  We define and study the variety of reductions for a reductive symmetric pair
(G,theta), which is the natural compactification of the set of the Cartan
subspaces of the symmetric pair. These varieties generalize the varieties of
reductions for the Severi varieties studied by Iliev and Manivel, which are
Fano varieties.
  We develop a theoretical basis to the study these varieties of reductions,
and relate the geometry of these variety to some problems in representation
theory. A very useful result is the rigidity of semi-simple elements in
deformations of algebraic subalgebras of Lie algebras.
  We apply this theory to the study of other varieties of reductions in a
companion paper, which yields two new Fano varieties.
