RUSSIAN BALLERINA HIDING IN U.K.

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 2

RUSSIAN BALLERINA HIDING IN U.K.

fN Z.P.d -Beutcr—CopuriphO LONDON, Sept. 5. Soviet authorities in Britain have been refused permission to see the ballerina, Natalia Makarova, now in hiding, a senior Soviet Embassy official said tonight.

The Soviet embassy ealier today sought permission to contact the 30-year-old Russian dancer who deserted the Kirov Ballet Company yesterday and sought permission to stay in Britain. “Our request for access to see her has not been allowed. It is a disappointment," the official said in the foyer of the Festival Hall where the Kirov Company was giving its last performance of its London tour. British officials later said: “It is of course Madame Makarova who decides whether she wants to meet Soviet Embassy officials or not." The Foreign Office earlier today had passed on the embassy’s request to her through the Home Office. Mrs Makarova wanted to stay in Britain for personal and emotional reasons, not for political or professional ones, her agent said tonight. Mr Victor Hochhauser, impressario for most Russian cultural exchanges with Britain, and a personal friend of the 30-year-old dancer, said her action yesterday was based on “an impulsive and sudden decision.”

He hinted that there were romantic reasons for her decision to stay, but denied that Mrs Makarova, who was recently married for the second time in Russia, had any serious boy friend in Britain. He said, “It was an impulse made in the company of friends,” and suggested those

friends may be providing her hideaway in Britain. The rapidity of her decision was shown by her purchase of a car on Thursday for her use in Russia, Mr Hochhauser said. She had bought and paid for the car in cash at the Russian Trade Delegation, the day before she applied to stay in Britain. Mr Hochhauser said her rea. sons for staying in Britain were certainly not political, and he could see no professional gain for her living in Britain or the West. “She was very wealthy, one of the greatest ballerinas in the world, if not the greatest, and very happy and healthy.” Mr Hochhauser said he did

not know where she was, but could find her within a few days. He expected her to contact him, and she might emerge from her hiding place soon afterwards. Asked if the defection

would be likely to damage Anglo-Soviet cultural relations, Mr Hochhauser said he hoped not, but feared it would lead to tighter restrictions on the freedom of future Russian tours to Britain. He said Mrs Makarova was a fun-loving person who liked the clubs and restaurants of London. She and other members of the company had been given tremendous freedom on their current tour. Mrs Makarova’s husband is an engineer in Leningrad where the Kirov Ballet Company is based, he said.

United Press International reported from Moscow that knowledgeable ballet circles there said that the defection was probably due to personal artistic reasons, not political ones.