Music: Bottoms Up

In nightmares, ballerinas sometimes dream of falling flat. In Detroit’s Masonic Auditorium last week, the bad dream came true for the whole Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

In the first number, four little elves, one after another, suddenly threw their feet in the air and smacked the floor, as though a giant hand had pulled the stage from under them. In Galté Parisienne, even the great Alexandra Danilova and’ Choreographer-Dancer Leonide Massine went down: two spills for Danilova, one for Massine. In the wings, frantic Ballet Master Frederic Franklin told his dancers: “Go slow . . . Don’t listen to the music, just go on when I tell you.” The critic of the Detroit Times described the usually bouncy exits as like “the pussyfooting lope one takes when, trying to avoid “waking the baby up.”

The cause of it all was brand new linoleum, slick as ice. The auditorium manager promised to sand it thoroughly before the next performance.