Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917–1972, Volume VI, Public Diplomacy, 1961–1963

144. Memorandum From the Special Assistant to the President (Schlesinger) to President Kennedy¹

Washington, October 7, 1963.

SUBJECT

• The Robert Joffrey Ballet

I attach a memorandum from the State Department on the Joffrey Ballet. It makes the following points:

1) The decision to send the Joffrey Ballet to the Soviet Union² was recommended by the panel of dance experts set up by the Advisory Committee on the Department’s cultural exchange program.

2) The Rebekah Harkness Foundation is carrying the main expenses of the trip. The government is to pay less than 20 per cent of the $96,500 required to send the ballet to the Soviet Union.

3) The Joffrey Ballet toured the Middle East in the winter of 1962–63 for the State Department, and the tour was considered a considerable success. (There are press excerpts from various Portuguese and Middle Eastern papers at the end of the State Department memorandum.)

I also attach an enthusiastic review by the dance critic of the Washington Post.³

There was some unfortunate publicity about the Joffrey Ballet and the White House in Betty Beale’s column in the Sunday Star.⁴ Pam Turnure⁵ and I have been trying to track down the source of the story. All we have discovered is that, when Betty Beale went to a dinner before the Waltz Group Friday⁶ night (where some White House people, including Mac⁷ and myself, were present), she told Nancy Tuckerman⁸ immediately on arrival that she knew all about the ballet fiasco. She had therefore picked up the story between Wednesday morning and Friday evening. I am certain that neither of the State Department people with whom I took up the matter—Luke Battle and Frank Siscoe—would have mentioned it to anyone; nor did Pam, nor did Nancy, nor did I.

I note that “The Palace Music Hall”⁹ is going to be part of the program for the Soviet tour. If there had been no publicity, it might have been worthwhile to get them to substitute another number. In view of the publicity, dropping “The Palace Music Hall” would probably cause new problems.

Arthur Schlesinger, jr.¹⁰

Attachment
Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Read) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)¹¹

Washington, October 4, 1963.

SUBJECT

• Soviet Tour of the Robert Joffrey Ballet

At the request of Mr. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., I am attaching a memorandum concerning the Robert Joffrey Ballet, which performed at the White House on Tuesday, October 1, and is scheduled to begin a tour of the Soviet Union in Leningrad on October 15.

Benjamin H. Read¹²

Attachment
Memorandum Prepared in the Department of State¹³

Washington, undated.

SUBJECT

• Soviet Tour of the Robert Joffrey Ballet.

The Robert Joffrey Ballet was formed in 1955 and has subsequently made annual tours in the United States. The ballet toured several countries of the Near East from December 1, 1962 to March 7, 1963 under the auspices of the Cultural Presentations Program of the Department of State and the Rebekah Harkness Foundation, a private nonprofit organization which has given financial support to individuals and organizations in the fields of music, ballet, and medical research. Among those dance groups previously assisted by the Foundation was Jerome Robbins’ “Ballet USA”. Newspaper reports and those from the several Embassies indicated that the group was well received in the Near East. (See attached press excerpts.)¹⁴

The U.S.–U.S.S.R. exchanges program provides for reciprocal tours of major performing arts groups, and the Joffrey Ballet was considered by the Department of State as a possible attraction to be proposed to Goskontsert, the Soviet State Concert Agency, in exchange for the “Bolshoi Stars”. This group is only a portion of the Bolshoi company which last toured the United States in 1961,¹⁵ and this United States tour is also handled by Mr. Sol Hurok¹⁶ of New York. Since the Soviet Union has a long tradition in ballet, and in view of the successful tours of other American ballet companies (American Ballet Theatre in 1960 and the New York City Ballet in 1962), which introduced more recent forms of ballet to Soviet audiences, the Advisory Committee on the Arts of the State Department recommended that another ballet group be sent to the Soviet Union in return for the “Bolshoi Stars”.

The panel of dance experts responsible to the Advisory Committee on the Arts recommended the nomination of the Robert Joffrey Ballet for a Soviet tour. This panel was composed of: Mr. William Bales, Chairman, Dance Department, Bennington College; Miss Ann Barzell, Dance Critic, Chicago American; Dr. George Beiswanger, Georgia State College; Miss Isadora Bennett, Asia Society, Miss Emily Coleman, Dance Critic, Newsweek Magazine; Mr. Hy Faine, Executive Secretary, American Guild of Musical Artists; Mr. Alfred Frankenstein, Music and Dance Critic, San Francisco Chronicle; Miss Martha Hill, Chairman, Dance Department, Juilliard School of Music; Miss Lillian Moore, Dance Instructor and Dance Critic; Mr. John Rosenfield, Dance Critic, Dallas Morning News, and Mr. Walter Perry, Dance Critic, New York Herald Tribune.

Mr. S.V. Shaskin, Artistic Director of Goskontsert, visited New York City in early September to attend rehearsals of the group and to assist in the selection of programs for the Soviet tour. The tour consists of eight weeks and 54 performances, opens in Leningrad on October 15, and continues to Kharkov, Odessa, Donetsk, Kiev and Moscow. The financial arrangements were concluded between the American Embassy in Moscow and Goskontsert and provide for a weekly fee of $7,000 plus room, board, and other internal expenses and a portion of the international transportation costs. Mr. Hurok is also contributing to the international transportation costs. The remaining expenses of the ballet are being borne by the Foundation. It is contemplated that the net cost to the Cultural Presentations Program of the Department of State will be less than twenty percent of the total cost of $96,500 to send the Joffrey Ballet to the Soviet Union.

The Ballet plans to present three programs during the Soviet tour as follows:

(a) Caprices

Feast of Ashes

Gamelan

The Palace Music Hall

(b) Patterns

Dawn of Humanity

Sea Shadows

The Palace Music Hall

(c) Gamelan

Ropes

Pastorale

Caprices

These programs have been approved by Goskontsert which is now printing and distributing publicity materials listing the programs as shown.

1. Source: Kennedy Library, President’s Office Files, Staff Memoranda Series, Box 66, Schlesinger, Arthur 10/63. No classification marking.
2. The Joffrey Ballet, a prominent U.S. dance company, toured the Soviet Union between October 11 and December 9. (“Joffrey Ballet Goes to Soviet,” The New York Times, October 11, 1963, p. 62; Theodore Shabad, “Robert Joffrey Ballet in Moscow Dedicates Program to Kennedy,” The New York Times, November 30, 1963, p. 17)
3. Attached but not printed is the article, Jean Battey, “Robert Joffrey Ballet Is a Sprightly Group,” The Washington Post, October 6, 1963, p. G4.
4. Not found. Reference is to The Washington Star.
5. Jacqueline Kennedy’s press secretary.
6. October 4.
7. McGeorge Bundy.
8. White House Social Secretary.
9. According to The Washington Post’s Jean Battey, “‘The Palace,’ a series of vignettes of the old vaudeville days, looked like a warmed-over musical comedy dancing. . . . ‘The Palace’ could be a pleasant change of pace on a full evening’s program but it is really not very good.” See footnote 3, above.
10. Schlesinger signed “Arthur” above his typed signature.
11. No classification marking.
12. An unknown hand signed for Read above Read’s typed signature.
13. No classification marking. No drafting information appears on the memorandum.
14. Attached but not printed.
15. See footnote 8, Document 72.
16. Hurok organized and financed concerts and tours.