Russia’s Past Set to Song and Dance : World music * The Don Cossacks, who will perform in Cerritos, draw on a repertoire of tunes and steps spanning four centuries.

Seventeenth century Cossack hero Stepan Razin leads a revolt against his people’s Czarist oppressors and what happens? Immediately his exploits are turned into a song.

“Song is essentially the unwritten history of the people,” said Anatoly Kvasov, artistic director of the Don Cossacks Song and Dance Ensemble of Rostov, a folk music and dance troupe.

“If anything happened--be it historical or a military engagement--it was immediately translated into song,” he said, “so the culture could never possibly be frozen or preserved like something in amber. The culture always reflected life. That’s the beauty of it. It was never rigid, never stagnant.”

Kvasov was speaking Monday through translator Paulette Zitofsky in a phone interview from Palm Desert, the first stop on a tour that brings the Don Cossacks of Rostov to the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday for two performances.

The troupe will perform traditional wedding, military and patriotic songs, as well as ballads and dances spanning four centuries.

The company name comes from the Don River region of southern Russia, a heavily Cossack area for more than 400 years. It was formed in 1936, but at first, the people of the Don themselves didn’t accept the troupe as fully authentic because of its Western style of singing, according to the director.

“The authentic vocal style is exceptionally difficult,” Kvasov said. “There’s no idiom in English to describe the sound. It’s very bell-like. There’s a trill to it.

“If we’re speaking of the pure folkloric sound, it is very difficult--virtually impossible--to reproduce that style,” he said. “But we are trying to get as close to it as possible.”

Kvasov, who was born in 1935, took over the troupe in 1970 and began moving it closer to authentic traditions as part of his goal to preserve the Cossack culture.

“Once I asked a Cossack, ‘Why is it that all your songs are performed so loudly?’ ” he said.

“The man said, ‘Take a look at the desert and all the steppes around us. Everything is excessively big. This is why we sing incredibly loud. We do not whisper our songs.’

“But do not become alarmed,” Kvasov added. “That’s not to say that the Cossacks don’t sing quietly when they sing love songs or lullabies. When they’re inside, they sing quietly. They will not be extraordinarily loud in this program. They will be singing beautiful songs.”

The songs are never simply sung, however.

“Cossacks never say, ‘We sing a song,’ ” said Kvasov. “They say, ‘We play a song.’ That’s because each song is always accompanied by something physical or dramatic, like a dance.”

There is also much misunderstanding about the Cossacks, according to the director. “A Cossack is not so much a nationality as a military calling,” Kvasov said. “So the old songs, the folkloric songs, in general were military songs.

“But there are also a lot of fun songs, limericks and jokes and humorous songs,” he said. “And, of course, love songs. Absolutely, we must include love songs.”

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Because of the military connections, the orchestra is largely made up of brass and wind instruments. But it also incorporates folk instruments such as balalaikas, bayans (the Russian chromatic button accordion) and harmonicas.

The folk instruments, however, are “weak-sounding,” said Kvasov. “But modern technology allows us to find a balance and to create less of a dissidence between the two groups.”

The company costumes, too, reflect Kvasov’s interest in authenticity. “But since we have such an incredibly large number of costumes,” he said, “it’s impossible to show them all in one concert,” he said.

“I could say a lot about them, but basically, a picture is worth a thousand words. One should see the program.”

* The Don Cossacks Song and Dance Ensemble of Rostov will perform Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. 2 and 8 p.m. $32-$47. (800) 300-4345.