Bolshoi Show Omits Important Details

The best thing about “Bolshoi Backstage,” airing tonight on KOCE-TV Channel 50, is getting to see some superb dancers, including a boy and girl who are students at the Bolshoi school.

But don’t expect to learn anything about ballet, specific ballets, the company or even the names of any of its dancers.

The only person identified in this locally produced promotional show is Vladimir Vasiliev, company artistic director. All the other principals, soloists and even the impressive children go nameless.

Neither of two full-length works the company will be dancing next week in its premiere Orange County engagement at the Performing Arts Center (“Romeo and Juliet” and “Don Quixote”) are included.

The excerpts that are included--ranging from the oddly chosen divertissement from Verdi’s opera “La Traviata” to the Soviet-era mandatory happy-ending “Swan Lake”--are never identified. You’re on your own.

Alas, too often, the dance sequences--taken from company classes, rehearsals and live performances on the fantastic Bolshoi stage--are poorly shot, with wandering camera work that cuts out part of the corps or amputates arms and legs of dancers who are seen.

Fortunately, the children’s pas de deux (to the minuet of Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony) is shot generally straight--with a stationary camera that allows you to see the whole bodies of the earnest, poised and amazingly accomplished kids. Incidentally, you can hear someone (Vasiliev?) barking commands to the two dancers throughout. But he yells “Bravo!” at the end, which is certainly justified.

Jerry E. Mandel, president of Orange County Performing Arts Center, provides general introductory remarks and voice-overs. The film, directed by Robert Pacelli, was produced by Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Tickets to the performances next week are selling fast, so this might be the only chance you get to see this fabulous company. Too bad the program is such a mess.

* “Bolshoi Backstage” airs at 10 tonight on KOCE-TV Channel 50.