Nuriev is a homosexual. Stories of successful people. Rudolf Nuriev. Rudolf Nureyev - Biography

"Exotic, frantic" - such epithets were deservedly awarded to one of the brightest dancers of the 20th century and one of the most famous Soviet defectors - Rudolf Nureyev.

Rudolf Khametovich Nuriev, a Tatar by nationality, seemed to have been destined to become a “citizen of the world”, and not belong to one country - it is impossible to indicate the specific place of his birth, because he was born on a train to Vladivostok. In this city, his father, a political instructor, was heading to his place of service, but a year later, in 1939, he was transferred to Moscow. During the Great Patriotic War the family lived in evacuation in Ufa, where the Nurievs remained after the war.

Once ten-year-old Rudolf visited the theater for the performance of "Crane Song" - and since then he has become seriously interested in ballet. In Ufa, the ballerina Anna Udaltsova was in exile - it was she who became his first mentor. The boy studied with her in the studio at the Teacher's House. She noticed the talent of the student, advised him to enter the Leningrad Choreographic School, but the family did not have money for a trip to Leningrad, and her father was against it. In 1953, Rudolph entered the ballet studio at the Ufa Opera House. At the same time, he works in the theater as an extra and attends classes of ballet dancers, but dreams of studying in Leningrad or Moscow do not leave him.

The case presents itself unexpectedly: in 1955, the troupe is taking the ballet “Crane Song” to the festival of Bashkir art in Moscow (the one that made such a big impression on Rudolph in childhood), but the performer of the solo part cannot go. And now Nureyev offers himself. True, he does not know this party - but he manages to learn it at the very short term. Such intensive classes cost the dancer dearly: shortly before his departure, he injured his leg during a rehearsal. Typically, such injuries are treated for at least a month, but Rudolf Nureyev took the stage a few days later.

Having successfully performed at the festival, Nuriev receives permission to enter the Moscow Choreographic School, but the lack of a hostel at that time refuses to be an obstacle. He goes to Leningrad, where he enters the school. , where Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin becomes his mentor. The teacher treated the student very well, he even allowed Rudolph to live with him, and not in the hostel, where other students mocked the young man, teasing him with a “village”.

On the last year training, a talented student had a rare luck: while the main troupe of the Opera and Ballet Theatre. S. M. Kirova toured, he was busy in solo parts in several performances.

After success at the Moscow All-Union Competition of Ballet Students in 1958, Rudolf Nureyev was accepted into the troupe of the Theater. S. M. Kirov (prima ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya helped him in this). He performs most of the male parts in classical ballets: Jean de Brienne in "", Siegfried in "", Prince in "", Solor in "", Basil in "" and others. Very famous ballerinas want to become his partners. The dancer approaches each performed part in a truly creative way, making changes to the choreography and even to the costume of his character. At that time, it was very bold - but such a talented performer as Rudolf Nureyev was, even such liberties were allowed.

As a talented young performer, Rudolf Nureyev set off in 1961 with the troupe of the Theater. S. M. Kirov on tour to France. In Paris, he was in close contact with the French, went into the city alone and returned to the hotel at night. This was regarded as "a violation of the rules of conduct for Soviet citizens abroad", and the artist was ordered to immediately return to the USSR. He refused to do so. So Nuriev became a defector.

It is possible that the dancer planned this in advance - in any case, a week later he performs in the play "The Blue Bird" as part of the International Ballet de Cuevas, and a few months later he performs at the benefit of Margot Fontaine. Subsequently, he becomes a dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. Ninette de Valois, who invited him, speaks of him as "a virtuoso with taste, carrying with him the tradition and magic of the Russians."

The innovation of Rudolf Nureyev was manifested in the fact that he brought to the male dance techniques that were previously characteristic of the female dance: the development of all the chords, which gives greater expressiveness and flexibility, the dance on toes - almost on pointe shoes ... All this could give the dancer some effeminateness, if not for his powerful energy and emotionality. Thanks to his innovation, the male dancer in ballet became on a par with the female ballerina.

The popularity of Rudolf Nureyev was such that the police sometimes had to restrain the onslaught of his fans. The audience was especially attracted by his performances with Margot Fontaine. This duet was unusual, if only because at the time of its inception the dancer was twenty-four years old, and his partner was forty-three, but this did not prevent the performers from becoming one. Their first joint performance took place in 1962 - it was the play "", and a year later, the ballet "Margarita and Armand" was specially staged for them. They also danced in the ballet "" in the choreography, which was revived by Nureyev.

Since 1964, Nuriev toured a lot: European countries, Australia, USA. The best theaters in the world - such as La Scala and the Vienna Opera - competed with each other for the right to invite him, they were not scared fabulous fees that the dancer demanded. He performed almost every leading male role in the classical ballet repertoire, and in the 1970s he turned to modern choreography with its angular, abrupt movements. His performances with the ensemble had great success, and many celebrities attended the play "Lucifer" with his participation on Broadway.

The dancer also acted as a choreographer. Among the performances he created are both new editions of classical ballets and original productions.

Rudolf Nureyev starred in several films, and we are talking not only about the film adaptation of ballets (although there were also them - "Young Man and Death", ""). In the film "Valentino", which tells about the famous silent film actor, he played the title role, and in the film "In View" he played a fighter against a terrorist organization.

From the age of 45, the dancer's health gradually deteriorated - he was sick with AIDS. Despite this, he discovered a new talent in himself, having mastered the art of conducting. He made his debut as a conductor in 1990 in Vienna.

The artist dreamed of visiting his homeland again - to see his mother, to visit the Theater. Kirov - but he received such an opportunity only in 1988. Then the artist was given permission to briefly arrive in Ufa, where his mother was dying, and the last dancer arrived in 1990. Despite a progressive illness, overcoming physical suffering, Nureyev on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in the ballet "". These last tours at home were not easy for the performer, he even felt disappointed - but after this performance, films with the participation of Nureyev, which were previously banned, began to be shown to the Russian public.

The last time Rudolf Nureyev performed on the ballet stage was in 1992 in Budapest, performing a role in the ballet Cristoforo. In the same year, the premiere of "" in his production took place at the Paris Opera, and at the same time he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Rudolf Nureyev passed away in 1993.

