Moscow Festival Ballet ‘Quixote’ Runs at Half Tilt

“Uneven” is a word that often comes to mind while watching many of the touring Russian ballet groups that pop up in these post-Soviet years. Moscow Festival Ballet did little to halt that trend on Thursday with its “Don Quixote” at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center.

It’s not that there wasn’t some very good dancing--as Kitri, the petite Olga Pavlova had beautifully articulated legs and feet, and her towering partner, Khasan Ousmanov, could stretch and fly with airy abandon. Their mime scenes as the mischievous lovers were lively, although a few partnering glitches banished the idea that this could be a truly happy couple.

Some of the soloists had fine moments--among them, Sofia Tomilina as a charming Cupid in the vision scene and Vera Tziganova slicing across the stage in her brief variation during the grand pas de deux.

But when it came to complete dancing, the kind that happens when technique, phrasing and dramatic skill build a riveting performance, there is little to report. Danced to tape in two acts that basically covered this story of comic pairing and windmill tilting, the ballet seemed patched together, with very little flow.

Doing their part for the cause were Yuri Vetrov as a nicely haunted Don and Alexander Roupychev as a lovably buffoonish Sancho Panza--considered performances both. But what’s a story ballet without the story of classical dancing running smoothly?

Under the direction of Sergei Radchenko, who is also at the helm of the Russian National Ballet--which will perform in Thousand Oaks in April, with crossovers in casting--these dancers placed a premium on hitting positions and getting to the flourishes. For the difficult steps, grimaces and worried faces replaced graceful smiles.

In the grand pas de deux, there was no sense of ease and relish. Pavlova shipped off about 30 competent fouettes at the required time in the coda, but she clearly wasn’t happy doing it; she might as well have been churning out push-ups.

Painted backdrops on an otherwise minimal set (by Lev Solodovnikov) were adequate mood setters--with the few that were drenched in azure and ivory enhancing the vision and wedding scenes. But the various moods of the ballet never settled into the dancing in a solid way. It’s as if, in striving to look like successful Russian masters, these dancers forgot to incorporate the heart of the matter.

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* Moscow Festival Ballet, “Don Quixote,” Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos, today, 2 and 8 p.m. “Ballet’s Greatest Moments,” Sunday, 2 p.m. $17-$50, (900) 300 4345.