Ballet troupes not all the same

To the editor:Thursday night's performance at the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall on Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus was lovely. The sets and costuming were beautiful, and the talented dancers did a beautiful job performing Petipa and Ivanov's "Swan Lake." I find it misleading, however, that the ballet company is touring the U.S. under the name "St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre."

Yuri Petukhov is the artistic director of the St. Petersburg State Academy Ballet Theatre, the troupe that performed in Cape Girardeau last week. Konstantin Tachkin's St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre performed at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield in the United Kingdom Thursday night, with the world-class prima ballerina Irina Kolesnikova dancing the roles of Odette/Odillia.

The St. Petersburg State Academy Ballet Theatre's U.S. tour is produced by Andrew S. Grossman of Columbia Artists Management of New York City. I guess Mr. Grossman figured that the Midwest audiences would be too unsophisticated to discern one Russian ballet company from another. The real SPBT is planning to bring Irina Kolesnikova and full orchestra to New York City in the near future.

CARLEA LASTRAPES, Cape Girardeau