Better Than the Bolshoi?

Outside Russia, most ballet buffs agree that the Bolshoi dance company is the Soviet's best. But in London last week, audiences had a rare chance to consider a rival. The Kirov Ballet of Leningrad, which somewhat obscurely traces its descent to the establishment of the Imperial Academy of Dancing in St. Petersburg in 1738, came to town on its first Western tour and gave a generous demonstration of what it thinks the classical ballet is all about.

The Kirov style is soft, lyrical, and generally more elegant than the intense manner of the Bolshoi. The result, in the Kirov's production of Giselle, was a performance that avoided all pyrotechnics in favor of a leisurely, unified, deliberately understated approach. Where the Bolshoi version strives for brilliance and momentum, the Kirov version was poetic and withdrawn--more of a spectacle than an unfolding drama. To many observers, the performance was unsatisfactory--but the Kirov productions of Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake easily made up for it. Substantially different from the version offered by Britain's Royal Ballet (the famous fish dives were omitted from the pas de deux in Act III), the Kirov Sleeping Beauty was by general consensus more graceful than any ever seen on an English stage. Again the company avoided the driving finishes that are the Bolshoi's hallmark, but in this case, the Kirov impressionist technique seemed far better tailored to the material.

As for Swan Lake, the Kirov version proved the hit of the English dance season; the usually reserved audience stopped the show with applause twice in the first act. Less concerned with literary plot than most Western versions, the Kirov Swan Lake offered superb dancing executed at unusually slow tempi. Star of the evening was Inna Zubkovskaya, who put on such a virtuoso display that the audience scarcely noticed that the company omitted the thirty-two fouettes that are a feature of the third act in most performances. With Zubkovskaya. Irina Kolpakova, who danced Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, and Danseur Noble Vladilen Semenov, the company proved that it has lead dancers who can hold their own with any now on the stage.

When the Kirov tour started in Paris last May, its director, Georgy M. Korkin. confessed he was worried about how the company would be received by audiences unfamiliar with the Leningrad style. Last week's performances left British critics differing--but agreed only that there is no other dance company in the world quite like the one from Leningrad. Next fall, U.S. audiences will have a chance to judge for themselves: after a three-week opening stand at the Metropolitan Opera House, the Kirov Ballet will strike out on a seven-week cross-country tour.

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