Metropolitan Classical Ballet New & Reviews

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, April 22, 2006

Mastery in motion

DANCE: Vasiliev demonstrates Bolshoi ways at Metropolitan Classical Ballet in Arlington

By MARGARET PUTNAM
Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

ARLINGTON - "Stop! Stop! Stop!" cries Vladimir Vasiliev to the musicians rehearsing his Les Promenades. It is about the only English spoken for over an hour.

Not that it matters what language he speaks: His gestures and tone convey the meaning. And just about everyone here understands Russian - the company may be Metropolitan Classical Ballet, but it could just as well be called Bolshoi West.

All the principal dancers are Russian, as is the group's co-artistic director, Alexander Vetrov. Helping out is Mr. Vasiliev's personal assistant and interpreter, Marina Panfilovich.

Mr. Vasiliev is a big cheese indeed: a former star of the Bolshoi Ballet, well-known choreographer and former general and artistic director of the Bolshoi. He arrived in Arlington on Tuesday to add finishing touches to a production of Les Promenades.

His relationship with Mr. Vetrov, another former Bolshoi star, goes back many years.

"I've known him since his first class in choreography," Mr. Vasiliev says, "He was always very serious, and very good physically."

This is not Mr. Vasiliev's first foray into Texas, having toured here with the Bolshoi years ago. He remembers little: "We came, we danced, we departed." His one memory: "I ate a rattlesnake." A pause. "That was the only time."

Mr. Vasiliev created Les Promenades for the Bolshoi in 1978 to offer a "counterpoint to the big, heavy, grand productions" that were the company's mainstay. "It's a trifle, very light, a protest to the big tragedies."

It was the last piece on "These Charming Sounds," a full-length program of one-act ballets set to the music of Corelli, Torelli, Mozart and Rameau.

The plot is very simple. Dancers are warming up when a figure from the past appears - it is the composer Rameau. The program notes describe it further: "As if nothing out of the ordinary, he starts to play music that he had written for dance several centuries ago. The dancers find themselves caught up in the fantasy, and don details from elegant 18th-century costume. ... Each dancer takes on a character of his own imagination."

As the rehearsal continues, Mr. Vasiliev eyes dancers and musicians intently, calling out "Stop! Stop!" in English or, in Russian, "Go! Go! Go!" and "Smile."

His manner is good humored, however, and attentive to every detail.

He is not satisfied yet with Danielle Cohen, who carries a yellow butterfly net. "Hold it," he says, as she lifts her right leg up and with her left hand slowly brings the net down to her toe. It still doesn't suit him, and he mimes the act and it comes out so clear and sweet that you can almost see the butterfly skitter away.

The musicians - Alexei Melentiev (from the Bolshoi) on electronic harpsichord, violinist Eric Grossman and cellist Eugene Osadchy - come in for as many corrections as the dancers. "Make it faster - or we will go to sleep." Or "Stop, the music should be more sweet." He trills the timbre he wants.

"The music is the text," he explains. "It dictates the dance. The choreographer should 'see' the music."

Monday at 8 p.m., Bass Perform- ance Hall, Commerce at Fourth Street, Fort Worth. $10 to $30. 1-877-212-4280, www.basshall.com.