Russian dancers at the Bowl, on loan from a legend

Russia’s Moiseyev Dance Company, still led by legendary choreographer Igor Moiseyev at age 99, will make its Hollywood Bowl debut in the venue’s season-ending extravaganza, “Fireworks Finale: The Russians Are Coming,” Friday through Sunday.

For the company’s last appearance in the U.S. this year, a small contingent -- 36 out of 85 members -- will join conductor John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as part of a program of Russian-inspired music. It will include works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, Alfred Newman and others.

Accompanied by the orchestra and two of its own musicians, who will play the bajan (a Russian accordion) and a Georgian drum, the Moiseyev company will perform such signature selections as the Adzharian War dance “Khorumi,” the Russian “Polyanka,” Gypsy dances and “our very famous funny dance, ‘Two Boys in a Fight,’ ” said Moiseyev executive director Elena Shcherbakova.

For its first experience in performing with a symphonic orchestra, the company will bring its “own conductor” to rehearse with Mauceri, she added in a phone interview from Moscow, “because the tempo for our dances is very difficult.”

Shcherbakova, a former principal dancer with the company, said that Moiseyev is still very much in charge. Although his health no longer permits him to tour internationally with the company, he selected both the program and the dancers for the Bowl appearance and supervised the rehearsals.

Moiseyev, who founded his company in 1937 and gained international renown for his vibrant, theatrical choreography of the folk traditions of Russia and of countries around the world, “is not so active as three years ago,” but still works with the company and its school each day, in addition to planning every dance program, Shcherbakova said.

After its Bowl performance, the full company will tour China and Germany and then prepare for Moiseyev’s 100th birthday gala in Moscow in January.

“We are lucky,” Shcherbakova said, in reference to Moiseyev’s continued leadership. But even when he is no longer at the helm, she stressed, his vision will remain the guiding force. The company will carry on his work “exactly as he taught us.”

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-- Lynne Heffley