The Russians are Dancing!

The performers can seemingly fly.

But will the production?

Sergei Radchenko, a Russian ballet icon versed in the gaming vernacular of Las Vegas, is betting on it.

"It will be a jackpot for us and for the people of Las Vegas," Radchenko said during a phone interview from Phoenix, where his Russian National Ballet performed during its sprawling tour of North America. "We will all come out winners."

The jargon might seem trite, but the message comes from the heart.

"This is my life," Radchenko said. "I want to show the passion of my life."

Embarking on its first tour of North America, the Russian National Ballet performs a full three-act version of Peter llich Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty," Tuesday and Wednesday at UNLV's Artemus Hamm Hall.

The ballet's appearances are part of the Charles Vanda Master Series, presented through UNLV's Performing Arts Center. Over the past few years, the series has showcased productions from the St. Petersburg Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, the Kirov Ballet and, most recently, the Moscow Festival Ballet.

But despite the confidence of Radchenko, honed during his years as a principal dancer for the legendary Bolshoi Ballet, unqualified success for the Russian National Ballet in Las Vegas is not a certainty.

In October 1997, the series featured performances of the Moscow Festival Ballet's "Giselle" on consecutive nights and didn't approach selling out the 1,870-seat Hamm Hall either night. Radchenko is also the artistic director of the Moscow Festival Ballet and helped arrange for the tour.

"It wasn't good news as far as tickets for those performances," UNLV Director of Performing Arts Myron Martin said. "The truth is, we only had about one-third capacity the first night and one-half the second."

Radchenko said: "I only recall the audiences being very enthusiastic."

Even the most identifiable and acclaimed ballet company in the world, the Bolshoi, was not a significant draw at the Aladdin Performing Arts Center in October 1996.

Dancing to universally laudatory reviews during a 12-performance run (in which they showcased "Swan Lake," "Don Quixote" and "La Sylphide,") the Bolshoi reportedly drew no more than 3,000 patrons to the 7,000-seat theater on any night.

"There's a lot of interest in traditional ballet, but the size of the venue matters," Margo Mink Colbert, director of the ballet department at UNLV, said. "The Aladdin was too big and the ticket prices ($300 for the closest seats) turned a lot of people off.

"The performances were wonderful, and I'm sure (the Russian National Ballet) is a wonderful group."

Colbert added that the "superstar syndrome" applies to ballet performers as it does any other entertainer playing Las Vegas.

"The biggest sell-outs for us was Mikhail Baryshnikov (in 1996) and Rudolph Nureyev (in 1990)," she said. "My impression in the past was always that a big name is the thing that does well."

But the local cultural climate, Martin said, has shifted dramatically in the past couple of years.

"People are more aware of what's going on, what cultural opportunities are, and are reacting," he said. "The opportunity to go to big arts events is prevalent here. A year ago, I was one who said there wasn't much culture here, but now we've got one of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world coming here and tickets are getting tight."

Tuesday's show is selling rapidly and Wednesday's should also easily exceed the attendance of the 1997 Moscow Festival Ballet performances.

"By (Monday), you'll have trouble getting two tickets together downstairs for the Tuesday show and we should have a lot of interest on Wednesday, too," Martin said. "The interest seems to be much greater now than it was before."

What can the audience expect?

"Traditional, classical Russian ballet," Radchenko, who became the Russian National Ballet's artistic director in 1994, said. "It is my obligation to make people see classical ballet, to bring it to their town so they have a chance to see it."

During the U.S. tour, critics have labeled Radchenko as much an entrepreneur as an artistic director, but he doesn't mind fusing his craft with capitalism.

"I'm using (the tour) as a chance to show people what Russian ballet really is," Radchenko said. "If you want to see it, this is it."

The 50-member Russian National Ballet, in the midst of a four-month, 72-city tour of North America, was formed in the wake of perestroika -- or "openness" -- in the late '80s.

The transitional period following the breakup of the Soviet Union allowed many of the region's foremost dancers and choreographers of the leading ballet institutions (including the Bolshoi and rival Kirov ballets) to exercise new-found creative freedom with smaller companies.

The Russian National Ballet (which, despite its title, is a privately funded company) has incorporated some of the finest dancers of the Bolshoi and Kirov ballets.

Ballet aficionados have noted that the Bolshoi highlights soloists, while the Kirov showcases more ensemble performances. The principal female in "Sleeping Beauty," Maria Bylova (who plays Princess Aurora), is a former Bolshoi student.

The principal male, Constantine Osin, is a product of the Moscow Classical Ballet company.

"We have principal dancers who are devoted to the basic traditional dance," Radchenko said. "They have significant heart, the heart of classical Russian dancers."

The "Sleeping Beauty" production is comparatively rudimentary when juxtaposed against the Bolshoi's extravagant 1996 performances, which featured 124 dancers, an 82-piece orchestra and elaborate stage scenery.

The Russian National Ballet is bringing a cast of 50. Aside from the dancers' costumes, there is no scenery. Tchiakovsky's musical score will be piped through the hall's sound system.

"I don't expect anything but a masterful dancing performance," Martin said. "I don't think you'd compare it to the Nevada Theater's 'Nutcracker.' There's one thing to focus on, and that's the dancing."

Which is, above all, Radchenko's forte.

"Some people might think that it is unfortunate with just costumes and without scenery," he said. "But it will not be bad to see. It will be good, very good, another type of culture for the people in Las Vegas to enjoy."

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