The world might not need it, but the world of Russian ballet does need it! It's very difficult, impossible, to move forward without remembering your past. And unfortunately in Russia, a whole period of choreography has been lost. In other countries people cherish their heritage--Ashton in England, Balanchine in America. In Russia, young people don't even know who Vasily Vaynonen was. He was one of the better choreographers of the 20th century, up with the greatest names. This was a very important ballet for Russia and marks an important stage of the development of the art.

Also, before every leader of every ballet company there's always a question of what to stage next. I thought that for us it would be important to stage this ballet and give these interesting parts to our dancers. There are important roles for our principals and for many of our demi soloists and soloists as well. We have a small company by Russian standards. The Bolshoi and Mariinsky have between 300 and 400 dancers. In this ballet, we have about 100 dancers on stage. I want to give good work to all of my dancers, roles that that fit their strengths, and this ballet allows me to do that.

How did you restore this ballet?

I preserved whatever it was possible to preserve of Vaynonen's original choreography. Unfortunately, a number of sections of the ballet have disappeared completely so it was impossible to restage them as they were. But I was able to recreate parts using television and film shot in the 1950's that shows a number of scenes from the ballet. They don't show the ballet completely, but to a stager it's a great help. You can see most of the actors in the ballet and understand their characteristics. I was taught some of the dances by my teachers at the Bolshoi, who taught me the parts they danced. My teachers at the High College of Performing Arts in Moscow taught me the "freedom dance" from the finale. My mother and uncle (who both danced with the Bolshoi) also danced in the ballet's first cast when it was brought from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1933, and they taught me a lot about the choreography. I actually saw the ballet in the early 1960's in Moscow and even danced one of the children's parts in the ballet as a child. I love this ballet. It's one of my first and best impressions of the art form. The Nutcracker was the only ballet I saw first, but that was choreographed by Vaynonen as well, so I think I must like him a lot.

But not everything was preserved so I tried to fill it in in the style of Vaynonen. I tried to put myself in his place. How would he do things now if he were to restage things today?