* Vakhtang Chabukiani; Soviet Dancer, Choreographer

Vakhtang Chabukiani, 83, a Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer whose athletic ability and stage presence made him one of the heroes of the post-Bolshevik era in Russia. A native of Tiflis, now Tbilisi, he founded the Georgian State Ballet and headed it from 1958 to 1973 before running afoul of the bureaucracy. Ballets he choreographed included “The Heart of the Hills,” “Gorda,” “Othello” and “Etude.” On April 6 in Tbilisi, Georgia, according to the Itar-Tass news agency, which did not specify a cause of death.