Music Seasons

Few of the ballet stars managed to play out their lives like Rudolf Nureyev. Here, a little bit of different genres - detective, farce, melodrama, tragedy. He was called the Genghis Khan of the ballet, the first gay on the planet, the sexiest dancer of the 20th century. Indeed, sex for this frantic Tatar meant a lot. But besides sex, there was also love, and not only with a man named Eric Bruhn, but also with a woman, the great Margot Fontaine... Nureyev had affairs with Freddie Mercury, Yves Saint Laurent and Elton John; rumor recorded Jean Marais and many others as his lovers ... But Nureyev's strongest, passionate and painful love has always been Eric Brun - a huge Dane of unearthly beauty, a world-famous dancer who was considered one of the most outstanding dancers of the 20th century and the most refined Albert, ever danced in Giselle. Their romance lasted until Eric's death... SO COLD IT BURNS It is difficult to say who was Nureyev's first male lover, but what was his first and greatest love became an outstanding Danish dancer Eric Brun, no doubt. Moreover, Nuriev first fell in love with his dance, and then with him. Eric was the ideal for Nureyev. He was 10 years older than him, tall and handsome as a god. From birth, he possessed those qualities that Nureyev was completely devoid of: calmness, restraint, tact. And most importantly, he knew how to do what Nuriev did not know how to do. If not for Rudik, then Eric Brun might not have recognized himself as a hidden homosexual. Eric had a fiancee, the famous beauty ballerina Maria Tolchiff, whose father was an Indian. Maria and Eric Their first acquaintance with Rudik happened in 1960, when Eric Brun and Maria Tolchiff came with the American Ballet Theater on tour to the USSR. Nureyev burned with impatience to see the famous Dane, but it so happened that the twenty-two-year-old Rudolf went on tour to Germany, and when he returned, the whole ballet Leningrad only talked about Brun. Intrigued, Rudolf got hold of Brun's amateur footage taken by someone in Leningrad and survived the shock. “For me it was a sensation,” he recalled a few years later. “Brun is the only dancer who managed to impress me. Someone called him too cold. He really is so cold that it burns.” MEXICAN PASSIONS A year later, Nureyev burned himself on this ice, not on the screen, but in life. By that time, Rudolph had escaped from the iron embrace of the Land of the Soviets and was taking the first steps towards world triumphs. Fate brought him together with Maria Tolchiff, who had recently experienced a break in a stormy love relationship with Brun, whom, according to her, she loved "more than life." Parting with the Dane, she promised him revenge and find herself a new partner. Very soon she meets a young and hot Tatar, with whom the thirty-six-year-old ballerina instantly falls in love. And he invites him to go with her to Copenhagen, where her performances with Brun are planned. On the way, Tolchiff calls Brun and happily announces: "There is someone here who wants to meet you. His name is Rudolf Nureyev," and passes the phone to Nureyev. So they met thanks to Tolchiff, who will soon regret this very much. Eric and Carla Fracci DANISH PRINCE AND TATAR TERRORIST“The day was coming to an end, it was dark in the room,” Brun recalled years later of their first meeting, which took place at the Angleterre Hotel, where Rudolf and Tolchiff were staying. “I greeted Maria, next to whom was this young dancer, casually dressed in a sweater and slacks. I sat down and looked at him more closely and saw that he was very attractive. He had a certain style, a certain class. It was not natural elegance, but it made an impression. He did not talk too much, maybe that's why , which still did not speak English very well. The situation was awkward because of my relationship with Maria. We tried to cover it up by laughing too much and unnaturally. Much later, Rudik said that he hated the sound of my laughter." After that, they saw each other only in the studio during classes. Nuriev was delighted with the flawless long-legged figure of Brun, from his infallible technique, from appearance resembling a noble prince. Eric and Rudik Once, during a break, Nuriev conspiratorially whispered to Brun that we should talk. He wanted to dine alone with Brun, without Maria. But when Nuriev told her about his plans for dinner, she threw a tantrum, rushing out of the dressing room with a squeal. Nuriev rushed after her, followed by Brun. At that moment, after the morning class, the whole troupe came out and watched with interest how Nureyev, Brun and Tolchif were chasing each other around the theater.
Eric, Rudy and Maria But no matter how angry Maria was and no matter how many tantrums she threw, a powerful attraction already arose between the frantic Tatar and the cold Danish prince, which at that moment no one could destroy. Even the imperious mother of Brun, who had a huge influence on her son. PRIVATE BEDROOMS FOR DECREME Ellen Brun, as soon as Rudolph moved to live in their cozy house in the suburbs of Copenhagen in Gentoft, immediately disliked Rudolph. She saw him as a threat to her son's respectability, as well as her rival for his love. And although for the sake of propriety Rudolph and Eric occupied separate bedrooms, Ellen guessed the nature of their relationship. As did many others who saw them together. These two immediately caught the eye, people turned around after them, so beautiful and so different.
Brun, tall and aristocratic blond, resembling a Greek god in outward appearance, with a high forehead, a regular, sharply defined profile, fine features, and mournful blue-gray eyes, was refinement itself. He attracted the eyes of almost all women ... Rudolph, with burning eyes, flying hair, a wild temper and sharp cheekbones, resembled an erupting volcano. Their attitude towards sex was also very different. Eric both craved and feared intimacy at the same time. Secretive, cautious, he did not allow a single emotion to manifest, moreover, he was not ready for the sexual frenzy that Nureyev showed. Rudolph always wanted sex, twenty-four hours a day. And he considered it natural, and Eric quickly got tired of this carousel. Therefore, their romance initially developed violently and rapidly. One was advancing, the other was running away. Rudolph, when it seemed to him that something was wrong in their relationship, could scream in a rage and scatter things around the apartment, and Eric, shocked by this outburst of emotions, ran away from home. And then Rudolf rushed after, in search of his beloved. A few years later, Brun will liken their meeting to the collision and explosion of two comets. (Fragment from the memoirs of the famous Bulgarian ballerina Sonya Arova, close friend Erika) If Brun was the only dancer Rudik recognized as his equal, he was also the only one he allowed to exercise power over him. "Teach me this," he always told Eric. "If Eric played a role brilliantly, Rudik did not rest until he began to play the same role equally brilliantly," Sonya says. "It was the greatest stimulus for him for a very long time." Equally bewitched by him, Brun helped him with all possible ways, passing on all his knowledge, even when Nureyev threatened to outshine him. Their relationship from the very beginning was turbulent and endlessly intense. "Pure Strindberg" - Brun evaluated them a few years later. "Rudolf was overwhelmed with feelings for Eric," says Arova, "and Eric didn't know how to deal with him. Rudolph was exhausting him." In addition, Rudik was constantly and painfully jealous of Eric for women, because Eric, unlike Rudik, was bisexual, not gay, and he often felt attracted to some girls. Violette Verdi remarks: "Rudy was so strong, so new, so hungry after the Russian desert. He just wanted what he wanted." He did his best to subdue the soft, delicate Eric. “Their relationship was never easy,” concludes Arova. “Eric kept himself in complete control, and Rudolf obeyed the mood. Eric tried to make him understand all sorts of things, and when it didn’t work out, he got upset, and they had quarrels. Rudolf wanted a lot from Eric. He always demanded something from him, and Eric said: "But I give everything I can, and after that I feel squeezed out." Brun soon became convinced that Nuriev wanted more from him than he could give Close friends knew Brun warm, generous, with a lively, dry sense of humor, but one of them says that he could "transform in a second, becoming cold and extremely hostile" when he felt that someone was getting too close to him." EATING BOYS LIKE PANCAKES Fleeing from the taboos and prohibitions of the socialist homeland, Nureyev longed to taste the sexual paradise that he found in the West. There were no complexes or remorse: when he saw something he liked, Nureyev had to get it. His desires were in the first place, and he satisfied them under any circumstances, day and night, on the streets, in bars, gay saunas. Sailors, truck drivers, merchants, prostitutes were his constant targets. By the way, appearance here did not really matter, size and quantity were important. He liked it to be a lot. There are a lot of jokes about Nureyev's sexual excess. Here are a few. Once, during dinner at Rudolf's London house, where respectable friends of the artist had gathered, his housekeeper reported that two young men were standing at the door. A few days ago, Rudolph made an appointment with them and apparently forgot about it. Rudolf jumped up from his chair and ran out of the dining room. The guests, hearing how he and the visitors went upstairs, fell silent, there was an awkward pause. Then Rudolf's secretary, laughing, exclaimed: "It's always like that with him! He eats them like pancakes!" Soon the front door slammed, and Rudolf, flushed, with a mischievous and contented gleam in his eyes, returned to the table. "It's very tasty," he said ambiguously as his cook served him the dish. Once, leaving the service entrance of the Paris Opera and seeing a crowd of admirers, Rudolf exclaimed: "Where are the boys?" Dancing in "Giselle", Nureyev struck one of the artists with his exhausted appearance. "What's wrong with you?" the dancer asked him. "I was very tired, I fucked all night and all morning, until the very rehearsal. I didn't have any strength left." "Rudolf," the artist asked, "do you never have enough sex?" - "No. Besides, I fucked myself at night, and me in the morning." A NIGHTMARE ON BOARD At the same time, Rudolph believed that sex is one thing, and intimacy is quite another. But for Eric, it was the same. He was afraid