I believe the orginal name was Mariinsky Ballet - and that was the Russian spelling. It is often anglicized to "Maryinski". And I know that it was named "Kirov" after a Sergei Kirov a government official in the 1930's. <P>When the company was here in (California) after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the programs, t-shirts, etc., as I recall, were titled "Mariinsky". That is how the company is also referred to in the St. Petersburg (Russia) Times.<P>I notice that the critics in the London newspapers are calling the company "Kirov". A search on Google turns up most commonly a combination of "Kirov-Maryinski/Mariinski".<P>For those of you lucky enough to be going to see the performances in London - what does the company call itself? What is printed on the programs, may I ask?

i recall seeing the costume trunks, which were printed as follows: "kirov ballet, maryinsky theatre, st. petersburg". this company name designation is only for foreign tours. at home the company is the maryinsky ballet, at the maryinsky theatre!<p>[This message has been edited by pmeja (edited June 15, 2001).]

That's interesting Pmeja.....in 1992, when they were in California - as I posted above....the programs, t-shirts, everything was "Mariinski".....I guess they must have changed it. <P> Perhaps because some people didn't realize it was the same company as the Kirov? That would make sense.

i was told at one time, though i don't remember by who, that it had something to do with the amount of name recognition that the word 'kirov' had outside of russia.

Agreed - the programme in the UK is KIROV and the programme i have from St Petersburg International Ballet Festival is MARIINSKY. Thanks for raising that point, Basheva - I had been puzzling over it myself and many of the UK paper critics had added to my confusion.

It's not uncommon for entities to have multiples names really. I deal with a company that is registered under three different names, one for each of the three continents they work in. As an example, the Brit rock group Yazoo is known as Yaz in the US. Movies are notorious for having multiple names; the Bond flick "License Revoked" goes by "License to Kill" in the US.<P>And what do these companies really call themselves? The ones I know about typically identify with all the names. No one name predominates as the "true" name. Welcome to modern business.<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited June 16, 2001).]

As i understand it the Company will continue to use the name Kirov outside Russia because of it marketing clout, but the name Maryinski (or other anglicised spellings of the cyrillic name) will be used within Russia.<P>Basically we have to get used to both names, but if in doubt i suggest we use Kirov, which is the name which ballet lovers in the West will continue to see. The current London season is definitely Kirov.