Godunov Gets New Role--U.S. Citizen

NEW YORK — Alexander Godunov, the Soviet ballet star whose 1979 defection sparked an international incident, became a U.S. citizen today and said he would celebrate with “a hamburger stuffed with caviar.”

Godunov, 37, took the oath of allegiance in a federal courtroom in Manhattan packed with 189 other new U.S. citizens.

The tall dancer with shoulder-length blond hair said all his relatives were in the Soviet Union but he planned “to celebrate on the phone with my mother,” whom he hasn’t seen since 1979.

“I hope after (Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev’s reform I may be able to see her. It’s getting better there,” Godunov said.

Godunov defected while touring the United States with the Bolshoi Ballet in August, 1979, but the next day pleaded to speak with his then-wife, Bolshoi soloist Lyudmilla Vlasova.

U.S. officials grounded her plane for 73 hours until they received assurances she was leaving of her own volition.