of random meetings and anonymous sex, he could not understand the promiscuity of a friend, which he considered a betrayal. He was horrified by Rudolf's exorbitant physical hunger for lovers. Eric was very selective and could not get used to this promiscuity. This boiling cocktail of love, jealousy, resentment, irritation was mixed with another component - Brun's alcoholism. This was his dark side, which was revealed after drinking, which happened alarmingly often in the 60s. "Alcoholism was one of Eric's painful secrets," says Violette Verdi. "When drunk, he had bouts of cruelty, he became very sarcastic, he liked to hurt." Frustrated by the constant rumors about Rudolph's attempts to sit him down, Brun once accused him of having come from Russia only to kill him. He knew he had said a terrible thing, but he felt a certain need to say it. "Hearing this, Rudik was so upset that he cried," recalls Brun. "He said:" How can you be so vicious? "Sometimes being cruel, Brun was also unusually generous; many dancers owe their careers to his leadership, which he always Rudolf himself. But he continued his love chase for Eric, who was so tired of the Tatar tiger that he fled from him to the ends of the world. When Eric flew to Australia on tour, Rudolph called him almost every day from London, wondering why he was not very nice to him on the phone. “Maybe it’s worth calling once or twice a week?” Rudolf’s acquaintances advised. “Perhaps Eric wants to be alone.” But Rudolph did not understand this, and finally decided to fly to him in Sydney. During the flight, Rudolph experienced one of the most powerful shocks. He never forgot that the KGB was looking for him all over the world in order to steal him away and return him to his socialist homeland. On the way to Sydney, this nightmare almost happened. During the stop of the plane at the Cairo airport, the pilot suddenly asked the passengers to get off the plane, explaining this with some technical problems. Nureyev internally went cold, feeling a trap. He did not go out, convulsively shrinking into a chair. When a flight attendant approached him to take him out, he pleaded for help, saying that he was afraid to leave the plane. Then the stewardess, seeing through the window two men approaching the plane, quickly led Nureyev to the toilet. "I'll tell them it's not working," she promised. Nureyev was there while the KGB officers searched the plane and knocked on the toilet door. “I stared in the mirror and saw myself turning gray,” he later recalled. LADY OF HEART When in 1961 Nureyev met Eric in Copenhagen, the famous English ballerina Margo Fontaine entered his life at the same time. Here, as in the case of Brun, he also played a role phone call. Once Rudolf came to visit his teacher Vera Volkova, and the phone rang. Volkova picked up the phone and immediately handed it to Nuriev: "This is you, from London." - "From London?" Rudolph was surprised. He didn't know anyone in London. "This is Margot Fontaine speaking," said the voice on the phone. "Would you like to dance at my gala concert?" There is no more elegant, courageous and wise ballerina in the history of ballet than Fontaine. A light smile, a hot sparkle of eyes, temperament, and also a steel back and an iron will - this is Margot. Her husband, Roberto Tito de Arias, was from a family of prominent Panamanian politicians and at the time was Panama's ambassador to the UK. After Rudolph performed at her gala concert, the management of Covent Garden invited Fontaine to dance Giselle with him. Margot hesitated at first. She first performed at Giselle in 1937, a year before Nureyev was born, and by the time of his escape from the USSR, she had been a star for fifteen years. Wouldn't she, a forty-two-year-old prima, look ridiculous next to a twenty-four-year-old young tiger? But finally she agreed and won. Their performance sent the audience into a frenzy. Nuriev's sensual ardor was the perfect contrast to Fontaine's expressive purity. They merged into a single dance impulse, and it seemed that their energy and musicality had one source. When the curtain closed, Fonteyn and Nureyev were called for bows twenty-three times. To the roar of applause, Fontaine pulled out a red rose on a long stem from the bouquet and presented it to Nuriev, he, touched by this, fell to his knee, grabbed her hand and began to shower her with kisses. The audience from this spectacle lay in a swoon.
But that evening did not become a complete triumph for Nureyev. Although Brun rehearsed the role of Albert with him, he left the theater, tormented by jealousy. “I ran after him, and the fans ran after me. It was very unpleasant,” Rudolph later recalled. TREE OF WHITE CAMELIAS"God! I never did half of the things I do now in dance," Fontaine admitted with surprise, speaking of Nureyev's influence on her. And Rudolph admitted: "If I had not found Margot, I would have been lost."
Soon the choreographer Frederick Ashton created for them the ballet "Marguerite and Armand" based on "Lady of the Camellias" by Dumas son to the music of Liszt's piano Sonata in B minor. This ballet became the most long-awaited event of the 1963 season and gave rise to a lot of rumors and gossip on the topic: were Rudolph and Margot lovers in life? Some categorically argue that yes, others just as zealously reject it. There are those who say that Fontaine carried Nureyev's child, but lost it due to a miscarriage. But this is rather from the realm of fantasy, since Margot by that time could not have children. Rudolph and Margot themselves talk about their relationship like this: “When we were on stage, our bodies, our hands joined in the dance so harmoniously that I think nothing like this will ever happen again,” recalls Nuriev. “She was my best friend , my confidant, a man who only wanted the best for me." “A strange attraction arose between us for each other, which we never managed to explain rationally,” Fontaine admits, “and which, in a sense, resembled the deepest affection and love, given that love is so diverse in its manifestations. premiere of "Marguerite and Armand" Rudolph brought me a small tree of white camellias - it was intended to symbolize the simplicity of our relationship in the terrible world around us.
DID NOT HAPPEN But in relations with Eric, this simplicity was not. Brun, tired of Rudolf's disorderliness, complained to his friends: "I can't be with him, we are ruining each other." But Rudolf continued to pursue Eric. Speaking in 1968 in Copenhagen, Rudolf met with choreographer Glen Tetley. Tetley was invited to dinner with Brun, who warned him not to say anything about this invitation to Rudolf. But Nureyev, as if guessing where the choreographer was going, imposed himself on him as a companion. Tetley refused, but Rudolph got into his car. As the car pulled up to Eric's country house in Gentoft, a smiling Brun stepped out to meet the car. But, seeing Rudolph, he ran into the house, disappeared upstairs and did not appear all evening. "I'm sure Rudolph was very upset," recalls Tetley, "but he never made it clear." And Nureyev told his friends that he would forever connect his life with Eric if he allowed it. To which Eric replied: "Rudolf declared me a model of freedom and independence - I always did what I wanted. Well, what happened between us in the early years - explosions, collisions - this could not last long. If Rudolph wanted it was different, well, I'm sorry."
Soon, their stormy love affair finally collapsed when Rudolf learned that in Toronto (where Eric then directed the National Ballet of Canada), Eric began an affair with one of his students, who eventually gave birth to a daughter from him. But although everything was over with the love relationship between them, the spiritual connection lasted until the end of their lives, having survived all the betrayals, conflicts, separations. "My Danish friend Eric Brun helped me more than I can express," Nureyev said in an interview. "I need him more than anyone."
When Brun was dying of lung cancer in 1986, Nuriev dropped everything and came to him. They talked until late, but when Rudolf returned to him the next morning, Eric could no longer talk, but only followed Rudolf with his eyes. Rudolf took Eric's death hard and never recovered from this blow. Together with Eric, his youthful recklessness and ardent carelessness left his life. He was left alone with himself, the advancing old age and a deadly disease. And although Nureyev somehow passionately threw: "What do I need this AIDS for? I'm a Tatar, I'll fuck him, not he me," Rudolph understood that he was running out of time. I HAD TO MARRY HER Five years after the death of Eric, Rudolph said goodbye to the lady of his heart, Margot Fontaine. Prior to this, Margot experienced a terrible tragedy. In Panama, the car in which her husband was was shot. Two bullets got stuck in the chest, another pierced the lung, the fourth hit the back of the neck, near the spine. According to one version, it was a political order, according to another, forty-seven-year-old Arias was shot by his party colleague for sleeping with his wife. Paralyzed, chained to wheelchair Arias became a constant concern for Margot. She did not allow him to turn into a body in a stroller, so she took him with her on tour, on yachts to friends. Margot stubbornly earned a living and medical care for her sick husband by dancing. "I will dance as long as they walk on me," she told reporters. And she dances, and when she returns home in the evening after the performance, before eating, she cooks food for her husband and feeds her like small child, from a spoon. By the way, last time"Margarita and Armana" Margot and Rudolf danced in Manila in August 1977. And then she retired with Arias on a farm in Panama, where she was dying of ovarian cancer. Only Rudolph, who anonymously paid her medical bills, knew about this. In 1989, Margo buried Tito Arias, underwent three surgeries and was almost bedridden: "I used to tour theaters, and now I'm touring hospitals," Fontaine joked. Margot died on February 21, 1991, twenty-nine years after she and Rudolf first danced in Giselle. After that, he was her partner almost 700 times. They say, having learned about her death, he bitterly exclaimed: "I should have married her." But it seems that it was just a phrase of a man who knew that he himself was dying of AIDS. Rudolf outlived Margot by two years. He died on January 6, 1993, the day before Orthodox Christmas He was fifty-four years old. Christmas Eve came down to earth without him. Updated on 31/08/10 23:05: A short video about Eric and Rudik :)

Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev

Outstanding ballet dancer of the 20th century, choreographer.
It is recognized that Rudolf Nureyev completely changed the male dance in classical ballet.

Real surname - Nureyev, Rudolf Khamit uly Nuriev (Tatar.)

Rudolf Nureyev was born on a train bound for Vladivostok, in front of the Irkutsk station. The dancer's mother is a Tatar, his father is a Bashkir. Nuriev's childhood was spent in Ufa. From the age of 7 he danced in the nursery folklore ensemble, from the age of eleven he took lessons from Udaltsova, a former soloist of the Diaghilev Ballet. At the age of 16, he was enrolled in the troupe of the Ufa Opera House, and a year later, in 1955, Rudolf was already studying at the Leningrad Choreographic School named after A. Vaganova.
After graduating from college, since 1958 - soloist of the ballet of the Leningrad Theater named after S.M. Kirov (now the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg).

On June 16, 1961, while on tour in Paris with the troupe of the Kirov Theater, Nureyev decided to stay in the West. In Paris, Nureyev was busy only in the last act of one of the ballets. The audience went to look at him, each performance was accompanied by a standing ovation.

Soon Nureyev began working at the Royal Ballet in London and quickly became a world celebrity. Obtained Austrian citizenship in 1982. He has performed all over the world (in Europe, USA, Japan, Australia). He worked very intensively, for example, in 1975 the number of performances reached three hundred.
From 1983-1989 he was director of the ballet company at the Grand Opera in Paris, France.

Film debut - in the Soviet film-ballet "Corsair" (1958). He starred in European ballet films. He also played dramatic roles, most famously - the silent film star Rudolph Valentino in the film by English director Ken Russell "Valentino" (1977). Filmed on TV.

Shortly before his death, he visited Ufa, St. Petersburg several times. He died on January 6, 1993 in Paris. He was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.

Stories of successful people

Erokhin 31.07.2016

Friends, for those who are not yet familiar with the life story of Rudolf Nureyev, this information will be very interesting. The biography of Rudolf Nureyev causes a lot of controversy and different opinions, but leaves no one indifferent.

Photo by Rudolf Nureyev

Dossier: Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (Nureyev). Date of birth: March 17, 1938. Date of death: January 6, 1993 (aged 54). Occupation: Soviet, English and French ballet dancer and choreographer.

In 1983-1989, Rudolf Nureyev was the artistic director of the Paris Grand Opera Ballet. In 1991 he made his debut as a conductor in Vienna.

Citizenship: USSR, Austria. Awards: (France) Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor. Height 1.73 m

Biography of Rudolf Nureyev - the path to success

Childhood and youth

Unusual and unlike others, Rudolf Nureyev was born also unusually - he was born on a train, somewhere near Irkutsk. Of four children, he was the only son.

His family was of Tatar origin, from the Soviet Bashkir Republic. His father was in the military. Soon after the birth of Rudolf, he was assigned to Moscow.

Nureyev family
In 1941 the war began. Rudik with his mother and sisters from Moscow moved to Ufa. They lived in a wooden house with other families.

Living conditions were disgusting, the toilet was outside. Everyone lived in extreme poverty, but the Nuriev family was the poorest of all.

Scar Story: in early childhood Rudik was bitten by a starving dog. It happened at the moment when he raised a piece of bread to his mouth.

When Rudolf entered school, everyone bullied him because he wore his sister's coat and didn't have shoes.

Looking ahead, it should be noted here that Rudolf Nureyev would later be one of the richest people in the world: a huge apartment in Paris, a huge apartment in New York, a personal island, unique collections of porcelain, sculptures and paintings.

On the eve of the New Year 1945, Rudolph's mother managed to take all the children to the ballet "Crane Song", which took place in the theater of Ufa, on one ticket. This event changed the fate of Rudik.

From that moment on, Nuriev decided to become a dancer. He began to attend the school circle of folk dances. Then he studied at the House of Culture with the St. Petersburg ballerina Anna Udaltsova, who was in exile. Convinced of the boy's abilities, he was given the idea to continue his studies at the prestigious Leningrad Ballet School.

