Slavko Pervan, handsome and with a warm, friendly smile, looks exactly like what he is: a Yugoslavian dancer and choreographer who loves the romantic history and literature of his country and steeps himself in it to create his ballets.
The outstanding artist, honored in his own country and Europe, has accompanied nine Yugoslavian ballerinas, ages 11-17, to the University of Utah, where they are enrolled in the Ballet West Conservatory's summer program. The girls come courtesy of INTRAX International, a program that sponsors cultural exchanges, and they are living with American families here. "We have girls from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Macedonia, all five Yugoslavian ethnic areas," said INTRAX coordinator Don Neeley.Pervan said that the past year has been very difficult, as he has tried to stage his latest and one of his most elaborate works, "A Scent of Balkan Rains." It's based on a new novel by Gordana Kuic, who traveled with him from Yugoslavia and translates for him.
The full-evening ballet finally made its debut in May 1991, with the Sarajevo Theater Ensemble. It is the story of Riki Levi, of Sephardic Jewish descent, who was in fact the first professional ballerina from Sarajevo.
A film made during performance showed an engrossing work, a ballad on two levels - Riki's personal life, her family, triumphs and tragedies, from 1914-45, superimposed upon a background of persecution of the Jews. The elaborate, full-scale work has more than 200 costumes, and full orchestra with original music by Igor Kuljaric.
"We put forth enormous efforts, artistically and technically, but there has been no money. Sometimes dancers have not been paid for two or three months, and they strike," he said ruefully.
Speaking of revolutionary conditions in Yugoslavia today, Pervan said, "the conflict is sectional. We must grow through a certain process to achieve democracy, and it will be a terrible period. The economic situation needs a time without political unrest, so reform can take place from within, rather than pouring on money from outside.
"Each ethnic nation within Yugoslavia feels that it lost a lot, and the guilty party is communism. Only when we have some kind of legislation made without nationalism will we have peace."
Yugoslavia has enjoyed a certain pampered status under communistic rule, Gordana acknowledged. "We lived well, we could travel, we had good food. We were like Europe for the Eastern Bloc countries. Then the economy rocketed down 15 or 20 years ago, when the communists invented unworkable methods, and as always the arts were the first to lose."
Pervan was born in the historical old town of Jajce (pronounced Yi-tze with a long i) in Bosnia, where his father kept a hotel, and horses. Though he was an artistic child, particularly fond of writing, he did not start dancing until he was 16.
"We were under the Russian system of schooling, everything was directed by the state, so I was assigned to a technical school," said Pervan. "But in 1947 my family moved to Osijek, and I and a group of my friends went to the ballet school.
"We were interested, because ballet was rather new to Yugoslavia, beginning with the emigres who fled Russia during the Revolution. Many of us became dancers, and many crossed the nearby border and ran away in the '50s and the '60s - some to Europe, some to the States. We have lost a lot over the years, with dancers and choreographers defecting. I stayed because I was passionately interested in my culture."
Though he had trained technically, the communists made no real objection to his dancing. "Men dancers were needed after the war," he said. After dancing with the Osijek Theater Ensemble (1951-53), he went to the Sarajevo National Theater Ballet, to Zagreb National Theater Ballet, then back to Sarajevo, for a total of 21 years - 2,000 performances in 50 roles - before turning to choreography fulltime in 1985. In 1984, he was leading choreographer for the Olympic Games in Sarajevo.
Pervan's training included the Sarajevo school, Zagreb school and the Moscow State Institute of Theatrical Art, 1964-66. He also studied in France with Maurice Bejart, and in New York City.
Among his first works is "Contrasts" (1958), the first ballet ever on TV in Yugoslavia (1960) - an abstract work of fine line and fluent beauty, judging from a video cassette that he showed to conservatory students.
But his real love is story ballet. His narrative-type choreographies are based on Yugoslavian novels, poems or legends, in which dance and drama are equal, with often exceptional scores by Yugoslavian composers, and he has done 15 such ballets.
And while Yugoslavia's potent art mystique has kept him at home, he has large ambitions for his work - no less than to communicate his country's nature and ideals to the world. "If you give to the world, they give back to you," he said with his warm smile.
As an example of his work he cited "Hasanaginica," based on a famous Yugoslavian ballad about a Moslem wife who is cast out by her husband and not allowed to see her children, and eventually dies of grief.
Drama comes naturally to Yugoslavians, who live amidst a fantastic mixture of cultures and religions. "We have Muslims, Catholics, Serbians, Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Turks," he said.
"It's a tiny place," agreed Gordana, "and I write about all these things in my novel. On a larger scale, all of Europe is a similar melting pot. And even with little money we try to produce as much as possible.
"We have 11 opera houses, each with its own ballet," Pervan explained. "Our training is mixed - basically Russian, but with French and English influences, and now American. Our ensembles and individuals tour abroad, they are exposed, and bring back new ideas. But it takes a lot of fighting to convince dancers that they can dance another way.
"Literature is stronger and more powerful than bureaucracy, but the audience is the greatest problem. You have to get them used to this type of ballet, but when the results are good, all is forgiven. They don't remember the bad things.
"I must say that nowhere is dancing easy. No one has really stood against me. My worst problem has always been, how to solve this ballet. The rest is incidental.
Selecting and capturing the spirit of his country's fascinating literary facets is Slavko's basic interest, he said. For example, he talked about his modern, symbolic work "The Satan," based on philosophy of the Bogomils, a sect that flourished in Bosnia from the 12th to 15th centuries. "Bogomil tombstones can be found all over Yugoslavia," said Pervan.
The Bogomils' central teaching was that the visible, material world was created by the Devil, which immediately came into direct conflict with the most sacred Christian philosophies, and brought on persecution from orthodox Christianity.
"The Angel Michael asks the Satan, why do you rebel against God, when he created you? and the Satan replies, just because he created me doesn't mean that I have to live by his rules!" said Gordana. "The Bogomils said, we will stay together until we are bored with each other. Everything material belongs to Satan, but the soul, to God. And in Slavko's ballet, a Man of Light contends with the Satan.
"The Satan's myth works backward to the Adam and Eve story. Satan creates men and women, the people of today, who kill each other. He makes for them a paradise, which they enter, but it becomes decadent. The conclusion is that we must kill the Satan within ourselves to make a good civilization."
Slavko enjoys the humanistic philosophy, and his style is very individualistic. "It's good theater when from reality you form a poetic superstructure of unreality," he said. "I have more recognition outside my country, with the European culture, I am better understood.
"In many of my ballets, a great love overcomes all disasters," he said. "The older I get, the more I see that life is a conflict between love and persecution."