flashpoint 01 cast-Wes The defection of Bolshoi dancer Alexander Godunov chain a series of hizarre events which culminated in his wife, the ballerina Ludmila Vlasova, being trapped on her plane for three days.
She was the victim kidnap by the KGB whisked her to the waiting plane, and the CIA who refused to let the plane take off. Eventually allowed to return to a hero's welcome in the USSR - having rejected the decadent West!
Alexander Godunor now string detectors USSR who include Rudoiph Nureyer, Natalia Makarova, Valery and Galina Panor, and the great Baryshnikov. All are portrayed by the Kremlin bureaucrats as traitors who have soid out to the West for vast financial rewards.
Big names But while it is true that fortunes can and Baryshnikos are examples. is not the mitin reason why ballet dancers defect. Aller all. Alivander Godunor was one of the Bolshoi's three principal dancers. Iw0 other less well placed dancers, I conid and Valentina Movior, also defected during their American tour.
Russian ballet world's thinking on dance during the first three decades of this century -not merely its long history and the lyIn century development of classical ballei, such as Swan Lake and the Sleeping Beaury, bur also its experimenta. aspect. further under the great Diaghiles, encompass the great dancers such ar Kurdis Viinksi and HOTE with Folkine arid Isadora Duncan.
Tothe kremiin today such freedom of expression in the arts is anathema. The creative arts struggle for human political ircedom. Every newness or experimentation becomes for the the Stalinists have created.
Status symbol Part of ihe consolidation of the bureaucracy wasthe attempt in freeze society and Russian ballet went from being one of the most experimental and exciting in the world to a situation where today it has only small provides little room development of the individual artists.
Ballet set in of a double who had Vlasova was Joins from the *Misha' Nureyer • this while dominated the This was taken guidance of the able Misine. and symbolise the and sign thus Kremalin a deadiy political order the SOCWICIO power abroad.
culture. Thus appears as freedom.
people as repertoire and Tudor. MacMillan, for the Instead of being an art form, the status palet nas become merely a symbol for the bureaucratic dictators take foreign dignitaries, a representative of Soviet To Russian dancers, the 'West' heaven of They development of new ballets by such Robbins, Balanchine, and Petit; the existence of companies like Martha Graham's; and the diverse repertoires of all leading 'Western' companies -whether be the London or the New York City Ballet.
The life of a dancer is short, reaching its peak between the ages of 25 and 33, and this adds urgency to Russian dancers who see themselves being by-passed bytheir art while they remain in the Soviet Union. On the olher hand, the 'security" looked after lor life in the Russian companies contrasts lavourably, with the was bringine in the money "free market' the "West' La Baryshnikov plain: Box office over and S250 seats dynamic The mobilising warning to in art's sake!' well be straitjacket Royal Ballet the cash register turn their masters.
audience.
of being which outside.
This consideration is said to have influenced Ludmila Vlasova's decision to return home; she was older than Godunov and had less io gain on the There is of course the other side of Undoubtediy every defecior of the quality of a Nureyer or sees impresarios the world nver rubbing their hand in anticipation of the box office receipts. Ballet is hig business. Alan LeMond's book Bravo Baryshnikov! makes ihis 'He was hox office. Only a little month after his arrival (detection), all his performances were sold out, some even before the flyers were printed. The S15, $25, and $35 seats were gone first. Still available -for a shori while — were the $50. $100 the ones the general public could seldom afford.
It is a terrible reflection on the nature of the Soviet bureaucracy that it has been unable to create a more society, culturally and otherwise, than decaying capitalism.
possibilities that exist for resources mean that Russian arts should stand head and shoulders above those of the 'West'.
Instead the narrow-minded bureaucratshave attempted tocutthe lite our of the creative arts by tying them to serve only their interests - that is, remaining in power. This is a terrible those sociansis who culture' or 'socialist realism', or making the arts In fact only a socialist economic system will make realisabie the only principle worth supporting - "art for Alexander Godunov and Leonid and Valentina Kozlor may lionised and hecome superstars of the Nureyer category, but you have to keep on being 'how The Soviet hutcancrane sapitaim by the insplant tinkle et replaced Both trap the artist, making them pertormance from the audience towards their rea!
Neither nor capitalism can fulfil the artist or the overthrown, decaying capitalism will until both continue to exert a big pull on Soviet artists who see the very real wider degree of artistic freedom that exists
----- pull-quotes -----
"serve the people' Trapped