PITTSFIELD -- Michael Wyly stands in the second-floor studio at Maine Central Institute, admiring the high ceiling and large, quiet space.

It will soon will be filled with young ballet dancers, moving gracefully across the room under the direction of the man he believes to be among the best ballet instructors in the world.

"I think we've got some very talented young people here," says Wyly, executive director and founder of the Bossov Ballet Theatre. "They get personal attention. I tell them, 'I hope you appreciate what you're getting.' I don't think anybody does it any better than we do."

The Bossov Ballet, which presents its annual "The Nutcracker" shows at the Waterville Opera House starting Friday, might seem an unlikely passion for Wyly, a 1962 Annapolis graduate and retired U.S. Marine colonel.

Not so, he says. Ballet and the armed forces share many of the same principals and lessons. In the Marines, officers are dependent on you to make independent decisions; for example, when they dump you out of a helicopter, "you're in charge, make it happen," he said.

"The things I didn't know how to do -- that didn't mean I couldn't do them," Wyly said.

Wyly also thinks of the drawing of the stage curtain is much like "the line of departure," a term Wyly draws from his Marine days to describe the moment when "a certain relinquishment happens, when you cross that line of departure."

At that moment, there is nothing more for the teacher or trainer to do; it is up to the student to act independently and get the job done, Wyly said.

"I'm a lifetime Marine, and that lends itself to this. I respect their standard," Wyly said.

Starting a company

Wyly's interest in ballet began at a time of war. It was 1967 and he was in between two tours of duty in Vietnam, stationed in Washington, D.C. On Feb. 27, he decided he wanted to do something to celebrate his 27th birthday.

"It was sloppy cold and rainy; I was unmarried and had nothing to do," Wyly said. "So I picked up a Washington Post and saw a picture of a ballerina in a tutu."

He went to the ballet performance: "It lifted me up unexpectedly. The costumes were beautiful, the music was electrifying. I came away from the ballet feeling a whole lot better than when I went."

Wyly later married and had two girls, both of which were enrolled in ballet. After his retirement in 1991, Wyly and his family moved to central Maine and his youngest daughter, Summer, continued to take ballet classes. He looked at other ballet schools in Maine for Summer, but none seemed to offer the discipline and attention to detail she wanted.

That's when he heard about Andrei Bossov coming to perform in Waterville. "I immediately recognized it as the real thing," Wyly said.

Andrei Bossov, 55, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academic Ballet School and went on to become a dancer and choreographer for the renowned Kirov Ballet Company in St. Petersburg, later founding The Chamber Kirov Ballet.

Using his colonel's pension, Wyly enrolled Summer under Bossov's instruction full-time at his newly established ballet company. But by Christmas 1995, the company had to close and Bossov returned to Russia.

Wyly knew he had to get Bossov back to the U.S. That happened in 1996, and Wyly decided to back the creation of the Bossov Ballet Theatre. The company started out offering ballet summer camp in Waterville; regular classes were held at The Center in downtown.

But The Center was attracting retail businesses and the ballet company needed a new studio. Wyly contacted the new headmaster at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield and requested space to run a summer ballet program. But the independent school asked the ballet company to stay year-round, Wyly said. The partnership enables ballet dancers to also attend regular classes at MCI.

At the time, Wyly didn't know what would happen to the program. Suddenly, Bossov had 50 dancers who had signed up for his instruction.

"Andrei's name got dancers (from across the country) and I didn't know where we were going with this," Wyly said. "I had no idea I'd be doing this a decade later. When I came up here to MCI, I thought I'd drop Andrei and leave. It wasn't as simple as that."

The future

Bossov, Wyly said, amazes his colleagues to this day with his ability to work well with dancers, from scratch, during a five-week period. And that's where the Marine-ballet comparison breaks down: For most of these dancers, there is not a "boot camp" before they report for duty at the ballet studio.

But Bossov's teaching and directorial style is distinct and effective, Wyly said. As artistic director for the company, Bossov "likes to be free to create," Wyly said.

"It's autocratic; everyone listens to Andrei," Wyly said. "It's sort of a genius style. Andrei can take anybody and teach them to dance."

Wyly isn't really looking to increase the number of dancers -- he's drawing the line at 64 for the summer program -- but rather increase the quality of ballet. Now, the company's core dancing team has 15 members during the school year, hailing from parts of the U.S. such as Alabama, Texas and Utah, and one from Uzbekistan.

That will mean higher standards for dancers through auditions and, if the company collect more money, more instructors. Now, the ballet company employs professional dance instructors originally from Russia: Natalya Nikolaevna, Anna Karpova, and Vladimir Karpov.

"I'm putting more emphasis on quality," Wyly said, adding that he believes it's possible for any serious dancer to meet that standard. "When I bring people in for auditions I don't care where they come from."

Wyly says he'll continue to manage the company for the foreseeable future because "this is now kind of like my baby -- I'd be afraid to entrust it to someone else."

For now, Wyly's said looking forward to the "Nutcracker" performances.

"Watching Andrei in rehearsals since September, I see him as dead-serious and demanding as ever," Wyly said. "What comes out on the other end, when he gets this way, is more beauty, more cleverness and more laughter."

Scott Monroe -- 487-3288, 861-9253

smonroe@centralmaine.com