Dance : Heightened Drama From Kirov Principals in ‘Bayadere’

New principals faced one another in the fatal love triangle of the Kirov Ballet “La Bayadere,” Friday in Shrine Auditorium.

As the doomed Nikiya, Zhanna Ayupova emphasized emotional intensity: the character’s wild happiness in the rendezvous with Solor, her defensive anger in the confrontation with Gamzatti, her deep sorrow in the wedding solo.

This last achievement proved her finest--refined technique and, especially, dynamics sensitively shaping those imploring arms and that superbly molten torso.

In the “Kingdom of the Shades” scene, however, her muted classicism lacked the final dimension of grandeur that a Nikiya must have to dominate her 35 ghostly sisters.

Irina Chistiakova also offered small-scale dancing as Gamzatti: fleet, sharp whipping turns (plus doubles) in the wedding coda but no real force. The adagio and her solo also looked somewhat clenched, as if she were straining to seem majestic.

Chistiakova proved far more successful in the ballet’s dramatic moments, making the character a hateful ice princess with effective glints of contempt and fear in the scene with Nikiya.

Although Igor Zelensky scarcely acted the role of Solor, he approached the prosaic mime assigned him as if it were choreography, stylizing, heightening and linking it all up with great assurance.

Unfortunately, he also made what should have been matched jumps in the pas de deux with Gamzatti look like some kind of competition and, similarly, didn’t hesitate to wreck the mood of the moonstruck final scene by projecting his bravura straight at the audience.

Clearly out for conquest, Zelensky added exceptionally intricate turning combinations to his one big solo--but not all of them ended smoothly. Every leap, however, had ideal height and shape. Not exactly an appealing performance but certainly an impressive one.