Throughout the Cold War, ballet was the gilded bridge that connected the USSR to the West. World leaders visiting Moscow were routinely taken to the Bolshoi Theatre, a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, to see the great Russian dancers, such as Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya. The latter described her experiences as being a bird in a golden cage, exhibited for the pleasure of visiting dignitaries. But if ballet was one of the few shared loves of leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain, events of recent days suggest that even this connection between Russia and the Western world is in danger of being shattered for good.
The Bolshoi ballet and its Mariinsky sibling have returned regularly since Soviet ballet was first showcased to the West in London in October 1956. But not this year. A proposed summer season by the Bolshoi at the Royal Opera House has been pulled before it was officially announced.
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