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Web posted December 1, 1996
By Bill Syken
Staff Writer
Asked what stands out about her fellow Augusta Ballet dancer Valeri Salnikov, Bon Ellis searched for the right words to describe the Russian's dancing, finally pronouncing it ``on the edge.''
``Some dancers are very conservative,'' she said. ``Val goes for it.''
That description seems apt when Mr. Salnikov tells a story about his adventure in an Augusta parking lot. He and a woman had been dining out with a friend. As they went into the parking lot they saw another driver accidentally ram the friend's car.
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The driver started to pull away, and Mr. Salnikov ran after him. The driver wouldn't stop - until Mr. Salnikov dived through the open window of his car.
Yes, it seems he goes for it.
Despite such episodes, all Mr. Salnikov is really going for right now is a calm, steady place to be.
At 28, he's had an active life - serving in the Russian army, touring with the Kirov Ballet, leaving his homeland.
He has been in the United States for two years, and for the past year he has been in Augusta as principal dancer and teacher with the Augusta Ballet. He'd like to settle down for a while.
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``I wish I will stay here, as long as it is possible,'' he said.
Mr. Salnikov, despite his car-diving escapades, comes across as an easygoing person. He likes to keep the door of his small, sparsely decorated apartment open as an invitation to outsiders. All anecdotes, whether they end well or poorly, are told as adventures.
Some of Mr. Salnikov's rougher adventures came during his mandatory army service. Just out of ballet school, he was a sergeant in a platoon of fellow artists who shared a distaste for the military. At night they would sing anti-war songs together. One bright side of the difficult circumstances was that they taught each other about music, dance and theater.
When stationed in rural areas, he often found himself getting in fights with ``rednecks'' who ``couldn't just fight, they always take knife or stool,'' he said.
After the army he joined the Kirov Ballet. He worked with the dancers and choreographers he had read about in magazines. Some of the musicians he performed with he now sees on compact discs in the Augusta Mall.
On tour, he saw Europe. During the Augusta Ballet's recent performance of Carmen he recalled visiting Seville and walking around the lively streets of the rough part of town in which the drama is set. As a tourist he always sought out such streets, believing the rich parts of those towns were all the same.
While at the Kirov, he met a choreographer who asked him to make three non-Kirov performances. He knew doing so would upset the Kirov, but he admired the choreographer, so he went for it.
The third of those performances was in Genoa, Italy - the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, Mr. Salnikov notes with irony.
``My way to America start maybe in Genoa,'' he said.
He was fired from the Kirov for doing those outside performances. He found work in another Moscow company, but one unlike the Kirov, which he called ``the brain of the world.''
An agent found him work in St. Petersburg, Fla., but that stint ended unpleasantly in a conflict Mr. Salnikov said he still doesn't understand. Faced with the possibility of deportation, he was advised by a lawyer to move on.
He told the lawyer he wanted to go to a small company in a quiet city where he could teach and work on choreography as well as dance. The lawyer, who had ballet world connections, suggested Augusta.
Mr. Salnikov has brought a big, theatrical style to the stage, Ms. Ellis said. In the classroom, he can improve students' versatility by teaching them new styles of dance.
Each week he teaches a class in Russian character dance. His students sometimes have a hard time understanding what he says, but they've learned to follow his movements.
At times, the differences between Mr. Salnikov's style and that of other Augusta performers has been a source of conflict. Ms. Ellis demonstrated how on a certain move, for example, American dancers would hold their leg to the side, whereas Mr. Salnikov would pull it further back.
``We see it as something to be fixed,'' she said. ``He would see this as giving in: `If I went back to my teachers in Russia, they would say this is wrong.'''
Mr. Salnikov said he is ready to dance in whatever style is needed.
``I am trying not to show difference,'' he said. ``I am trying to show American style.''
His dream is the same of all dancers exposed to different styles. He would like to take elements of what he sees in different people's works and put together a ``dance of your life,'' he said.
This coming performance of The Nutcracker, in which he dances the lead male role of the Cavalier, does not carry any particular emotional weight for Mr. Salnikov, even though it's a Russian work. The Nutcracker is not as big a deal is Russia as it is here, and it not the same sort of Christmas tradition.
What Mr. Salnikov values of Russia he carries with him in music and literature, he said. Instead of a T-shirt that says, ``proud to be Russian,'' he would sooner wear one that says, ``Proud to be human.''
He recently visited New York's Russian neighborhood of Brighton Beach but found himself far from homesick.
He met Russians who reminded him of what he described as a weakness in his people - the tendency to say ``I am talented, but I have so much opposition I can't realize it.''
``What I like about America,'' he said, ``if you have an idea you can use it.''
- What: The Nutcracker
- When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday
- Where: Imperial Theatre, 745 Broad St.
- How much: $27, $23, $16.50, and $8.50. Student, senior, group discounts available.
- Phone: 722-8341 or 826-4721
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