The cavernous Kosmos Hotel, inelegant stopover for budget tourists, hardly seems the place to premiere a ballet company.


But since July, the hotel's concert hall has been the rented home of the Imperial Russian Ballet, which is presenting the second act of "Giselle" and an assortment of other excerpts.


"Foreign tourists come to Russia looking for ballet during the summer off-season," said the company's commercially attuned founder, former Bolshoi dancer Gediminas Taranda. "And so it made sense for us to start dancing now."


The summer performances are an informal preview, bringing together dancers who are on vacation from their home companies. The guest stars have included veterans such as Lyudmila Semenyaka of the Bolshoi Theater and Alexander Gorbatsevich of Moscow Classical Ballet, as well as up-and-coming young dancers such as Hassan Usmanov, a recent medalist in international ballet competition and a member of Moscow Classical Ballet.


Following the summer schedule, Taranda hopes to organize a permanent company. A maverick in the Russian dance world whose earlier forays into arts management led to his dismissal from the Bolshoi, Taranda has set dauntingly ambitious goals for the future company of up to 40 dancers.


Though classical scenes would be a mainstay of the repertoire, Taranda wants to offer Russian audiences works that were created by Russian choreographers abroad, including pieces by Bronislava Nijinska (sister of Vaslav Nijinsky) and George Balanchine. He also wants to showcase contemporary Russian choreographers who have had difficulty finding a forum in the established theaters, as well as present works by Western choreographers. To the traditional schedule of company classes, Taranda would add regular sessions in jazz and modern -- virtual heresy to the classically oriented Russian ballet establishment -- and even classes in singing, for he has in mind a piece that combines dance and song. Taranda is hoping that the possibility of fresh repertoire and creative exploration will draw dancers to his troupe.


"I want to revive the creative spirit in Russian ballet," says Taranda, 33, an unpretentious impresario who calls the dancers "my artists" and ferries the dancers, scenery, costumes and props around Moscow in a white Toyota van.


For all his plans, however, and with the company's official inauguration targeted for October or November, Taranda has not yet found financial backing for the Imperial Russian Ballet, which he estimates would cost $7,000 to $10,000 per month to support.


"We have had a few proposals from sponsors, but they were not suitable," Taranda said. "Unfortunately, Russian sponsors often offer money but then ask when you can give it back."


The Imperial Russian Ballet is the latest in a series of projects by Taranda, who formed his own artistic agency in 1992. Last year Taranda organized the Moscow ballet community's first AIDS benefit. He brought Wanda Rokicki, choreographer of Tina Turner's last world tour and former member of England's song-and-dance group Hot Gossip to teach a group of Bolshoi dancers the jazz piece "One World, One Voice," which they performed at the benefit.


Under the auspices of his Pilgrim agency, Taranda from time to time gathered a small group of dancers from the more than 200 at the Bolshoi and took them on tour. It was one of these tours, to Holland in November 1993, that resulted in Taranda's firing in February from the Bolshoi. Taranda has sued the theater for unjustified dismissal.


In the ongoing court case, the Bolshoi claims that Taranda did not have authorization to go on tour himself or take its dancers on tour. Taranda refutes the claim, maintaining that he was fired to discourage other dancers from independent aspirations.


Taranda, who had danced at the Bolshoi for 13 years, learned of his firing just before the private preview of the latest version of "Le Corsaire," in which he was to appear. Taranda took the stage and bid the elite preview audience farewell, while his younger brother, Vitautas, also a Bolshoi dancer, and other allies held back theater security guards. After that, Yuri Grigorovich, chief choreographer and artistic director of the Bolshoi, barred Taranda from the theater.


During his Bolshoi career, Taranda was renowned for his vivid performances in character roles such as Abderakhman in "Raymonda" and Yashka in "The Golden Age," which require an added dimension of dramatic skill from a dancer.


His flair for the dramatic extends beyond the footlights -- a fight over a woman even sent Taranda to the hospital on one occasion. But with the demands of becoming an artistic director, Taranda says he has calmed down -- maintaining his equilibrium even when faced with challenges like that of earlier this week, when one dancer canceled on short notice, and on the eve of the performance he still did not know whether replacements would arrive from St. Petersburg.


The show did go on, with solid performances of the second act of "Giselle" and an array of classical and contemporary pieces.


After the well-attended performance, the Bolshoi's Semenyaka, who performed "The Dying Swan" and a section from "The Nutcracker," said that she was honored to have been invited by Taranda to guest.


"He is a very creative person who works at a high professional level, and he brings out creative energy in others," she said. "I wish him every success."


Reflecting on the challenges ahead, Taranda said, "If I don't succeed, but if this at least opens a new path for others to follow, it will not be in vain."





The Imperial Russian Ballet performs each Tuesday through the end of August at 8 P.M. at the Concert Hall of the Kosmos Hotel.Tickets, $20 for individuals and $15 for groups of five or more, can be bought at the door or in advance from the hotel's service bureau or from the Pilgrim Agency, 11/13 Triokhprudny Pereulok, 2nd entrance. For more information, call 299-1398.