Ballet Cold War

Lines formed before the Paris Opera box office, and black marketeers sharked tickets at ten times their original prices.

Parisians, recalling the magic of the name "Ballets Russes" from the Diaghilev days, were excitedly preparing to look at the first performance in Western Europe by a sizable (50 members) Soviet ballet troupe. But the day before the opening, news came that Dienbienphu had fallen to Moscow's Communist allies in Indo-China. While defeated on the military front and retreating on Geneva's diplomatic front, the French stiffened on the ballet front.

Government officers heard that a group of Foreign Legionnaires had taken a block of seats in order to break up the Soviet ballet's opening, and prudently decided to postpone the event. This gave them time to consider their dilemma: on the one hand, to cancel the spectacle would be diplomatically discourteous; on the other, it would be better to be inhospitable than to offer armed hospitality, with police inside the theater.

Meanwhile, the Russian company stopped its closely guarded rehearsals and the dancers happily scattered to do some sightseeing. They made careful notes on historical details, placed flowers on the tombs of Victor Hugo and Chopin, visited a cellar nightclub (and were so startled by the boisterous interest their appearance created that they rushed back to their hotel). Offstage, 44-year-old Ballerina Galina Ulanova was almost as much of a sensation as Paris expected her to be behind the footlights.

Then Premier Laniel made up his mind, announced that the Russian ballet would be postponed indefinitely. The press, and not alone the left-wing papers, jumped on Laniel's decision ("Your gesture is not French"). It was the first victory France had won against Communism in a long time--and few Frenchmen were proud of it. At week's end the troupe trooped to the airport, leaving behind it an accusing statement by the Russian dancers' Director Tchoulaki."Faced with this unfavorable attitude on the part of the French government," it read, "the Russian government has decided to recall the Soviet artists . . ."On the way home, the troupe would stop off for performances in East Germany. Philosophized a Soviet embassy official in Paris: "Eventually, everyone goes back to Moscow."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.