The BALLET THEME column is dedicated to the 10th International Competition of the Ballet Artists held in Moscow. In anticipation of the anniversary contest, an exclusive interview with Yuri Nicholaevich Grigorovich, President of the jury, which he has granted to our correspondent V. Modestov, is published in this issue. 
The discussion touches upon such subjects as the fortunes of young artists, the traditions of the Russian ballet school, and problems of repertoire. «A ballet competition is a review of talents, both young performers and choreographers, as well as a test of endurance.» Ending the interview, Yuri Nicholaevich wished the Moscow Competition new discoveries and assured the participants that the jury would be both benevolent and fair.
A follow up of the President of Jury’s interview provides Chairman of the Organizing Committee, choreographer Andrei Petrov, in his conversation with Maria Levkoeva. The two talked about such a pressing problem as the communicative capabilities of competitions, which open to many «a life in the arts» and give them a chance to acquaint themselves with a wide gamut of creative arts. One doesn’t necessarily have to be the first in a competition — what is the most important is to be noticed; indeed, a competition is, in addition to anything else, an employment exchange of sorts. One of its goals is «to discover the trends of the contemporary choreography’s development, to attract young choreographers. The more colorful and diverse the styles represented at the competition are, the more interest it is going to excite.»
An article by the Magazine’s Editor­in­chief, Valeria Uralskaya, is entitled Around the Ballet Pedestals. An exciting excursion into the history of the world competition movement quite naturally leads to the reflections upon the contemporary state of the ballet contests. «The competitions undoubtedly deserve the most concerned attention on the part of the world community as well as of such entities as UNESCO, which not only patronize them officially but also professionally foster the development of the general competition movement.» «Competitions represent perhaps the most important stage in the artist’s professional growth. The competitive character of the ballet gatherings crucially influences the development of the classical dance.» The writer, however, also stresses negative features that appear in one competition after another — the show­off manner of the performance and incomprehension of the stylistic features of specific works of the classical repertoire. «What is being leveled is the stylistics not only of the classical heritage, but also of the latter­day choreographic compositions.» Such processes may and must be checked. «To ‘protect’ the artistic integrity, the competition repertoire must be defined and fixed as a system of requirements, and the jury, when judging the competitions, must take these requirements into consideration.»
The Magazine keeps presenting the Soul of Dance Prize winners. Nicholai Fadeechev’s pupils talk about their master. Says Andrey Uvarov, «Nicholai Borisovich disapproves of the affected use of one’s abilities, of the showing off of one’s technical capabilities or physical features. The spectacle, the character — that’s what is first and foremost for him.» 
Says Nicholai Tsiskaridze, «Both Marina Timofeevna Semenova and Galina Sergeevna Ulanova used to tell me, ‘You should work with Fadeechev’. And when I came to him, the first thing he said was, ‘Kolia, the only thing I hate is being thwarted’.» Says Sergei Filin, «I owe my performing shape to Fadeechev. Thanks to him, I’ve rid myself of the ‘fear’ of the most complex elements of the classical dance, which prior to meeting him I simply was unable to perform. I have all reasons to consider him my theatrical father.»
I. Stupnikov’s article about Boris Bregvadze is entitled A Gift of Hope. «The name of Boris Bregvadze had graced the playbills of the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater of Leningrad for twenty years, and the performances he danced in had attracted multitudes of enthusiasts enchanted by his bright temperament, his brilliant techniques and his acting charm… 
Bregvadze possessed an amazing gift of hope which was alien to both triumphalism and defeatism. He seemed to treat the dance as a knightly adventure whose result is absolutely unpredictable and which, precisely for that reason, must be taken with a chivalrous geniality.» Today he is an educator, and «the young generation, the recent alumni of the A. Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, do remember that they indeed have a Master to whom they always may turn for advice and with whom they may always share both joys and sorrows.»
Alexander Lavrenyuk, «A Varangian Guest in Krasnodar» (such has I. Belova, the writer of the next article, has dubbed the hero of her story), doesn’t like it when people say that he had come into music from ballet and when they do he objects that «I came into ballet from music and then had wandered in ballet for twenty years.» His track record at the Bolshoy Theater includes two decades as a dancer and almost another one behind the conductor’s stand. «He had been among the best character dancers of the Bolshoy during the 60’s and 70’s, and his style was marked with an emphatic graphicality of movement, expressiveness of line and unusually powerful but restrained temperament.» 
«Lavrenyuk the conductor knows the very nature of dance and its rigid laws from within and because of that it’s easier for the artists to dance ‘under his hand’… He has conducted all the classical ballets, worked with different choreographers, but the principal one for him has always been and still remains Yuri Nicholaevich Grigirovich.» Today both of them together work at the Krasnodar Theater.
