A Fine Parade of Young Ballet Stars

Showcasing young stars from ballet theaters in Russia and the Americas, the "New Generation" galas Monday and Tuesday presented a winning combination of variety and virtuosity.


One of the gala organizers was Igor Zelensky, himself part of a small but growing new generation of Russian dancers for whom boundaries -- artistic or geographic -- no longer exist. A former principal at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater, Zelensky has performed for three seasons with New York City Ballet.


Dancing Monday in the short ballet "Apollo," Zelensky, with his brilliant classical foundation, showed that he is becoming fluent in the streamlined neo-classical style of New York City Ballet's beloved late choreographer, George Balanchine.


Tall and powerful, Zelensky was a fitting god, alternately contemplative and bursting with inspiration as he communed with his three muses.


But the ensemble of the muses was often disjointed, breaking the patterns and harmonies of a Grecian frieze come to life.


The Mariinsky's Irma Nioradze was a tentative Terpsichore, who as Apollo's favorite muse should dance with assured grace. It is asking much, of course, to expect a dancer steeped in storybook classics to step right into the concentrated pulses, unexpected combinations and de-emphasis on plot that characterize Balanchine's work.


Although the other two muses, the Mariinsky's Zhanna Ayupova and especially American Ballet Theatre's Paloma Herrera, performed their solo variations credibly, they seemed more in their element later in the program.


Herrera combined sassy charm with technical precision in a pas de deux from "Stars and Stripes," Balanchine's patriotic salute set to music by John Philip Sousa. The joy in Herrera's dancing was infectious. Only 19, she had arrived fresh from a Washington premiere of Twyla Tharp's "How Near Heaven," in which she danced one of the leads. Herrera was partnered by New York City Ballet's Damian Woetzel, who was as buoyant as Yankee Doodle Dandy through all of Balanchine's complicated hops and spins and changes of direction, punctuated by sudden breaks into a march.


The Mariinsky's Ayupova exuded daintiness in an excerpt from the classic "Le Corsaire." Her manner contrasted with the tempestuousness of her partner, fellow Mariinsky dancer Faruk Ruzimatov, who detonated his leaps into passages of fiery bravura. He is a dancer who commands attention no matter what he's doing -- unleashing a grand jet?, inverting himself into a walking backbend, or standing still. He was riveting in the aching searches of modern choreographer Maurice B?jart's "Solo."


In the "Diana and Actaeon" pas de deux from the ballet "Esmeralda," South Americans Cecilia Kerche and Luis Ortigoza showed their mastery of classical technique. Taskmaster that she was, the choreographer, legendary Soviet teacher Agrippina Vaganova, made the duet a technical minefield. Kerche, who dances with Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, performed an arresting set of fouett?s -- turns in place in which one leg whips out to spin the dancer around. Usually ballerinas return with each spin to a focal point straight ahead, but here, the focal point traveled in a circle too.


Sergei Filin and Inna Petrova represented the Bolshoi with a pas de deux from "La Sylphide," in which they demonstrated lightness and purity of form in ricocheting jumps and filigree passages.


The finale was an improvisation to the evening's only live music -- the drums, chimes and bells of the Mark Pekarsky Theater of Sounds.


Some leaping one-upmanship broke out among the male dancers, and the ballerinas put on a spinning exhibition. It was great fun for audience and artists alike.