Omaha World-Herald from Omaha, Nebraska • 92

ns 02 tdO HJ 3 XJ T3 CO 10 ebruary 14 performed be A part of the American Lupe Serrano wowed the Leningrad audience were good if not unreservedly en thusiastic and as the tour gained steam it swept the Russians along with its verve and dash Everywhere they went the Amer icans found that the Russians had a child like interest in them both as people and as dancers and Russian ballet performers were entranced by the American techniques Remarkable Speed WHEN ballet master ernand Nault put 14 boys and seven girls through a routine class in Leningrad the as proud of their bal let as they are of their sputniks nodded approvingly at the lithe per formances at the exercise barre The Russians were especially fas cinated by the pirouettes which Americans execute with remarkable speed And they were amazed that the American girls could perform steps normally assigned in Russia only to male dancers A performance of with dancer John Kriza decked not a Broadway lead in es pecially caught the Russian fancy Said Mr Kriza of the Russians: "The people were just wonderful friendly and inquisitive I have missed the trip for Americans Work Harder THE Russian ballet critic of the Leningrad Pravda was impressed Wrote he the next day: "or her (Miss Serrano) technical difficulties do not seem to exist there is a real freedom of ease and virtuosity Such often used expressions as of and become exactly the right words to be used in describing her Officials of the American Ballet Theatre after a chance to compare Amei ican and Russian dancing came home last October convinced that bal let performers in the Western world work harder than their Soviet coun terparts The Russians gasped when we told them we work five hours daily They probably work only two or said one "Our soloists dance sev eral times a week even twice an eve ning Theirs may dance only three times a When the Americans told of their gruelling schedule of 47 one night stands through smaller cit ies this winter the Russians were astonished But they were gratified at the nationwide interest in the art The current tour began January 15 in Newark and it was touch and go whether or not the scenery costumes and musical mate rial would arrive in time from Mos group strolls in front of thn Rnlchn Moscow to the ballet what Yankee Stadium is to baseball To Dance in Omaha NOW patrons of the ballet in Nebraska and Western Iowa will be able to see what it was that im pressed the Russians masters of the ballet when the American Ballet The atre performs at the City Auditorium Music Hall the night of Day ebruary 14 John Kriza Lupe Serrano Ruth Ann Koesun Scott Douglas Toni Lander and fellow dancers singled out by critics of Pravda Izvestia the Young Stalinist Soviet Culture and other Russian publications will head line the one hundred member com pany here There were groans moans and cries of when it was announced last spring that the American Ballet Theatre was to introduce American ballet to the Soviet Union The State cultural exchange pro gram was doomed to failure held many New York critics Russia the Mecca of ballet prob ably would hoot the young Americans right into Siberia Yet the initial reviews in Russia Americans Kept on Their Toes By Hollis Limprecht W1I0D think of sending the Oak Street Tigers of the Peewee League to New York to show the mighty Yankees how to play base ball? Nobody really But that is almost comparable to what happened in bal let circles last year when the Amer ican Ballet Theatre troupe went oft to Russia to show the Soviets bmv they perform And far from appearing presumptu ous the Americans were a tremen dous success drawing high praise from Moscow ballet critics who are accustomed to the best and nothing but the best Even more surprising was the fact that the American Ballet Theatre troupe in its performances before go ing to Russia had been something I th AM man a biiiasiiiiig success in ew York City But like the true professionals they are members of the group took the harsh reviews of New York critics as a challenge to wow the Muscovites including Premier Nikita Khrushchev who was one of a standing room only crowd of 12 thousand to attend the final performance in the Moscow Sports Palace last October 23 This performance for Mr Khru shchev and other Kremlin officials was the high spot of a six weeks en gagement in Russia that had its tri umphs and its tears fore the Russians during last triumphant or raven haired Chilean born bal lerina Lupe Serrano the climax carne on the bare stage of the Leningrad House of Culture She had just com pleted a stunning solo in the pas de deux from "Don Seven curtain calls failed to satisfy the crowd which was screaming the Russian equivalent of When their applause turned into the rhythmical clapping that Rus sians save for their favorites Miss Serrano did not know what to do never do encores" she ex plained was torn between the Rus sian habit and the policy of our com pany and 1 want to seem un gracious but our stage manager told me 1 would have to go out again so I It was the first encore in the 20 year history of the American Bal let Theatre John Kriza and Ruth Ann Koesun who will appear at the City Auditorium Music Hail tour cow or although the group returned to New York October 25 the bag gage ran afoul of what must be typ ical Russian transportation facilities Before leaving Moscow for the flight home the management of the American Ballet Theatre made all ar rangements (or so it thought) for the shipment of its stage property The gear was to have been carried by truck from Moscow to Leningrad there to be loaded on a ship due to arrive in New York November 23 The date arrived and so did the ship but not the property Co director Lucia Chase hurried off a cable followed by several frantic transatlantic telephone calls to learn that the property was shipped not by truck but by rail And not the next day but a week or so later A search of Leningrad warehouses failed to locate the valuable material and Miss Chase became frantic More time passed with more searches It finally turned up in Leningrad on December 2 and was routed to a So viet ship bound for Antwerp there to be transferred to a Dutch ship bound for New York to arrive just in time for rehearsals But such annoyances haven't dimmed Miss enthusiasm for the Russian audiences Her troupe has been invited to return some time and her reply was: can hardly fV V': A So i ftY? jk i If BSBBSJB XvXb 1 SB 'US SB 1BI SB SBl HWr IBS 'Jm wit ntfS 3 sKs AtMLJtp Wit fiH 0 (M BMhSV 1 Wf aUHX'' a II 1'.