Deseret News wire services The Bolshoi Ballet, now concluding its American tour, has interested the American dance world with its performances of "Swan Lake," "Giselle," "Ivan the Terrible" and "Romeo and Juliet," and a variety program including "Petrushka" and excerpts from "Paquita."
Balletomanes in both the USSR and the West have complained the Bolshoi is no longer living up to its reputation for high-quality, bravura dancing. But "Bolshoi is a name which will sell, and people are ready to buy into that no matter what they see on the stage," said a New-York based dance journalist. Tickets in New York sold for as much as $105, the highest ever for a ballet event.The company is making do without its star, Irek Mukhamedov, who joined England's Royal Ballet in June. However its bright young stars, Nina Semizorova, Nina Ananiashvili and Aleksei Fadeyechev have drawn much attention.
Recently, several members of the Bolshoi's Communist Party committee staged a one-day hunger-strike, a protest directed at the entire leadership of the Bolshoi Theater, whom they accused of artistic misrule and a money-making mentality.
Leading the charge was Yuri Grigoriev, secretary of the Bolshoi Theater's Communist Party committee and a recently dismissed singer at the Bolshoi Opera. He is highly opposed to a consortium agreement between the Bolshoi, Goskoncert (the Soviet state artists agency), and the Entertainment Corporation Group (ECG), an international performing-arts presenter.
The agreement, which effectively began a year-and-a-half ago, gives ECG non-performing rights outside the USSR and power to license the Bolshoi name, develop corporate sponsors, and market products on behalf of the ballet.
"Grigoriev and his acolytes have always been against everything new," says Grigorovich. "As long as the party committee has been at the Bolshoi, its dearest wish is actually to rule over the artistic leadership."
Grigorovich feels the consortium is important for the hard currency it will yield for vital needs of the theater - money to raise artists salaries, buy new sets, new costumes and materials abroad that are unavailable in Russia.
Grigorovich himself takes considerable criticism for his stranglehold on the company, where he exercises autocratic rule, and has not choreographed a significant work since 1982.
Having already appeared in New York, at Wolf Trap Farm in Vienna, Va., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and Honolulu, the group will give its final performances in Boston (Sept. 6-9). The company will then proceed to Asia for a tour of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Korea.