There are too many small companies of Russian dancers traveling around the country with pint-sized productions of the great Russian classics to count. The quality can be quite uneven -- sloppy stagings, very green and/or excessively seasoned dancers.

The Russian National Ballet, directed by Elena Radchenko, is a cut above many of its rivals. The "Swan Lake" it danced at Montgomery College's Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center on Tuesday night was the real thing. It's a miniature production to recorded music, but it's lovingly presented. The dancers are beautifully schooled, and their dancing was as warm and personal as though they were performing at an intimate gathering for friends.

The Russian National Ballet Theatre of Moscow production, opening a two-month American tour at the Cutler Majestic last Friday, revealed something about the ballet’s reworked choreographic history but left its iconic attributes submerged.
....
This performance made the right superficial motions, but the standard was low, and I looked for explanations. For one thing, the Majestic stage is too small to accommodate a large-scale ballet. At times an ensemble of 24 dancers did squeeze on, but whenever they moved out of their positions, the movement looked cramped and cut off.

In Queens, the Russian National Ballet's Lyrically Pining Swans and Princes
by JENNIFER DUNNING for the New York Times

The most interesting cast member was Ruslan Mukhambetkaliev, a very young and untried-seeming Prince Siegfried with a long, lyrical body line and buoyant jumps. His fourth act was more "Giselle" than "Swan Lake," more a passionately exhausted Albrecht than Siegfried, but it worked.

published: April 17, 2006

Sleeper - The Russian National Ballet’s Beauty

Last weekend, the young (founded in 1999) troupe was back at the Cutler Majestic Theatre for three performances — two of Romeo and Juliet and one of The Sleeping Beauty — .... there was much to applaud, starting with the Russian National Ballet Theatre Orchestra .... As a drama, however, this Beauty slept. .... And the dancing faltered.