THE BOLSHOI REVIVES

By Robert Johnson

With a new team at the head of Moscow’s prestigious Bolshoi Ballet, the company has been getting a helping hand recently from its most illustrious star, prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili.

A sensation ever since her debut with the company in 1981, Ananiashvili has established herself as a celebrated international artist. Those familiar with her performances with American Ballet Theatre know her as a classicist in the grand tradition who has broadened her range through experiences outside of Russia. She is among the first great Russian dancers for whom the thaw in the Cold War provided opportunities to travel abroad.

Ananiashvili has made it her mission to encourage the work of young Russian dancers. This summer, she appeared at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts with a hand - picked group of Bolshoi principals, most in their early 20s. In addition to standard repertory, the group performed the neoclassical «Charms of Mannerism» a gentle satire by 27 -year - old Alexei Ratmansky, and a daring modem piece, «Dreams About Japan» by the same choreographer.

«The ballet is moving forward. Progress is taking place», said Ananiashvili, speaking on the veranda of her hotel. These are hopeful, and defiant words, coming from a quarter where little progress has been seen in recent years. Facing the challenges of Perestroika, the proud Bolshoi was nearly bankrupt and strangled by geriatric management. «Our generation was without a choreographer», Ananiashvili said regretfully.

Only recently, with the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of former dancer Vladimir Vasiliev, and with Ananiashvili’s dancing partner, Alexei Fadeyechev, in charge of the ballet company, has the troupe begun to feel the stirrings of new life. Last season, it presented its first all-Balanchine evening, with «Mozartiana», «Agon» and «Symphony in C» staged by Suzanne Farrell and John Taras. This summer’s London tour was a rousing success, and next season promises more Balanchine, a Japanese evening, and a reconstruction of Marius Petipa’s first major ballet, «The Pharaoh’s Daughter», restaged by Pierre Lacotte.

Then there is Ratmansky.

«He found something new», said Ananiashvili, commenting on the young man’s talent for manipulating ballet’s classical vocabulary. A graduate of the Bolshoi Ballet School, Ratmansky also went abroad in search of inspiration. He performed for three years with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and is now a soloist with the Royal Danish Ballet. After Ananiashvili invited him to create «The Charms of Mannerism» and «Dreams About Japan», Ratmansky was commissioned to choreograph an evening of one -act ballets by the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg.

«I think he has a good future», said Ananiashvili, cautioning that it is still too early to say how Ratmansky’s talent will evolve.

«Any choreographer has good and bad ballets. He just needs to develop, and have a chance to work and work».