Is it true that Salvador Dali performed a “dance with sabers” in front of Khachaturian naked?

For not the first decade, the story of an unusual technique that the composer was arranged by an eccentric artist has been walking on books and Internet sites. We checked if there was really such a meeting.

In short, then the plot of a strange meeting of two geniuses is as follows. Once, on tour in Spain, the Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian expressed a desire to get acquainted with the world-famous artist Sulvador Dali. Surprisingly, Dali, who at that time was in the United States, caught fire, invited Khachaturian to his Catalan Palace in the Moorish style and hurried to a plane in Spain. The next day, at the appointed time, the composer appeared in the residence of the artist, where he waited 45 minutes in the reception room, after which he discovered that he was locked from all sides. An hour later, with a quarter of the Khachaturians, unable to endure anymore, coped with a small need for one of the old vases, after which the door swung open, the Khachaturianovsky “dance with sabers” sounded from the speakers, and he ran into the hall ... Absolutely naked Salvador was riding on a mop and with a paragraph in his hand. Having buried in front of the guest, the artist disappeared into another door, then he entered the Master ceremonies and informed Khachaturian that the audience was over. On the same day, the Spanish evening newspapers printed a condescending commentary to Salvador Dali about the habit of a guest from wild Russia to use ancient vases as night pots. As reported later, Khachaturian, who had often visited Spain before, more I did not go to the Pyrenees.

This story is given by many sources, among which "Vedomosti", "Independent newspaper", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Express Gazeta", magazine "Bonfire", radio "Lighthouse" And the site Armenian Museum of Moscow and Culture of Nations. A short film is dedicated to the meeting "Dance with sabers" (2015), in which the role of Dali was played by the four -time Olympic champion in jumping in the water Greg Luganis. This plot was also conveyed by Mikhail Weller in his short story in sufficient detail "Dance with sabers" From the collection "Legends of Nevsky Prospekt."

Pupil Aram Khachaturian, famous composer Vladimir Dashkevich in one of interview He said that this story was deducted by a number of details by the illustrious teacher himself. However, how much can you believe a bike, transferred from mouth to mouth, albeit from a direct participant in the alleged events?

A comparison of numerous descriptions of the incident suggests that almost all of his details go back to that very short story of Mikhail Weller “Dance with Sabers”. From this it may be concluded that the writer himself came up with a legend. However, this is not so. The collection of Weller “Legends of Nevsky Prospekt” was published in 1993, while the world chess champion Anatoly Karpov, recalling his meeting with Dali in 1979, assuresthat by that time he had already heard about the story with Khachaturian and was ready for any folly of the Spanish genius. In 1986, the bike was mentioned in "Anthology of the latest Russian poetry". In the magazine "Fight" This bike was briefly printed in 1992. Yes, the "Legends of Nevsky Prospekt" were written earlier (in 1984), however, nine more years have passed before their publication.

Indeed, in 2015, Mikhail Weller set an end to his own role in this legend. At the beginning of its famous story He wrote that this story diverged through Leningrad through the buffet on the fifth floor of the European Hotel, which the musicians loved to visit, in particular Khachaturian. That is, it seemed to hint at its authenticity. However, only many years later, Weller admitted: “Different stories were told there. The story came down to the fact that once, in fact, they invited Khachaturian to visit. Khachaturian is waiting, then music begins to play, "dance with sabers." A naked Dali is shown, which rides on a mop from one door to another, and after that - "everything, the audience is given, nothing will be there more." So I tell you in full what happened, I came up with everything else. There were no cognacs and treats, there was no peacock, there was no vase, and even more so no one wrote into it, and even more so Khachaturian who was not in Spain at all. There was none of this. ”

So, the role of Mikhail Weller was in the composition of details and popularizing history, but was Aram Khachaturian never in Spain? Alas, this is so. This fact Confirm And the son of the composer and the director of his house-museum Armine Grigoryan. At one time, Armina turned to Theater-Museum of Salvador Dali With a request to clarify the situation and share archival materials from this meeting. The answer from the theater-museum was short: there was no meeting, which means that there are no archival materials dedicated to it. There is no information about this either in the archives of the Soviet and Spanish press, or in documentary memoirs, or in letters. But the meeting of two figures of such a rank could not go completely unnoticed.

And finally. In January 2016, the famous Russian film producer Ruben Dishdishyan reportedthat the screenwriter and director Yusup Pereykov will make another film called “Dance with Sabers”, this time full -length, about the life of Aram Khachaturian. “The film will have many music, interesting facts from his life and, of course, the famous meeting of the composer with Salvador Dali in Spain,” the media quoted the publication from the personal page of the producer on Facebook.

But today it is impossible to find this publication today-it is apparently deleted. In September of the same year, Dishdishyan reported The end of writing the script of the picture, but he no longer wrote anything about the legendary meeting of two cultural figures. In 2019 moviededicated to the history of the creation of the famous number from the Gayane ballet, finally released, but there was not a hint of a famous case with Salvador Dali. Moreover, as it turned out, back in March 2016, Zyadkov gave interview On the topic of the future picture, in which he said: “This was not. Aram Ilyich was never in Spain. I decided that I could use this bike only if Khachaturian personally tells this about himself as an anecdote. Only in this case. Because I am not interested in such a primitive person who is described there by Weller. In addition, this story is invented. This is a dentist. ”

Thus, the story of the vivid meeting of Aram Ilyich Khachaturian and Salvador Dali is nothing more than a bike, someone’s fruit of a violent imagination.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Mikhail Weller. "Aram Khachaturian did not meet with Dali"
2. "Salvador Dali and Aram Khachaturian - was there a "dance with sabers"? "