The famed Bolshoi Theater where Vladimir Vasiliyev's dancing once wowed audiences now threatens to fall down around him.

The struggles and compromises of running a troubled arts company in post-Soviet Russia are a far cry from the triumphs of life as an international ballet star.

Reviews have gone from glittering to glowering – a new version of "Swan Lake" was panned as "a banal family drama," and far smaller opera companies have upstaged Bolshoi productions rated as mediocre.

Backstage intrigue has rivaled onstage drama, and money is a constant obsession.

"It seemed everything would be simple, especially as I know this theater inside-out after 40 years of being associated with it," said Vasiliyev, general director of the Bolshoi Theater.

"My plans gave me wings, and I shared everything with everyone. I tried to motivate everyone. ... However, things turned out completely differently."

Tarnished image

Hailed for decades as a powerhouse of ballet and opera, the Bolshoi has seen its image badly tarnished in the last 10 years as it struggled with the perennial funding problems that plague most of post-Soviet Russia's great artistic institutions.

Scores of dancers and musicians have departed for better-paying positions abroad. The theater's majestic 19th century building has gone without urgently needed renovation. Vasiliyev once warned dramatically that the balcony might one day collapse.

Since assuming the theater's top post five years ago, he has remained steadfast in his commitment to bring about a renaissance at the Bolshoi.

"I'm an optimist. I believe that with perseverance and talent it is possible to achieve anything," he said. "No matter what the critics say, the main thing is to keep working. If one is capable of working, then everything is OK."

Meeting Vasiliyev in person, it is hard not to share his optimism. Just a month short of 60, he still sports a crop of blond hair and moves with the powerful grace of a dancer, radiating the charisma that won him acclaim in roles like "Spartacus."

He repeatedly affirms his dedication to the theater on whose stage he first stepped as a child in 1948 and refers unabashedly to it as a "great temple" that "shines with a brilliant light."

Visitors to Vasiliyev's office, filled with stately Empire furniture and a giant television, are put at ease with stories about his childhood, verses of his poetry and refreshments he seems to pull from air.

Vasiliyev is the first to admit his move into the director's office was not an easy one and says that had he known of all the problems lurking, he might have hesitated to take the job.

And while he says a government subsidy of $12 million a year is too little to support the theater and its staff of some 2,500, he notes that the toughest problems he has had to tackle have not always been financial ones.

Battle for control

In 1995, Vasiliyev became the head of the Bolshoi, replacing its former chief, the autocratic Yuri Grigorovich, who lost a behind-the-scenes struggle for control.

That struggle did not end after the ousting of Grigorovich – whom even admirers compared to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin during his iron-fisted 30-year tenure.

Some in the theater were openly hostile to the changes that Vasiliyev introduced, such as exchanging the old jobs-for-life policy for a contract system and updating the tired repertoire, much of which had been performed unchanged for 25 years.

He also tightened control over use of the Bolshoi name after disastrous "pirate" tours when performers only remotely associated with the theater damaged its credibility.

"The main problem with this theater is that everyone is great. Everyone who comes to you in this office, with very few exceptions ... thinks they are the best," Vasiliyev said.

The result was a period when he dictated changes he wanted. "I started pounding my fist on the table and said things will be this way or that and not any other way. But now I've learned to be more tolerant," he said.

"The one thing I did in the beginning that I still do today is listen to everyone. I try so that people don't leave frustrated with fists raised for a fight, so they leave knowing I support them."

But not all of Vasiliyev's critics have been won over. Some scoff at new additions to the repertoire, like George Balanchine's modern ballets and performances by Boris Eifman's avant-garde troupe, which they call inappropriate for the classic-oriented Bolshoi.

Vasiliyev's revision of the quintessential classic, "Swan Lake," was panned by one critic as "a banal family drama packed in swans' feathers." The New York Times blasted his plans to renovate the 144-year-old building as being "far fetched."

"Of course, it is difficult to hear criticism, but you don't need to argue – ever. The only way to convince someone you are right is with work. You have to prove them wrong," he said.

"If someone thinks I'm a bad ballet master, then I show them a second work and another and another. That's the only way."

Vasiliyev says packed performances prove that the changes are for the better, and he emphasizes that he is dedicated to pleasing audiences and not critics.

"Variety is very important for the Bolshoi because ... as an academic theater we must collect completely different styles and different directions," he said in defense of the new repertoire.

‘Such soul'

Lingering doubts about quality under Vasiliyev were dispelled during a London trip last summer. The Daily Telegraph newspaper declared: "Only the Bolshoi can show such soul."

Vasiliyev is equally emphatic about reconstruction plans that will cost at least $200 million.

He secured the support of the U.N. cultural organization UNESCO, which in 1993 adopted the theater as a flagship project in Russia and will hold an "International Day of Solidarity with the Bolshoi" on March 28 – the troupe's 224th birthday.

But before reconstruction can begin, the Bolshoi must find $72 million to complete work on its second stage, located in a new building just off the main theater's western flank.

The new 1,000-seat theater – half the size of the older – will house the company while reconstruction work is carried out and is eventually to be dedicated to more modern works.

"The second stage is as necessary to us as air. ... But to date we can't even say when we can move," Vasiliyev said, warning he might be forced to cancel performances.

"In theory it's not a bad idea. ... You need to scare people so things happen faster ... but it would mean that we would never gather everyone back together again."