Former Bolshoi ballet star Aleksandr Godunov, who defected last August during a tour of the ballet company in New York City, arrived here yesterday for a 10-day tour with a group of dancers from Israel, Italy and West Germany. His wife, Lyudmila Vlasova, who is Jewish and who was with him in the ballet troupe at the time he defected, returned to the Soviet Union.
Asked about his wife, Godunov said he would rather discuss art and ballet. When he defected he said he wanted to work with choreographers in the United States and that he felt restrained in artistic life in the USSR. The income of one of the performances Godunov and the group of dancers will give in Israel will be contributed to Israeli hospitals.
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