Tom Parke

Modern Dance, tradition of theatrical dance unique to the 20th century. Modern dance flourished in areas that lacked strong ballet traditions, such as in the United States where ballet companies were imported from Europe. Although modern dance originated in Europe, by 1930 the United States had become the center for dance experimentation and it has been so since that time.

In Russia, a country where classical ballet is a king - or tsar, as the case may be - one wonders what the other dancers look like. After all, there is no training ground here for modern Wunderkind, almost no regular performance space, and until the fall of communism, virtually no contact with the Modern schools in the West.

The answer: Russian dance has made inroads - spiritual and personal inroads. With no funding and hardly any audience, companies and performances have become springboards for the most personal expression, almost frantically blurring genres to escape formal binds. Dance is, first and foremost, about getting the inside out.

First Russian modern companies appeared by the end of 80th - beginning of 90th. They lacked techniques as well as classical background and created movements themselves. In Ekaterinburg Lev Shulman and Tatyana Bagaeva founded a campany “Provintsialnie tantsi”. Then came Eugeny Panfilov known by his scandal shows. He liked to perform naked and dress his actors in women dresses. In Moscow Alexandr Pepelyaev and Anatoliy Vasiliev founded “Kinetic Theatre”. Although they are both far from being professional dancers, they applied in Russia some interesting Western techniques.

One senses the absence of modern dance education in Russia - though this does not always work to a negative effect. Russian groups tended make straight choreography but one element of their performances, relying on acting, Chinese theater and live music, for instance, to complete the performance. The attraction to dance in Russia, it seems, is deeply personal - and dancers will use whatever tools necessary to express themselves.

"No one in our association is a professional dancer or choreographer," said Marina Russkikh, herself a performer and the director of Another Dance, an umbrella group uniting almost 10 local experimental dance groups. "Everybody has come from another field. ... Looking to express ourselves, we turned to dance."

Russkikh studies the natural movements and gestures of her body - as was evident in her two festival performances, "Conversation With Johann Sebastian Bach" and "Farewell of the Slavic Woman." Tense and ascetic, Russkikh's slender movements appeal almost in worship to the composer, though her raw and existential gestures could just as easily have sent her careening across the stage.

Not every company was able to stretch its limited dance education so far. "Second-Hand," an all-female group from Yaroslavl, almost lackes the technical grounding to execute the movements they are attempting. Still others make the best of their physical capacities. Some theaters use clowning and pantomime to bridge the choreography gap.

In short, Russia's upstart troupes may be naive they're quite worldly-wise.