E-Mail This Article to a Friend Forty years of BB Nureyev’s Don Quixote, plus the Kirov and the Dance Collective BY JEFFREY GANTZ

With the folding of Dance Umbrella, the only major dance player in town is Boston Ballet, and it’s going through a transition period. Valerie Wilder and Mikko Nissinen have now settled in as executive director and artistic director, and last year’s bill — which included John Cranko’s Onegin, Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée, a George Balanchine program, and Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet — was well-chosen and well-performed. But a number of deservedly well-regarded dancers — Paul Thrussell, Simon Ball, April Ball, Tara Hench, and Karla Kovatch among them — have left; Jennifer Gelfand will be leaving after Don Quixote next month; and Viktor Plotnikov has been accorded "Senior Artist" status. So in 2003-2004, the company will be depending on many new faces — including incoming principals Roman Rykine, Lorna Feijoo, and Rolando Sarabia — to maintain its status as one of America’s best ballet companies.

Adding to the challenge is Boston Ballet’s straitened financial situation, the result of a struggling economy and years of company overextension. This fall will see a new performance format in which a week of Don Quixote (October 16 through 19) will be followed by a repertory program comprising Balanchine’s Mozartiana, David Dawson’s The Grey Area, and Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes (October 23 through 26), and then another week of Don Quixote (October 30 through November 2). Its perennial Nutcracker (November 28 through December 30) excepted, the company won’t be in action again until mid March.

And the Don Quixote will not be the same one that Bostonians might remember from 1989, 1993, and 2000. "That was Anne-Marie Holmes’s staging, and it’s totally different," Mikko Nissinen explains. What we’re getting instead is the version that Rudolf Nureyev created for Boston Ballet in 1982. But how has that staging evolved over the past 20 years? "I would say it’s not drastically different. It is the same production. He had done it in Australia, and he changed certain things to fit the company there. The version we’re doing is the Paris Opéra staging, which is the last version he did of the ballet. Aleth Francillon of the Paris Opéra is staging it for us. I’ve watched lots of tapes on video, and some I’ve seen live, but the ones you see in the studio show how it’s put together — it reveals all the little details. He’s done a wonderful job, and he really pushes the company — as in the Gypsy scenes, with the speed and lots of complexity. It’s a romp with integrity and a great deal of fun."

Nissinen adds that he’s not a fan of broad, foppish portrayals of roles like Gamache, the rich-but-elderly suitor whom Kitri’s father wants her to marry — and indeed, those who saw the company’s La Fille Mal Gardée last season will remember that Alain, the rich-but-doltish suitor whom Lise’s mother wanted her to marry, was poignant as well as pratfall-prone. And how does he see the role of Don Quixote? "I actually think he’s the real star of the whole ballet. It starts with the prologue that takes place in his study, and he has to establish his character there. And he is in the production right through, most strongly of course in the Vision Scene. He’s a frail, older man with one principle in his mind, and he goes off to his ideal in his own manner. It’s endearing."

As for this version of Don Quixote, Nissinen says, "The reason I’m bringing it back is that I think it’s a great production, but it’s also the 40th anniversary of Boston Ballet, and I think this is the single most significant production in its history. This is the production with which Rudolf took the company on tour, and that’s when the greater dance world really noticed Boston Ballet. It meant a lot to the organization, so I felt it was a most appropriate production to bring back."

All Boston Ballet performances take place at the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District; for subscription and ticket information, call (617) 695-6955.

The FleetBoston Celebrity Series. meanwhile, is promoting visits by major international dance organizations, and they don’t get much more major than the Kirov Ballet, which, backed by the Kirov Orchestra, will be at the Wang November 13 through 16 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg with a program of works by the legendary St. Petersburg native Michel Fokine: Schéhérazade (Rimsky-Korsakov), Chopiniana (Chopin), and Firebird (Stravinsky), plus, on opening night only, Le spectre de la rose (Weber/Berlioz) and The Dying Swan (Saint-Saëns). You’ll also want to mark next year’s calendar with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (January 16 through 18), Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (February 6 through 8), Mark Morris Dance Group (March 11 through 14), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (April 13 through 18), and Paul Taylor Dance Company (May 21 through 23). Tickets are on sale now; call (800) 447-7400 or visit www.celebrityseries.org, and remember that if you order tickets to three or more Celebrity Series events, you’re eligible for subscription prices (in which case you should call rather than going on-line).

Finally, the Dance Collective will be celebrating its 30th anniversary with a gala anniversary concert next weekend at the Tsai Performance Center. For the details, see our "Performance" column in the "8 Days a Week" section.