The Moiseyev Dance Company Tours America

During the Cold War, dancers and musicians from the United States and the USSR were drawn into the battle for hearts and minds, crossing the Iron Curtain to prove their artistic and ideological prowess. After the passage of the Lacy-Zarubin Agreement, direct cultural exchange between the two superpowers opened up, and the Moiseyev Dance Company arrived in the United States in 1958. The first Soviet cultural representatives to tour America, this folk-dance troupes repertoire included dances from territories controlled or influenced by the USSR, including Uzbekistan, Crimea, and Poland. Drawing on contemporary personal and published accounts, Victoria Hallinan explores why the dancers garnered overwhelming acclaim during their multicity tour and Ed Sullivan Show appearance. The boy-meets-girl love stories of the dances, and their idealized view of multiple Soviet cultures living together in harmony, presented a comforting image of postWorld War II gender norms and race relations for audiences. Americans saw the dancerstheir supposed enemiesas humans rather than agents of communist contagion.