At the age of fifteen, Nureyev made his debut in the corps de ballet on the stage of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre, in 1954 he was accepted into the theater troupe.

Further study in Leningrad seemed impossible, especially since the father forbade his son to go to dance classes under the pretext that this interfered with schoolwork. But Rudolph was stubborn!

In 1955, despite the large gap in age, he was admitted to the Leningrad Choreographic School. He studied in the class of Alexander Pushkin, a ballet dancer and an outstanding teacher.

With other students, Rudolph did not have a relationship. He was teased, called a redneck. Rudolf could not get along in the boarding school and he had to live with his teacher.

Nuriev and Dudinskaya

After graduating from college in 1958, thanks to the prima ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya, he remained in Leningrad and was accepted into the Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov (since 1992 - the Mariinsky Theater).

Biography of Rudolf Nureyev

Laurencia. Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Dudinskaya
He made his stage debut as Dudinskaya's partner in the Laurencia ballet, performing the part of Frondoso. It was a resounding success! She was 49 years old, and Nureyev was 19!

"Defector"

On June 16, 1961, while on tour in Paris, by decision of the KGB "for violating the regime of being abroad", Nureyev was removed from further tours of the Kirov Theater troupe in London. But he refused to return to the USSR and asked for political asylum.

Rudolf Nureyev became a "defector" - the first among artists. In this regard, he was convicted in the USSR for treason and sentenced in absentia to 7 years in prison.

In Paris, Nureyev was immediately accepted into the touring troupe of the Ballet Marquis de Cuevas. But France refused to give him the status of a political refugee and Nureyev went to Denmark, where he danced in the Royal Ballet of Copenhagen, then moved to London.

Eric Brun and Rudolf Nureyev

In 1962, Nuriev met the famous Danish dancer Eric Brun, who big influence on the formation of the choreography and style of the dancer. Brun is a huge Dane of unearthly beauty, a world famous dancer who was considered one of the most outstanding dancers of the 20th century.

Eric Brun

It is difficult to say who was the first man - Nureyev's lover, but the fact that Eric Brun became his first and greatest love of his life is undoubted. Moreover, Nuriev first fell in love with his dance, and then with him.

Eric was the ideal for Nureyev. He was 10 years older than him, tall and handsome as a god. From birth, he possessed those qualities that Nureyev was completely devoid of: calmness, restraint, tact. And most importantly, he knew how to do what Nuriev did not know how to do. Rudolph was the exact opposite of Eric. It is no secret that Nuriev had an intolerable character, he could be quite rude and harsh.

Rudolph and Eric

Rudolph and Eric

Their turbulent love affair, which lasted a quarter of a century, finally collapsed when Rudolph learned that in Toronto (where Eric then directed the National Ballet of Canada), Eric began an affair with one of his students, who eventually gave birth to a daughter from him.

Rudolf Nureyev and Erik Bruhn My Creativity video

Upload Date: Jun 15 2008
My Creativity video
Music and vocals: Diana Arbenina

But although everything was over with the love relationship between them, the spiritual connection lasted until the end of their lives, having survived all the betrayals, conflicts, separations.

“My Danish friend Eric Brun helped me more than I can express,” Nureyev said in an interview. “I need him more than anyone.”

Brun died of lung cancer in 1986. He smoked a lot! Rudolph took Eric's death hard and never recovered from this blow.

In 1962, Nureyev signed a contract with the London Royal Ballet, which was an unprecedented fact: people without British citizenship were not taken there. But an exception was made for Nuriev, and he became a partner of the brilliant English ballerina Margo Fontaine.

Margot Fontaine and Rudolf Nureyev

In England, Fontaine was the only and brightest "star" (the wife of the Panamanian lawyer and diplomat Tito de Arias). When she met Nuriev, she was 42 years old (he was 24) and she was about to leave the stage. It was Nuriev who breathed incredible sensuality into her dance. They were considered the most harmonious ballet duet of their time.

Of course, it was a platonic and, first of all, a creative union, but when you watch recordings of their dances today, you involuntarily come to the conclusion that they were connected by a very deep feeling.

~ Margot Fonteyn & Rudolf Nureyev - Romantic photo ~

For almost 10 years, until Fonteyn's departure from the stage, Rudolf continued to be her constant partner.

Five years after the death of Eric, Rudolph said goodbye to the lady of his heart, Margot Fontaine. She died on February 21, 1991, twenty-nine years after she and Rudolf first danced in Giselle. He was her partner in performances almost 700 times! According to her wish, Margo was buried in the same grave with her husband, whom she survived by two years.

Rudolf Nureyev and his men

Rudolf Nureyev was a homosexual, but in his youth he also had heterosexual relationships. He wanted sex 24 hours a day! He was a bomb of temperament, energy and passion!

Rudolf Nureyev met with many partners, among whom are called (remember that no one here held a “candle”) Freddie Mercury, Mig Jagger, Elton John and Jean Marais, but he loved only Nureyev - Eric Brun. For Nureyev, he was more than a loved one. After Brun's death, Nuriev no longer had strong feelings to anyone.

Many will condemn Nureyev. But this is his personal life. As said Thomas Neurwiet (Conchita): "Only the person is important, everyone should have the right to live as he sees fit, if it does not harm anyone."

Date with mother

In 1987, he was able to obtain permission to enter the USSR to say goodbye to his dying mother - a visa was given for 48 hours, and the artist was not given the opportunity to contact everyone he knew in his youth.

Cause of death of Rudolf Nureyev

In 1983, HIV was found in the dancer's blood. Diagnostics showed the presence of the virus in the blood for several years. At that time, very little was known about the disease: the dancer did not begin treatment immediately and took experimental drugs.

The disease progressed. Friends, it is monstrous when a person knows that he is doomed and will soon leave the surface of the earth, and that nothing can correct this situation, even with big money. Nuriev died from complications of AIDS on January 6, 1993 near Paris.

Grave of Rudolf Nureyev

According to his wishes, he was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris. His grave is covered with a colorful mosaic oriental carpet.

Grave of Rudolf Nureyev

Quotes by Rudolf Nureyev

• “I want to be able to work everywhere - in New York, Paris, London, Tokyo and, of course, in the most beautiful theater in my opinion - the blue-silver Kirovsky in Leningrad. I'm twenty-four years old. I do not want someone to decide my future for me, to determine in which direction I “should” develop. I'll try to get to this on my own. That's what I understand by the word "freedom".
• “I dance for my own pleasure. If you're trying to please everyone, it's not original."
• "Each pa must bear the imprint of its own blood."

Secret of success

The dramatic circumstances of his arrival in the West propelled Nuriev to the first place, but he held out thanks to the strongest personality.

Tirelessly performing, every evening, for months, years, all over the world, in the widest repertoire, he touched more audiences than any other dancer. In 1975, the number of performances reached three hundred! He completely changed the passive role of the dancer in classical ballet.

Once, in an interview, Rudolf Nureyev was asked what was the secret of the success of his work abroad. He replied, "I slept little and worked hard." And it determined his whole life.

