Technically, it is the theater that has a name -- not the ballet company.
The name of the theater is "Mariinsky." Resident at the theater are an orchestra, an opera company, and a ballet company.
The appropriate name, then, for the ballet would be The Ballet Company of the Mariinsky Theatre, or the Mariinsky Ballet Company. The same is true for the opera company. Often both companies are named together: The Mariinsky Theatre of Opera and Ballet or The Opera and Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Likewise, the orchestra is just called the Orchestra. However, the Mariinsky Theatre website does include a parenthetical comment about the orchestra: "(also known as the Kirov Orchestra)."
The reason there are two names for the ballet company is that there have been two names for the theater. Before the communist revolution in 1917 it was the Mariinsky Theatre. After the revolution the name was changed to the Academic Theatre or the Academic State Theatre (a repudiation of the old institutions under the Czar). Then, in 1935, the theatre was renamed The Kirov Theatre, after the Mayor of Leningrad, Sergei Kirov.
Throughout most of the 20th century the world outside the Soviet Union knew only the name Kirov. It was the Kirov Theatre and its company, the Kirov Ballet that became symbols of the great tradition of Russian Classical Ballet.
Then came the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. The thousands of names that had been changed by the Soviet government were being changed back to their pre-1917 incarnations. The Kirov Theatre reverted back to the Mariinsky Theatre, and the world-renowned Kirov Ballet "ceased to exist."
In the new rough and tumble world of sprouting capitalism, the ballet and opera companies learned they had to earn money; they could no longer exist solely on government support. The "new" Mariinsky Ballet began to look to foreign tours for needed income. However, the "Mariinsky" Ballet was unknown -- it was the Kirov Ballet with the world-class reputation and the revered tradition. Similarly, all the existing CDs and videos of the orchestra, opera and ballet bore the name "Kirov."
The theater administration quickly decided to keep the well-known Kirov name for tours outside Russia, while inside Russia the name Mariinsky became used. The result is two names for the same company.
As years pass, more and more people are becoming familiar with the Mariinsky name and it is sometimes used outside Russia. For the 2003 world tour the ballet company is variously promoted as the Kirov, the Kirov-Mariinsky and the Mariinsky Ballet, depending on where the company is performing, who the audience is, and who wrote the promotional material.
However, no matter the name, in spite of a few shaky years in the 90's, the company has risen again to the level that arguably makes it the most outstanding ballet in the world today.
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