.

No matter. Whether Bolshoi or Bull-shoi, skepticism vanished and we all became believers whenever 23 swans or 20 Wilis held the stage: It’s simply not possible to fake the purity of line, refinement of phrasing and sense of effortless unanimity that this corps provided, dancing to tape. Sometimes just being Russian is enough--if the responsibilities of that heritage are respected.

Ironically, the principals (who were identified for the press) would have given the audience a better time had they behaved like stars of the Bolshoi instead of faceless, workaday soloists. Maria Bylova, for instance, danced Odette in the second act of Grigorovich’s “Swan Lake” with all the skills of a Bolshoi ballerina--but without ever claiming the spotlight as her due.

Mikhail Besmertnov (nephew of the great Natalia Bessmertnova) was gravely miscast as Siegfried and looked more comfortable as the T-shirted hero in a gymnastic adagio from Grigorovich’s “The Golden Age” opposite the pliant Natalia Arkhipova. However, Andrei Shakin proved no more acceptable in the crude acrobatics of Messerer’s “Spring Waters,” opposite a hard-working Bylova, than he had been as a wildly melodramatic Rothbart.

Other divertissements included Elena Fomina’s short, beautifully executed solo from Gorsky’s “La Fille mal Gardee,” and Beata Teregulova’s desperately hot-cha Gypsy Dance (Goleizovsky). The most unusual came from outside Russian traditions: Bournonville’s “La Sylphide” in a mannered, technically faultless performance by Kirov guests Olga Likovskaya and Marat Daukayev.

Act 2 of “Giselle” featured Arkhipova in the title role: expressively vacant and arguably too hard and sharp for this style. An impassioned but technically feeble Yuri Vasuchenko partnered her capably as Albrecht, with Julia Akopian glowering fiercely as Myrta--after dispatching fabulous jumps that verified her Russian pedigree. The Hilarion? Don’t ask.

* “Stars of the Bolshoi” appears at 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. Tickets: $10 (students) to $50. (310) 916-8500.