DESPITE INCIDENTS, MOISEYEV PRAISES U.S. TOUR

Choreographer Igor Moiseyev said that the strongest impressions he and his folk dance troupe brought home from a 90-day tour of the United States are of Disneyland and police escorts.

“We are all adults, but we enjoyed Disneyland as if we were kids,” Moiseyev, 80, told a news conference Monday.

Meeting Hollywood movie stars was another highlight of the visit to Los Angeles, he said, but he reserved the highest praise for the policemen who provided security after a tear gas bomb marred the company’s opening night performance in New York City.

“I have the kindest words to say about American police,” Moiseyev said. “They were absolutely magnificent. They gave us souvenirs and were applauding us enthusiastically backstage. I never expected such a thing.”

On the dancers’ last night in New York, he said, a fire in their hotel forced them to evacuate their rooms and stand for two hours in a pouring rain. Moiseyev accused the Jewish Defense League of starting the fire.

“We never equated the Jewish Defense League with the American people,” he said, and added that he never considered aborting the tour because of the tear gas attack, which he also attributed to the militant JDL.

Mordechai Levy, leader of the Jewish Defense Organization in New York, denied the accusations Monday. “We knew that the Soviets were staying at the same hotel where we held our convention (the Penta),” he said, “and we intended to make life legally miserable for them but had no hand in the fire or tear gas incidents.

“We did have a demonstration against them Nov. 25 at Madison Square Garden (where the Moiseyev company played a return engagement in New York following its national tour). Until the Soviets make some concessions and free Soviet Jews, they will know no peace.”

Moiseyev said other Americans were much warmer and more enthusiastic about his troupe than U.S. officials who showed “a certain coldness toward us.” The troupe would like to return to the United States, he said, but the Soviet concert organization has not approved another such visit.

As a result of the trip, Moiseyev said, he wants to stage a dance with jazz and rock music themes about life in a city in the West.