P. Yashchenkov draws a portrait of a romantic of the dance, a principal dancer with the K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich­Danchenko Musical Theater of Moscow, Gheorghi Smilievsky. The writer relates of the fortunes of the Bulgarian boy who was sent to study in Moscow and has since worked with such masters of the ballet stage as Yuri Grigorovich, Vladimir Vasiliev and Dmitry Bryantsev. «The ballet star of Smilevsky rose a long time ago. But the real fame as a superb professional and talented performer is only just coming to him… His dance strikes one with a rare combination of the delicacy proper to the French ballet princes and the artistry and temperament inherent in the Russian school. Such an inflammable mixture works infallibly on the audiences, turning every performance into a spectacular gala.»
L. Shamina tells a story of Rudiy Khodjoyan, one of the most famous principal dancers with Igor Moisseev’s Ensemble. «The Master, as is well known, dislikes it when people single out any of his artists by calling them principals, because he considers all the performers in his Ensemble principles. However, Rudiy is an exception: he is one of the brightest stars of the troupe… Khodjoyan epitomizes the very principles of the Moisseev dance school, a master who has comprehended the very essence of the great choreographer’s artistic system.» No matter what dance he performs, he is always distinguished by a rare naturalness. This remarkable actor dancer imparts bright individual features to any ethnic character… Rudiy has become a mentor to new generations of ‘Moissevians’. His pupils dance side by side with him on stage, which is the best evidence of the artistic longevity of the Ensemble’s ‘living legend’, as Khodjoyan is known all over the world.
THE BALLET SCENOGRAM Column is dedicated to Russian premieres. The first among those is John Neumeier’s ballet A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The respective article is shaped as an address of the writer (V. Uralskaya) to the artists. «One is tempted to say to all of you, ‘You dance well, there are good fellows. You are brilliantly endowed, well schooled, your temperaments pretty well fall upon your roles. But, alas, you take everything that goes on in the ballet too seriously. You have drama where the authors have farce. You are strung­up whereas their purpose is based on relaxation. Indeed, the whole secret of the Dream is in that it is really a dream. All the forces of the nightly dreamland free the characters of constrain and restrains, of all reasoning and exertion… The only artist who managed to fully achieve that during the opening nights was Ivan Urban who, unfortunately, doesn’t belong to the Bolshoy troupe. Among the Moscow artists, the closest to the original turned out Ian Godovsky, whose movement, however, wants more airiness, and Nina Kuptsova, who also still is to relax the constrain in her interpretation of the part. Vladimir Neporozhny of an independent character, by the virtue of that independence, might be considered belonging to that rank too.»
«The Knight Errant is Come to Rostov, and the visit is significant for the theater», believes O. Shkarpetkina. The success of the Don Quixote’s opening nights at the Rostov Musical Theater, in the choreographic version of Alexei Fadeechev, seems to have turn out oracular: in the last days of 2004, the troupe was informed of A. Fadeechev being appointed the Theater’s chief choreographer.
The E. Materova and Yu. Sutormina’s article The Tsekh’s Premieres: Noise & Silence is a detailed review of the productions presented at the Tsekh Festival of the Russian Dance Theaters. Among all the unexpected titles, paradoxical subjects and shocking staging solutions, the writers find the most exciting such works as Noise & Silence by the Iguanas of St. Petersburg (choreographer M. Ivanov), and Not Giselle by the Kipling of Ekaterinburg (choreographer N. Levchenko). «Lika Shevchenko’s project Not a Dream performed by Roman Andreikin and Uliana Bachernikova proved absolutely without a rival. It’s a fight between two worlds, the two genders, two passions, a fight between man and woman, a fight for love, and that love is symbolized by a military overcoat, which the characters tear on stage just as they torture each other’s hearts: «Sometimes we just can’t understand each other. It’s a high time for us to at last acknowledge that we need each other not only in the dance.»
The L. Latypova’s article Action as Fantasy relates in detail of an experiment conducted in Perm’ by the artistic leader of the local Opera House Georgy Isaakian. He engaged Radu Poklitaru to stage The Seven Sins by Brecht and Weill, and he gave Tatiana Baganova of the Provincial Dances a chance to meet Stravinsky, this time in the domain of the one­act Nightingale. «Two premiere performances of the same night differed like differ a burning reality and an ephemeral phantasmagoria, a sleep and a waking, an eccentric action and a mysterious fantasy.»

Undying Nature was the general title of a series of gala concerts by the Russian Ballet State Theater of Moscow. Included in the program were samples of the best works of Russian choreography — from Petipa and Gorsky to the masters of the Soviet period like V. Vainonen, R. Zakharov, L. Lavrovsky, L. Yakobson, and K. Boyarsky. E. Kozlenkova wrote about the concert participants, including young artists invited from the Bolshoy Theater.