Remembering a Ballet Legend in Russia; a Monkey Census in Nepal
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You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. In a few minutes, we'll hear why they're counting monkeys in Nepal. But first, a towering figure in the ballet world has died. The Russian choreographer Yuri Grigorovich was 98. He ran Moscow's world-famous Bolshoi Theater during the last three decades of the Soviet Union.

From Moscow, NPR's Charles Maines tells us about the man whose productions were wildly popular at home, but also potent weapons in the Cold War culture wars.

Yuri Grigorovich was born and raised in Stalinist Russia, but came to prominence amid the more hopeful political fall that followed, a time when a new generation tried to move past an era defined by repressions, war, and pervasive Soviet dogma, including in the arts, says Simon Morrison, a scholar of Soviet ballet at Princeton University. When he came onto the scene, Soviet ballet was stuck in this style known as drambalette. Drambalette.

Trimble-et was known for its didactic plots, pantomime gestures, and folk movements. ♪

In contrast, Morrison says Grigorovich, a dancer by training, mirrored younger Soviets growing confidence in the future with brash new productions that literally soared. And this really kind of, you know, appealed in the sense that what was going on on stage looked physically not only adventurous, but incredibly, you know, athletic, virtuosic, muscular, you know, kind of dangerous at times.

He staged his earliest works in his native Leningrad, modern-day St. Petersburg, but was later recruited by Soviet authorities to lead Russia's premier theater, the Bolshoi, in Moscow, where he unveiled propulsive productions like Spartacus. ♪

If ballet had a reputation as a feminine art form, Grigorovich added prominent roles for men, attracting admirers of both sexes, says ballet fan Svetlana Staryas. Those dancers, they were like, you know, colors, which he used as an artist to create these wonderful paintings.

Staris was one of several thousand people lined up to pay their respects outside the Bolshoi Theatre in downtown Moscow on Friday, sharing memories of their first time seeing Grigorovich's versions of The Nutcracker or Swan Lake, productions that became international sensations. We are opening the tour with the ballet Ivan Grozny.

We're opening our tour with the ballet Ivan the Terrible. In the height of the Cold War, Grigorovich, heard speaking here in a Soviet-era documentary, took his stagings to the West and showcased Soviet supremacy better than any missile ever could. Simon Morrison says Grigorovich's productions appealed to audiences grown tired of abstract dance than in vogue in the West. And so the Bolshoi would go out and they had these huge companies, you know, hundreds of dancers, big sets, and they were telling these big stories.

And a lot of the people would say, oh, it's kind of kitschy. But the storytelling, people really missed it. But excellence came at a price. Back in Moscow, some chafed at what was rumored to be Grigorovich's dictatorial bent. It was

his refusal to expand the repertoire or give others the opportunity. Moscow ballet critic Leila Guchmasova argues for all Grigorovich's talents, his theater was a product of the society he lived in. You can't expect the ballet to be more democratic, more open than what's beyond its doors. Grigorovich ultimately parted ways with the Bolshoi in 1995, but his influence never waned.

He returned as lead choreographer in 2012 amid a wider push by Russian President Vladimir Putin to celebrate Soviet cultural glory. Kuchmazova, the ballet critic, says the Bolshoi and ballet have always played a strange role in the country's political culture. And even with his passing, Yegorovich remains a link to a gentler side of Russian power in less than gentle times. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.

Next, we're going to Nepal, where for years people have been complaining about monkeys. They steal food from people's homes and farms. So to understand how bad the monkey problem is, the government of Nepal is undertaking a monkey census. But counting monkeys isn't easy.

With reporting from Ranesh Bhandari in Kathmandu, NPR's Omkar Kandikar in Mumbai tells us more. At a crowded marketplace, Samuna Shrestha guards her fruit shop with a slingshot.

She's got her eye on two monkeys scratching themselves on a nearby rooftop. She says she can't take her eyes off them for even a second or they will swoop right in. Their favourite thing to steal is bananas. But even mango juice or cheese balls will do.

Such thieving monkeys are on the loose across Nepal. News channels report on their troops besieging villages, storming into kitchens and farms and feasting on fruits and corn. Locals say they have tried chasing them with sticks, hurling firecrackers, blasting loud music. Some municipalities have tried to catch and relocate monkeys into the forests. Nothing's worked.

So last month, Nepal tasked a team of 18 zoologists and wildlife experts to do the country's first ever monkey census. Dr. Hari Prasad Sharma is the census coordinator. He says the team visits neighborhoods with known monkey populations, counts them individually, and calculates an average. But it's not been easy. When they see us, then they always become angry. So he says while counting monkeys, his team avoids making eye contact with them.

The first phase of the census, which focuses on the worst affected areas, will end in October. Policymakers will then figure out what to do. Sharma says monkeys entered human settlements because humans entered theirs. They cut down fruit trees, exploited water bodies and caused global warming. He says it's a man-made problem. But we are blaming other animals. Yet monkeys get a bad name. Omkar Khandekar, NPR News, Mumbai.

That's The State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.

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