Kirov ‘Stars’ Offers a Ballet Grab Bag

In 1997, London got the full Kirov Ballet of St. Petersburg for five weeks but the Los Angeles area is seeing merely five days of a bare-bones “Stars of the Kirov” spinoff, with 20 dancers on the official roster but only 10 on stage, dancing to tape. No balcony for Romeo and Juliet, no tomb or even lilies for the dead Giselle.

However, the crucial difference isn’t one of company size or production resources but rather assumptions about repertory: the 19th century heritage displayed in-depth versus snippets of this and that, presented as ballet vaudeville. Yes, the great Moscow and Petersburg ensembles have always danced programs of showpiece excerpts--but as supplements to full seasons, not substitutes for them.

Worse, there’s an enormous cost when dancers perform the moonstruck, second-act adagios from “Giselle” and “Swan Lake” out of context in a “greatest hits” grab bag. The dimension of soul at the core of Russian ballet drains away and what’s left is just the shell of the art: style and technique at best and, at worst, impenetrable mannerism.

That’s mostly what the latest “Stars” tour group retailed at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in an 11-part program on Wednesday: everything that can be taught about Russian classicism, including its excesses, but scarcely anything profound or inimitable. Predictably, Tadzhik firebrand Farukh Ruzimatov brought unstinting sinewy intensity to his two showpieces: the inevitable “Le Corsaire” pas de deux and a scenery-chewing Bejart solo to Mahler. Even better: willowy Zhanna Ayupova, technically uneven as the ghostly Giselle but gloriously radiant as Lavrovsky’s love-struck Juliet and always attuned to the emotional generosity within Kirov classicism.

Otherwise, the “Stars” opening program offered an overload of numb, classroom-level execution by ballerinas too tall for their partners and, in particular, by dancers more suited in proportions and temperament to the jesters and soubrettes of the demi-caractere rep than the great classical roles.

As always, Yulia Makhalina belonged in a class by herself, perfect in face and figure for Odette, Aurora, Raymonda, Nikiya, etc., and schooled to a rare degree of refinement but by now almost legendary for her cold, willful style: the Neva Iceberg. Wearing a ruinously low-cut, backless tutu, she brought nothing but self-absorbed glamour to Fokine’s “Dying Swan” and little more than high-velocity efficiency to the “Corsaire” duet.

Although multi-medal winner Andrei Batalov proved unsuited to the noble restraint and intricate partnering responsibilities of an unfamiliar “Nutcracker” pas de deux credited to Nikolai Boyartchikov, he looked magnificent in a patchwork of “La Sylphide,” Act 2--dramatizing and overprojecting Bournonville style, perhaps, but fabulous in the speed, elevation and precision of his beats.

Few of the other “stars” could match the achievements of their Kirov predecessors. After Panov and Baryshnikov, for instance, how bloodless Vladimir Kim’s virtuosity looked in the “Harlequinade” pas de deux. And after Olga Chenchikova, how technically feeble and expressively pallid Maya Dumchenko appeared in the Black Swan duet.

Perky Margarita Kulik was miscast as the Sylph but excelled at the fast, percussive pointe attack in Petipa’s “Carnival in Venice” pas de deux. Right after a vacant, clenched “Nutcracker” performance, Irina Jelonkina bloomed into gracious assurance for the “Harlequinade” excerpt. Both Ilia Kuznetsov and Viktor Baranov proved devoted cavaliers throughout the program, though the former made every lift look like hard labor; the latter worked so strenuously to make an impression that he often conveyed an air of hectic desperation. Give them time. Billing such artists-in-development as stars does nobody any favors.

Not that many people connected names and faces: Major changes in the published repertory, running order and personnel on Wednesday left the Cerritos audience in the dark about who was dancing what, though a corrected program sheet was made available at the very end of the evening. Unfortunately, it confused “Les Sylphides” with “La Sylphide” and credited Adam with Drigo’s music for the “Corsaire” duet. However, any gesture toward clarity was welcome.

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* “Stars of the Kirov Ballet” continues tonight and Saturday, 8 p.m., Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. $24-$40. (800) 300-4345. Also Sunday, 2:30 p.m., Probst Center, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. $35-$65. (805) 449-2590.