I am printing an article written by Martha Gross, Society Editor Fort Lauderdale News - October 26, 1991. Newspapers are almost unreadable when you scan them. Below is her piece.
The performance Thursday was incredible; the party afterward, a smash. From start to finish, the Moiseyev Dance Company's opening night at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts was the kind of electric experience that sends you home giving off sparks.
It began with a hearty chuckle. After being introduced to the packed house by the center's exec, Bill Farcus, Judy Drucker confessed how upset she had been during the Soviet coup attempt. As president and executive director of the Concert Association of Florida, she had just booked nine Russian programs for this season, including the Moiseyev. "I said, "There goes the season. But then I called Gorbachev and he listened to me, so everything's OK. They're all still coming," she joked.
The performance followed. You could hardly hear the music for the clapping, cheering and cries of "Bravo!" Ethnic. Exciting. Dancers in boots kicking and stomping. You wanted to hop up there and stomp and kick with them. And those leaps. (Whatever happened to gravity?) "Ohhhh! My hands hurt, "Madeleine Sadock cried 40 minutes into the show, but I can't stop clapping." Who could? The best thing about intermission was that it gave the hands a break.
The 85 -year old Igor Moiseyev (Huh? he looks all of 60) doesn't entertain visitors backstage during the company's performances. But Drucker can go anywhere. She could probably sit on Pavarotti's lap on stage if she chose to.
At intermission back she went with the beautiful, statuesque Countess Isabel Suarez de Vacani , who hosted the elegant reception buffet later, and Kuwaiti Sheik Yusuf Alghanim, in whose magnificent Fort Lauderdale waterfront digs the Countess staged the do. It was soo huggy - kissy. Moiseyev hugged Drucker (she has gotta be the most hugged Impresaria of all time). He kissed the Countess's hand and both cheeks and she kissed him on both cheeks. (They're friends. She ran a party at her Villa in Florence when the Moiseyev performed in Italy.) And he shook hands with the Sheik. (He's 92? Can't be. He's far too handsome, slim and dapper - another man whom time has touched lightly.) They chatted briefly, then hurried back to their seats.
Drucker was greeted and waved at by rows full of Miamians who bused up by the hundreds for the opening. And after the performance, Moiseyev, his wife Erina, her daughter Elena Koneva, the 45 dancers, association members, and other special guests rode up to the Sheik's little palace away from home in north Fort Lauderdale. There they supped on various pastas, sipped Tuscan wines and chatted with the Moiseyevs and the dancers. Olga Semenova told how the company loves the weather here (Compared to Russia's cold? It figures.) And friendly. Igor Goryachhkin said he particularly enjoys that everything is not so ordered and predictable here. "We like all the differences.And your beautiful cars, wonderful food, great houses. You have so much. That's where we are going. It may take some time. But we'll do it.)
Jerry Hoffman noted that the Moiseyev Dance Company used to draw protesters, poster carriers and heavy security; including a host of KGB." This is their first performance in this country without the KGB on hand," he said. (Not that there wasn't plenty of other security. It's a given when you're being entertained by a member of Kuwait's Royal family).
Drucker was in her element.Raving over American Express and Alamo Rent A Car for sponsoring the booking. Chatting with many of the staunch arts supporters in the crowd - many of them close pals. "They're the kind of people I enjoy," she said. "Just people. I don't need fancy types. I like real people. You know," she chortled, while tripping out the door with Bob Burpee at the party's close, "like Pavarotti, and Baryshnikov and Moiseyev."
On the scene: Dorothy and Bill Meyers, Franca Carnevale, John Hoffman, George and Sue Levin,Yolanda and Bill Maurer, Robyn and Joh Cassell,Jerry Mager,Gregory and Mary Ann Wolk,Concert Association Treasurer and vice chairman Sanford Ziff, its director of development Lenore Toby, Met Opera stars Thomas Stuart andEvelyn Lear, Frosene Sonderling, Dorothy St, Jean, Eleanor Kosow, Marilyn Fellman and Mimi Alabiad (in a floating black and gold gown with that Middle Eastern look).
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