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Rudolf Nureyev

Dance of a lifetime

Rumors that the Kirov Ballet was going on tour to Paris crawled around the theater. Nureyev did not believe that they would take him. Paris was a dream. It was the spring of 1961 outside. The theater was preparing for a tour, they said that after Paris they would go to London. Everything was unclear. His beloved partner Alla Shelest was removed from the trip at the very last moment. In the Leningrad troupe, he danced with Alla Sizova, Irina Kolpakova, Ninel Kurgapkina, Alla Osipenko, but Alla Shelest was his deity. With her he danced Giselle and Laurencia. The inaccessibility of her jeep and Laurencia's pride inspired his rare gift. He also danced Laurencia with Natalia Dudinskaya, the first ballerina of the Kirov Ballet. Nureyev appreciated the skill of a great actress and sensitively perceived her priceless lessons, but he loved to dance with Alla Shelest, in the world of ballet she was called a great ballerina.

Natalya Dudinskaya was the wife of Sergeyev, the first dancer of the Kirov Ballet. According to Nureyev, Sergeyev did not like him. In any case, this is how he later wrote in his autobiography, which did not prevent him from remarking: “Both of them, Dudinskaya and Sergeev, were excellent dancers, but they were about fifty, and they had little chance of conquering the Parisian public.” They understood this and, in order not to risk it, prepared the young for the tour.

Nureyev rehearsed Sergeyev's and his own repertoire: Albert in Giselle, Solora in La Bayadère, the title role in Don Quixote, the Blue Bird in Sleeping Beauty, Andria in Taras Bulba. The amazing combination in his dance of lightness and strength, swiftness and refined style did not fit into the stereotype of a first-class dancer. Much was expected of him. A wonderful teacher Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin studied with him. Nureyev was his favorite student. Nureyev's zeal conquered Pushkin, as did his musicality. Before leaving for Paris, Rudolph practically lived in the family of his teacher.

On May 11, 1961, the Kirov Ballet troupe flew to Paris, Nureyev never saw Alexander Ivanovich again, although he cozy apartment I always remembered in the courtyard of the Choreographic School. It was a house where he was loved.

Ten days later, he first appeared on the stage of the Parisian Grand Opera: La Bayadère was on, Solor was his favorite part. His divine plasticity was noted immediately. “The Kirov Ballet has found its cosmonaut, his name is Rudolf Nureyev,” the newspapers wrote. Fans crowded around him. He became friends with Claire Motte and Attilio Labis - the "stars" of the French ballet instantly appreciated his rare gift - and especially with Clara Saint, a ballet fan, one of the regulars backstage. grand opera. It was she who was destined to play a special role in his fate. She was engaged to the son of the Minister of Culture of France, André Malraux, and her connections in the highest spheres were immense. First of all, he took Clara to watch his favorite ballet - "The Stone Flower" staged by Yuri Grigorovich, he himself was not busy in it. Grigorovich was not allowed into Paris, and Nureyev highly appreciated his talent as a choreographer.

He behaved freely, walked around the city, stayed up late in restaurants on Saint-Michel, went alone to listen to Yehudi Menuhin (he played Bach in the Hall Pleyel) and did not take into account the rules within which Soviet dancers existed.

Rudolf Nureyev. Leningrad, 1950s

Clara Saint had a misfortune, Vincent Malraux, having left for the South for a few days, died in a car accident. This brought her even closer to the Russian dancer. Having many acquaintances in Paris, Clara Saint was essentially a lonely person: she fled from Chile and with all her being understood the state of Nureyev, a strange, unsociable young man from Bashkiria, who found himself in the center of attention of the Parisian secular crowd. Everything that happened at the Paris Le Bourget airport on that distant day, June 17, 1961, was best described by Nureyev himself in his Autobiography: “I made a decision because I had no other choice. And whatever the negative consequences of this step would be, I do not regret it. Newspapers vying with each other on the front pages gave loud headlines: "Star" of the ballet and drama at Le Bourget airport, "Jump into freedom", "A girl sees how the Russians are persecuting her friend." This girl was Clara Saint, whom he called from the police station. She begged him not to come, Soviet agents snooping around her house, easily recognizable by their identical raincoats and soft velor hats.

Initially, Rudolf was placed in a house opposite the Luxembourg Gardens, in a Russian family. Friends visited him. Newspapers wrote that he "chose freedom" and detailed the events at the airport. If he had not been offered to fly to Moscow, nothing would have happened. They decided to punish him for being too free, from the point of view of those who were assigned to the artists, behavior. His belongings were packed and were in the baggage going to London. What came of it, now the whole world knows. I had to start a new life.

Boris Lvov-Anokhin in his article “The Prodigal Son of Russian Ballet” writes: “Having stayed in Paris, he entered a completely new world of freedom for himself, into the world of dance, not limited by the framework of classicism and the political requirements of the so-called “socialist realism”. In fact, the "world of freedom" turned out to be remarkably complex. Everywhere he was accompanied by two detectives. The daily routine was scheduled strictly by the minute, they were afraid of actions from the Soviet special services: class, rehearsals, lunch at a nearby restaurant and home.

The ballet troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas, who took him in, gave him hope that he would dance whatever he wanted. But the situation in which he found himself only contributed to depression, there was no Pushkin nearby, there were no classes to which he was accustomed, there was no familiar discipline that created the life of the body, without which it was impossible to become an ideal dance master. And he aspired to it. Mediocrity and bad taste reigned here, there were few good dancers.

It turned out that he knew very little about Western life and Western ballet. It seemed to him that this world was magnificent, now he was faced with reality: weak schools, handicraft performance. The young man became a skeptic. A six-month contract was immediately signed with the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas. On June 23, six days after he left, he was already dancing the Blue Bird in Sleeping Beauty. A month ago he danced it with the troupe of the Kirov ballet on the stage of the Parisian grand opera. The next day, he performed as the Prince in the same Sleeping Beauty. Nureyev's partner was Nina Vyrubova. It was a prologue to the future. He became a citizen of the Western world, tearing himself away from what was behind him. Here, in the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas, everything was different.

There was no familiar atmosphere, no traditions that used to make up his life. Sometimes he was overcome by despair: had he made a mistake? The Soviet embassy sent him a telegram from his mother and two letters: one from his father, the other from Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin. Pushkin wrote to him that Paris is a decadent city, that if he stays in Europe, he will lose moral purity and, most importantly, the technical virtuosity of the dance, that he must immediately return home, where no one can understand his act. The father's letter was short: the son betrayed the Motherland, and there is no justification for this. The mother's telegram was even shorter: "Come back home."

Twenty-seven years will pass, and Rudolf Nureyev, famous throughout the world, will come to Ufa to say goodbye to his dying mother. Then, feeling the approach of his own death, he will leave for Leningrad and dance "La Sylphide" on the stage of the Kirov Theater. That will be a new time, Leningrad will become St. Petersburg, the Kirov Theater - the Mariinsky. The audience in the hall went wild, but he could no longer dance, and the applause belonged to the past, to all his legendary life in the West that began that hot June of 1961. In his Autobiography, Nureyev writes:

After my troubles with the company of the Marquis de Cuevas, I spent a few days in the south of France and returned to red-hot, empty, beautiful Paris. In August I was to dance in Deauville, and before that life was uneventful. The only person I met during this time was the American photographer Richard Avedon, who left an indelible impression of himself. He invited me to his studio and made several portraits of me. When I saw them, I realized that I had found a true friend who felt my condition.

