Strike Forces the First-Ever Cancellation at Bolshoi Ballet : Dance: Artists protest the resignation of longtime director and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich by walking out of Friday’s performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet.’

Ten months of acrimonious infighting at the famed Bolshoi Theater burst into international scandal Friday when the embroidered gold curtains parted for “Romeo and Juliet” to reveal striking dancers and stagehands milling about in street clothes.

The unannounced protest against Thursday’s resignation of longtime Bolshoi Ballet director and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich was the first instance in the vaunted theater’s 219-year history that a scheduled performance had to be canceled.

The surprise strike dealt a blow to the Bolshoi’s prestige and revealed a rift within an artistic company struggling to reinvent itself in this age of capitalist realism.

After the lights dimmed and the orchestra tuned up as if all were in order, dancer Valery Gromov stepped through the opening curtain to tell a capacity crowd settled into plush velvet seats that forces seeking to destroy the Bolshoi had engineered Grigorovich’s departure “after he gave 30 years of his life to this theater.”

“In protest of this limitless bureaucracy, there will be no performance tonight,” the dancer, one of the few in costume, announced to a stunned audience as ballerinas in jeans stood in the background with crossed arms and frowning faces.

Shouts of “Shame on you” and derisive hooting wafted from those in the audience who had understood, while the sizable crowd of foreigners watched in confusion.

“You mean they aren’t going to come out later?” German tourist Maria Stahl said when asked whether she could make the rain-check performance vaguely promised by Gromov.

Rita St. Croix, a visitor from North Dakota, was also shattered by the canceled performance, decrying the loss of “a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

Russian theatergoers showed little more sympathy for the work stoppage.

“It took me a great deal of effort to get the ticket and find a baby-sitter for the night,” complained Olga Semushkina, the single mother of a 6-month-old. “It is shameful that the performers confuse their internal problems with professionalism.”

Even within the 2,000-member collective of Bolshoi employees, feelings were running high and battle lines were being drawn.

Grigorovich, 68, resigned Thursday after campaigning for most of the past year against plans by the theater’s general director, Vladimir Kokonin, to hire performers on contracts rather than for lifetime positions, as had been the practice throughout the communist era.

The choreographer and his followers accused Kokonin of meddling in artistic matters and of scuttling trips abroad during which performers can supplement their meager incomes.

“Kokonin wants to run everything, the creative side and the administration. But he is a person who knows nothing about ballet or music,” said prima ballerina Maria Bykova, tugging on kidskin gloves as she prepared to leave the emptying theater. “We’ve been abroad, and we know what contracts are supposed to provide. None of that is possible here. You’ve seen the chaos in this country and know about the miserable pay.”

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Even as a People’s Artist, the highest rung of the hierarchical Russian cultural system, Bykova conceded that her salary is only about $130 a month and that most dancers eke out an existence on considerably less.

Conductor Sergei Politikov brushed off suggestions that the wildcat strike would taint the theater’s image, insisting that the performers’ action was their only recourse.

But first cellist Vsevolod Yakimenko insisted that the musicians and dancers had been pressured to go along with the strike by fewer than a dozen influential figures in the artistic corps.

“We were all pushed into this,” the bearded musician confided in a backstage corridor. “What happened today is a complete disgrace. Only cretins behave in this way.”

Dancer Vitautas Taranda agreed, blaming the strike on those artists accustomed to the privileges doled out years ago.

“This is all about apartments and money!” one miffed dancer chimed in as she stormed toward the backstage exit.

Although none of the strikers would say when performances would resume, critic Anatoly S. Agamirov speculated that the theater may lock out the artists for the rest of the month in punishment, and he blamed Grigorovich for inciting the rebellion on his behalf.

“For the past 15 years, Grigorovich has done nothing. His last original production was ‘Golden Age,’ which he staged in 1980,” Agamirov said.

Grigorovich has in recent years toured internationally with his independent company of young dancers performing choreography he created with the Bolshoi. He has told the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass that he might seek a job with a ballet company in the West.