Music: Nijinsky's Heirs

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No Frills. For balletomanes who know the Bolshoi, the Kirov offers a striking contrast. Where the Bolshoi is flamboyant, dramatic and unabashedly fond of popular acclaim, the Kirov is precise, understated, a trifle aristocratic. The Bolshoi's prima ballerina may dash the length of the stage to leap into Prince Siegfried's arms with breathtaking drama in the Black Swan pas de deux of Swan Lake; Zubkovskaya takes a few brief steps and makes the leap with a rippling grace that is equally breathtaking. The Kirov's tempo is more often a stately adagio than a flashy presto, and the spectacular is always shunned for the stylistic. But as the visitors spin through their tour, audiences from Manhattan and Montreal to San Francisco and Los Angeles are likely to continue queueing up at the box office.