He danced in Deauville, in Biarritz on small stages in small theatres, flew to Frankfurt for television appearances and then went to Copenhagen to take lessons from Vera Volkova. In Frankfurt he was supposed to dance Giselle and Vision of the Rose in a program prepared by the Swiss choreographer Vaclav Orlikovsky, partner of Yvette Chauvire. At the studio, they were convinced that he was familiar with the choreography of Fokine's ballet, but he had never seen it.

The ballet, created by Fokine during the "Russian Seasons" at the Monte Carlo Theater in 1911, was seen in the Soviet Union only in 1964 during a tour of the Cuban National Ballet. Naturally, Nureyev found himself in a difficult position in the television studio. He was shown several photographs of Nijinsky, and with the help of friends who explained the order of the movements, he danced "The Vision of the Rose."

Vera Volkova used to live in Russia, as a child she studied in the same class with Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin with Nikolai Gustavovich Legat (among his students were Fokin, Karsavina, Vaganova, Fedor Lopukhov), and then studied with Vaganova. Rudolph needed Volkova, he suffered, dancing on small stages, he needed classes with those who know the secrets of the Russian school of classical dance, and he asked for leave from the head of the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas, Raimondo de Lorraine.

He was drawn to Copenhagen by the dream of meeting Eric Vrun, an outstanding dancer who conquered the Russian audience during the tour of the American Ballet Theater in 1960. Irina Kolpakova once admitted in a conversation that she had never seen such a perfect classical dancer as Eric Brun. Nureyev was fascinated by him, his manner, elegance, classicism of his art, human qualities. Eric Brun was ten years older than Rudolf. Eric's photograph was always on his desk. Even after the death of the famous Danish dancer, Nureyev never forgot him, he meant too much in his life.

During a tour of the American Ballet Theater in Leningrad, Nureyev was in Germany, but he happened to watch a film with Brun. Nureyev said that “Erik has reached the point where you can treat your body like a musical instrument. He was distinguished by a rare purity of dance and was never satisfied with himself, always in search of new means of expression. For Nureyev, he turned out to be true friend and assistant, especially at the beginning of his journey in the West.

Rudolf Nureyev and Eric Bruhn in a dance class, 1960s

Classes with Vera Volkova disappointed him, apparently, she studied with Vaganova when the famous teacher was just developing a dictionary of her system. For Rudolph, this was already a milestone. He greatly appreciated the art of Dudinskaya, Kolpakova, the last Vaganov student, with her he danced Giselle and followed the lessons of his partners and teachers. By nature, Nureyev possessed a large step, soft expressive plasticity and rare flexibility. Pushkin helped him develop the jump, strengthen the coordination of movements. “Pushkin was a wonderful teacher,” said Nureyev. He was able to penetrate deeply into the character of each of his students. Feeling their peculiarities, he created for them combinations of movements, designed to arouse in them a passionate desire to work. He always tried to get out of us everything that was good in us, never focused only on our shortcomings, did not deprive us of faith in ourselves, did not encroach on our individualities, did not try to break them, subdue or remake them. He respected the personality in us, and this gave us the opportunity to bring our own colors to the dance, which reflected our inner life. After all, it is the personality of the artist that makes classical ballet alive and interesting.” To be frank, the classes with Volkova were far from what he had already used in his dance. But meeting her was helpful. She was a kind and sympathetic person, and Rudolph remembered her very warmly afterwards. At first, he really needed attention to himself. Rosella Hightower, Bulgarian Sonya Arova, who became a famous English ballerina, and Eric Brun, the king of male dance in the West, took care of him in those years. Brun worked with him for a long time.

Friendship with Vera Volkova led him to meet Margot Fontaine, her student. One day, the phone rang in Volkova’s apartment, Margot Fonteyn asked Rudolph to answer the phone and invited him to come to London to perform on November 2, 1961 at the Royal Theater in a gala concert. Margot Fonteyn has been president of the Royal Academy of Dance for several years and, since 1958, has organized a gala concert once a year. She dreamed of inviting Ulanova, but Galina Sergeevna in December 1960 for the last time appeared on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Chopiniana and Fontaine flatly refused the offer. Now Fontaine decided to invite Nureyev. He was flattered. Of course, he wanted to dance with her, but she had obligations to her former partner, the English dancer Michael Soames, and it was decided that Nureyev would dance a solo choreographed especially for him by Frederick Ashton and a pas de deux from the third act of Swan Lake with Rosella Hightower.

He flew to London. Stopped at the Panamanian embassy - the husband of Margot Fontaine was the ambassador of Panama to England. “From the first second I knew that I had met a friend. It was the brightest moment in my life since the day I ended up in the West,” he later wrote. London made a strong impression on him. He arrived under the assumed name of Roman Jasmine, fleeing the press. At the Royal Ballet School he introduced himself as a Polish dancer, but he was quickly recognized. A reception was given in his honor at the Panamanian embassy. He seemed withdrawn, self-confident and rather charming. He looked like a boy, and he was 23 years old. The performance in London became a sensation. It was the beginning of his brilliant career. In the hall was "all of London", all the connoisseurs. Frederick Ashton staged a solo for him to music by Scriabin. Nureyev struck with energy and sensuality. Scriabin was more successful than the pas de deux from Swan Lake.

Margot Fonteyn was at that time forty-two years old. Once she announced that she would leave the stage at the age of thirty, but over the years this was forgotten. Now she was alarmed by the partner's problem. Michael Somet retired from the stage, David Blair, whom she chose, was 29 years old. With him she was going to dance "Giselle" in February 1962. After consulting with her husband, she decided to offer the part of Albert Nureyev. Rudolf gladly accepted this offer. The performance was supposed to take place on February 21.

Before this momentous event, Rudolf had to fulfill the obligations under the contract he signed with the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas. He still danced in Cannes, went on tour to Israel, which reminded him, as he wrote in his Autobiography, of "southern Ukraine, it was warm and Russians were everywhere, many arrived quite recently." Then, in 1961, it was still difficult to imagine that emigration would take on a huge scale. He danced two, sometimes three times a week. The repertoire was small: The Sleeping Beauty and the third act of Swan Lake. He was annoyed that he had to dance in cabaret theatres, located in the area of ​​nightclubs. Israel has been replaced by Germany. He danced in Hamburg, taking the time to go to Munich to see Eric Vroon dancing the Prince for the first time in Swan Lake. He himself, on tour in Germany, met on stage with the famous French ballerina Yvette Chauvire. They danced Giselle. He remembered her from Russia, her "Dying Swan" was unforgettable.

Everything turned out so well that he had to dance with ballerinas much older than himself. Chauvira was forty-three years old, Fontaine was forty-two, however, he was no stranger, he danced Laurencia with Dudinskaya when he was nineteen years old, and she was forty-nine.

