MOSCOW ― David Hallberg is off and running in Moscow. On Friday night he made history for the Bolshoi Ballet as the first American in a leading role on its historic stage in a new production of the fabled Russian ballet “The Sleeping Beauty.”

And it’s not just any stage: Older than the United States and the jewel of Russian culture, the Bolshoi Theatre is newly restored for its 236th season.

Hallberg, the American Ballet Theatre principal who is now also a premier dancer with the Bolshoi, and Russian prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova received a standing ovation from the packed house of more than 1,750 spectators, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. But at least one of his fellow dancers was not as welcoming.

As Prince Desire and Princess Aurora, Hallberg and Zakharova danced elegantly to Tchaikovsky’s music, both dressed in luxurious costumes by Italian designer Franca Squarciapino amid lavish scenery by Italian art director Ezio Frigerio, all put together by the maestro of Russian ballet Yuri Grigorovich.

Hallberg, 29, who already appeared on the Bolshoi second stage Nov. 4, partnering in “Giselle” with prima ballerina Natalia Osipova, has had just a month to get acclimated to his new country and company.

He spoke last week about adjusting to life as a Muscovite. He’s moved from the Metropol Hotel to a comfortable apartment off downtown’s Tverskaya Street and said he experiences Moscow mostly as he walks to the theater every morning to take part in endless classes, rehearsals and performances.

“I was a little intimidated by Moscow at the beginning,” he said in a small cafeteria in the auxiliary building of the Bolshoi. “But because of the Bolshoi Theatre, because I have this work, because I am so dedicated to my work and everything, it gives me a basis on which to grow from, to define my flow, my energy, my routine.”

Hallberg said that he will start taking Russian language classes after he is done with “The Sleeping Beauty.” But the schedule is busy. Later in the month he will appear as Basil in “Don Quixote.” His short-term plans with the Bolshoi also include dancing in “The Bright Stream” (music by Shostakovich). Early in December he is due back in New York to perform in the ABT production of “The Nutcracker” by Alexei Ratmansky.

On the whole Hallberg said he is very happy with the reception at the Bolshoi and said he had “never felt uncomfortable here, never felt not well taken care of.”

“It is obviously a very important moment not only for me but also for the Bolshoi Theatre, because it is the first big production on the historical stage; it is kind of the turn of the new Bolshoi,” he said. “They are really making a statement of globalization of ballet by having an American do the principal role in the premiere of ‘The Sleeping Beauty.’”

But some of his colleagues are ready to argue that statement.

“I like David very much and respect him as a dancer, but it is an insult to the entire Russia ballet, a demonstration of indifference to the rich Russian tradition and culture,” Nikolay Tsiskaridze, a Bolshoi premier dancer said in an interview Friday.

“The state spends a fortune to support our ballet school and at the same time the theater hires a foreigner, an American, to open the ballet season on the historical stage instead of all the great Russian dancers that we have.”

Tsiskaridze, a longtime principal dancer of the company, was scheduled to perform the same role the fourth performance, on Wednesday. He said that the company’s management, in hiring Hallberg, projects a certain attitude, and because of that, among other things, “Russian dancers see no future for them in the Bolshoi.”

By Sergio Loiko

(Los Angeles Times)

(MCT Information Services)