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The responsive audience, including Natalia Makarova and her husband Edward Karkar, saw Raymonda’s Act III with Irma Nioradze and Yevgeny Ivanchenko, La Bayadere with Alina Somova and Leonid Sarafanov, and Paquita’s Divertissements with Viktoria Tereshkina and Andrean Fadeev at prices ranging from $75 to $125; the economy has left vacancies at the rear orchestra. This audience diminution did not prevent most in the orchestra to stand and shout at the end of the Shade scene of Bayadere, deservedly so.

In Raymonda, Irma Noriadze and Yevgeny Ivanchenko scarcely had room to dance, with the serried assemblage by Czardas, Mazurka and Grand pas dancers, backed by scenery which also was crowded. Noriadze was best in her grand pas variation with its strong releves passes, allowing display of precision and expansive gesture; elsewhere her head and port de bras seemed mannered and perfunctory. Ivanchenko had to adjust his jetes to a small space, but one arm en haut while performing a forward cabriole was impressive. Konstantin Zverev displayed slender legs in elegant knee-high white boots in the Mazurka, his head shaking with spirit as he danced with Elena Bazhenova. With equal spirit Boris Zhurilov and Maria Shirinkina executed the Czardas.

The strongest impression lingers seeing eight plus solo couple in each national dance and the seven couples of the grand pas flanking the principals, best foot forward, shoulders down, the women’s hands crossed in front, men erect behind them, all half a hundred.

In Bayadere, the dancers had obstacles to overcome; not only a smaller stage, but one preventing that glorious entre from beginning on a ramp; an opening in a black curtain had to suffice. No matter, twenty-four emerged, to the sensitive conducting of Pavel Bubelnikov, the cambre and arabesque extended to its maximum, until the dancers were ranged in the groups of four, rising en pointe bourreeing in place, the white tutus sashaying left and right as the dancers’ shifted weight before the developpes a la seconde commenced with a rock steady leg. There was one exception; a tall, slender woman, fortunately in the back.

When the dancers divided into lines on either side, Sarafanov, blond, his small build with clear muscular, definition, emerged in sky blue satin, midriff bare, cleaving a diagonal line from upstage left to down stage right with an inflection in his swift grand jetes echoing the orchestra’s musical dynamics; the audience burst into applause.

Alina Somova, blonde, small-headed, fine-boned with hyper-extended knees, was remarkably steely for all her fragile appearance. Her grand jetes in the pas de deux were a straight line waist high, cutting a singularly defined space in all her moments, her delicacy enhancing the idea of spirit in some imaginative nirvana. The pas de deux over, the applause thundered.

The trio Yulia Kasenkova, Tatiana Tkachenko and Daria Vasnetsova were matched for size, if one seemed more robust than the other two and unwilling to adapt her phrasing either to the music or the other two dancers; the latter two helped evoke the eerie nature of the scene.

Paquita is one very stale bon-bon living on because of the remarkable variations provided primarily the female dancer; one can imagine the pleasure afforded the St. Petersburg dandies. The ballerina’s assignment verges on a technical kitchen sink,but the individual variations require charm while sustained, demanding steps require definite phrased and fluid execution. They make apt selections for the classical section of international competitions. One of the most difficult variations was danced by Alina Somova, apparently getting quite a workout this engagement; dancing this variation twice, a turn at Kitri and two variations in Don Quixote. Viktoria Tereshkina was equal to the principal demands, abetted by Andrian Fadeev. Tereshkina is a secure technician, if not a particularly warm stage presence; hopefully Kitri, partnered by Sarafanov will alter that impression.