DANCE REVIEW : NEW CAST IN BOLSHOI’S ‘GOLDEN AGE’

If the second performance of the Bolshoi Ballet’s “Golden Age,” Wednesday in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, had a spectacular new dimension of ‘20s oomph, credit Maria Bilova in the role of the doomed flapper-moll, Lyushka, and nobody else.

Certainly the romantic leads in the ballet (Alla Mikhalchenko as Rita, Irek Mukhamedov as Boris) were the same as on opening night, and the new villain, Alexei Lazarev, offered no improvement on the performance of his predecessor.

No, it was Bilova who made the difference. Looking like the young Lotte Lenya and projecting the same defiant depravity, she threw herself into the non-classical challenges of the role--the Charleston steps on pointe, the mock-innocent period mannerisms, the restless, twisty body language--with irresistible energy, style and wit.

But while establishing herself as a born-to-be-bad “It Girl,” Bilova also managed to keep her long, long legs perfectly aligned in classical extensions and thus continually remind us of the rigorous academic underpinnings of her devil-may-care dancing.

As the corrupt Yashka, Lazarev exuded malignant intensity and threw himself into the forceful gymnastics of the role: those cantilevered turning leaps terminating in high martial-arts kicks, for instance, and the sudden, feral rolling on the floor.

But if utterly believable as a violent thug, Lazarev proved less convincing as a professional nightclub entertainer. Many of the daring partnering displays (with both Mikhalchenko and Bilova) went badly, and two of his lifts were near-disastrous.

As on Tuesday, Stanislav Chasov danced the M.C. (with his own problems of technical control on this occasion) and Alexander Lavrenyuk conducted.