Is it true that Salvador Dali performed “The Saber Dance” naked in front of Khachaturian?

For decades now, a story has been circulating in books and on Internet sites about an unusual reception that an eccentric artist gave the composer. We checked whether such a meeting actually took place.

In short, the plot of a strange meeting between two geniuses is as follows. Once on tour in Spain, Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian expressed a desire to meet the world famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Surprisingly, Dali, who was in the United States at the time, was inspired by the idea, invited Khachaturian to his Moorish-style Catalan palace and hurried on a plane to Spain. The next day, at the appointed time, the composer appeared at the artist’s residence, where he waited for 45 minutes in the reception hall, after which he discovered that he was locked on all sides. After another hour and a quarter, Khachaturian, unable to bear it any longer, relieved himself in one of the antique vases, after which the door swung open, Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance” sounded from the speakers, and a completely naked Salvador Dali ran into the hall, riding on a mop and with a saber in his hand. Having pranced in front of the guest, the artist disappeared through another door, then the master of ceremonies entered and informed Khachaturian that the audience was over. That same day, Spanish evening newspapers published Salvador Dali's condescending commentary on the habit of a guest from wild Russia using antique vases as chamber pots. As further reported, Khachaturian, who had previously often visited Spain, more I didn’t go to the Pyrenees.

This story is given by many sources, including "Vedomosti", "Nezavisimaya Gazeta", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Express newspaper", magazine "Bonfire", radio "Lighthouse" and website Armenian Museum of Moscow and Culture of Nations. A short film dedicated to the meeting "Sabre Dance" (2015), in which the role of Dali was played by four-time Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis. This plot was also conveyed in some detail by Mikhail Weller in his short story "Sabre Dance" from the collection “Legends of Nevsky Prospekt”.

Aram Khachaturian's student, famous composer Vladimir Dashkevich in one of interview said that this story, minus a number of details, was told to him by the famous teacher himself. However, how much can you trust a story passed down from mouth to mouth, even from a direct participant in the alleged events?

A comparison of numerous descriptions of the case suggests that almost all of its details go back to that very short story by Mikhail Weller “Sabre Dance”. From this it may be concluded that the writer himself came up with the legend. However, this is not true. Weller’s collection “Legends of Nevsky Prospekt” was published in 1993, while 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 extravagances of the Spanish genius. In 1986, the bike was mentioned in "Anthologies of Contemporary Russian Poetry". In the magazine "Ogonyok" This story was briefly published in 1992. Yes, “Legends of Nevsky Prospekt” were written earlier (in 1984), but another nine years passed before their publication.

And indeed, in 2015, Mikhail Weller put an end to the question of his own role in this legend. At the beginning of its famous story he wrote that this story spread throughout Leningrad through the buffet on the fifth floor of the Evropeyskaya Hotel, which musicians, in particular Khachaturian, loved to visit. That is, it seemed to hint at its authenticity. However, only many years later Weller admitted: “They told different stories there. The story boiled down to the fact that one day Dali actually invited Khachaturian to visit. Khachaturian waits, then the music starts playing, “Sabre Dance”. A naked Dali is shown jumping on a mop from one door to another, and after that - “That’s it, the audience is given, there will be nothing more.” Here I am telling you in full what happened; I made up everything else. There was no cognac or treats there, there was no peacock, there was no vase, and especially no one wrote in it, especially Khachaturian, who had never been to Spain at all. None of this happened."

So, Mikhail Weller's role was to compose the details and popularize the story, but has Aram Khachaturian really never been to Spain? Alas, this is true. This fact confirm and the composer’s son and director of his house-museum Armine Grigoryan. At one time, Armine 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 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 rank could not go completely unnoticed.

And finally. In January 2016, the famous Russian film producer Ruben Dishdishyan reported, that screenwriter and director Yusup Razykov will make another film called “Sabre Dance,” this time a full-length one, about the life of Aram Khachaturian. “The film will have a lot of music, interesting facts from his life and, of course, the famous meeting of the composer with Salvador Dali in Spain,” the media then quoted a publication from the producer’s personal Facebook page.

But today it is impossible to find this publication - it has apparently been deleted. In September of the same year, Dishdishyan reported about the completion of writing the script for the film, but did not write anything about the legendary meeting of two cultural figures. In 2019 movie, dedicated to the history of the creation of the famous number from the ballet “Gayane”, finally came out on screens, but there was not a hint of the famous incident with Salvador Dali. Moreover, as it turned out, back in March 2016, Razykov gave interview on the topic of the future film, in which he stated: “This did not happen. Aram Ilyich has never been to Spain. I decided that I could only use this story if Khachaturian personally told it about himself as an anecdote. Only in this case. Because I am not interested in such a primitive person as described by Weller. Moreover, this story is made up. This is mockery."

Thus, the story of the bright meeting between Aram Ilyich Khachaturian and Salvador Dali is nothing more than a tale, the fruit of someone’s wild imagination.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on topic:

1. Mikhail Weller. “Aram Khachaturian did not meet Dali”
2. "Salvador Dali and Aram Khachaturian – was there a “Sabre Dance”?”