After Giselle with Chauvire, he went on tour to Italy: Turin, Genoa, Bologna. It was winter, it was cold and uncomfortable in Northern Italy, and he wanted to leave the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas as soon as possible. In Venice, he performed with her for the last time. The city was dazzlingly beautiful, but covered in snow. He lived in a rather average hotel, where they did not heat, he had to sleep in clothes. The future seemed uncertain. Freed from his obligations, he became free. The friends formed an "alliance of four": Eric Brun, Sonya Arova, Rosella Hightower and Rudolf Nureyev. The concert group rehearsed in England and began dancing in Cannes. Then we moved to Paris, and then Eric Brun injured his leg during a performance, and he had to fly to New York and dance with Maria Tachiff the pas de deux from the Bournonville ballet "Cinzano Flower Festival" on television. Nureyev replaced him. He urgently learned the game and flew to the US for the first time in his life. The path from Ufa to New York, in fact, turned out to be rather short, less than half a year had passed since he remained in the West, and so many countries and people had already changed. As if he was destined to be always on the road.

In New York he was introduced to Balanchine. In Russia, Nureyev saw his "Apollo" and "Theme with Variations", which was brought by the troupe of Alicia Alonso. In Paris, he saw the Symphony in C major to the music of Wiese and the Shadow of the Night to the music of Bellini. The performances made a strong impression on him, now in New York he saw "Agon" and the early "Apollo Musagete". He was at the mercy of Balanchine's art, he was struck by the construction: the soloists are alone with the empty stage space. No spectacular decorative row. "Strict discipline of emotions" (V. Gaevsky's expression). Nureyev immediately felt that the choreographer was very confident in his ideas.

During his short visit to New York, he also met Jerome Robins, whose "Cage" to music by Stravinsky and "New York Export Opus Jazz" touched him very much with their expression. He fell in love with New York, which seemed to him quiet and comfortable. Skyscrapers and nearby green neighborhoods, quiet streets in the lower part of Manhattan, gardens, squares, goodwill. He was sure that he would come back here. He never wanted his life to flow along a once and for all established channel; the need to try, explore, seek was strongly developed in him. He wanted to touch everything with his own hands, from childhood he wanted to determine his own path.

Then, in February 1962, the main performance was Giselle, which he was to dance with Margot Fontaine. The American critic Clive Warne writes in his book Nureyev:

Fontaine was never an absolute success in Giselle. When she was 17, she was fragile but lacked artistic maturity. Now that she has aged, this part did not appear very clearly in her usual repertoire. On that famous evening of February 21, she was unexpected: deeply feeling, enthusiastic, more meaningful. There was a feeling that her career could start anew with her new Russian partner.

Everyone understood that something extraordinary was happening, that the audience was present at the birth of a new ballet couple, which was destined to become a milestone in the world of ballet. Nureyev was immediately invited to the troupe of the Royal Ballet, which was not awarded to any dancer if he was not a citizen of the British Empire. Ninette de Valois, the wisest director of the Royal Ballet, did everything to make the theater a home for the Russian dancer, unfortunately, in 1963 she left this post. Nobility and lyrical restraint usually distinguished the dance of Margot Fontaine. With Nureyev, she experienced new feelings. She said: “When I dance with him, I don’t see Nureyev on stage, whom I know and with whom I communicate every day, I see a stage character, the character that Nureyev is dancing today.” All the feelings that were characteristic of Nureyev's dance - outbursts of sensuality, anger, despair, passion - contrasted sharply with Fontaine's manner, her dance benefited from this. On the contrary, she instilled in him a taste, a desire for harmony. Their duet, known throughout the world, breathed new energy into her, pulled latent dormant forces to the surface, and gave him the opportunity to become the “first dancer” in the West. The "Iron Curtain" prevented the Western audience from recognizing Chabukiani, Ermolaev, Messerer, Korn in the prime of their talent, now he became interested in Nureyev. Neither Vasiliev, in essence, the former "first dancer" of the Bolshoi Theater, nor Baryshnikov, who became the idol of America, had, when they danced, the glory that fell to the lot of Rudolf Nureyev. Today in any bookstore in the West you can see huge albums dedicated to Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Nureyev. It all started in London in the winter of 1962.

The duet of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev glorified them both, after Swan Lake at the Vienna Opera in October 1964, they were called to the stage eighty-nine times. The stage workers had to pay extra wages because they could not take apart the scenery and were delayed in the theater. Each one could not

to achieve what they achieved together. On stage, their duet was dynamite that blew up the auditorium. Anna Pavlova is a symbol of ballet, Caruso is a symbol of a tenor singer. Fonteyn and Nureyev became "stars" themselves, having achieved success through their work and talent, but, unlike their great predecessors, they were also favorites of the "world of cafes", a crowd of those who are rich enough to spend time in "high life". The press compared their names with those of Frank Sinatra and Brigitte Bardot.

But the victories were not easy for Nureyev. Signing a contract with Covent Garden, he reserved for himself the right to dance not only with the troupe of the Royal Ballet. In March 1962 he made his debut on the American stage. With Maria Tolchiff, he danced in the United States for the first time on television, now he was to dance the pas de deux from the ballet Don Quixote on the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Sonya Arova. great success did not have. Critics reacted very cool to his performance. New York didn't come without a fight. The fact that he jumped over the barrier at the Paris airport is not yet a reason to capture the attention of the New York public, the press wrote. But curiosity towards him was great, his whole life behind the scenes aroused insane interest. He becomes a regular gossip columnist, someone called him "the first pop star in the ballet world." His love for the talent of Eric Brun has acquired a scandalous connotation. They really were very close in those years.

A boy from Ufa demonstrated to the Western world a dance style unusual for the West. With surprising ease, Nureyev perceived the novelty of ballet, but strict classical dance was absolutely in his power.

School of Russian ballet, its achievements were evident. Nature endowed Nureyev with a remarkable mind, very quickly he began to understand the laws of Western life. He knew who and when should be interviewed, and who should not be interviewed. Two years after he "chose freedom," he has already gotten the hang of answering questions asked by magazines in different ways. Time and Newsweek. Both wanted to post big interview articles about him. He understood that if he gave an interview to one magazine, another would refuse, so he managed to attend two receptions on the same day, on the day of the performance, to meet with the press at both, and the so-called “burn down covers” about him appeared simultaneously in two magazines with a circulation of five million each. The sensation was great. The name of Nureyev entered the zone of mass consciousness, it no longer belonged only to the world of ballet. Clive Barnes, a well-known American ballet critic, wrote that it is unlikely that anyone better than Nureyev knows the art of communicating with the press.

Scandals were also associated with him, as you know, they are an integral element in the concept that is denoted by the word "star". In 1965, the Western world spread the news that at a reception in Spoleto, Nureyev threw a glass of wine and poured it over a white wall. Some magazines wrote that it was not wine, but whiskey, a glass with which he threw it on the floor in irritation, others described in detail how the wall was flooded. In fact, eyewitnesses said that Nureyev accidentally dropped his glass. Once at a reception in the presence of the royal family in London, he danced a solo, his shoes were squeezed, he calmly threw them off and continued to dance barefoot. No dancer could afford this. He could be very rude to conductors, partners, producers, himself supporting and emphasizing the rumors spread about his terrible character. But he worked like an ox, and no one in the ballet could compare with his ability to work and professional discipline. For hours he studied in the classroom, in the rehearsal room, working tirelessly after the performance.

Rudolf Nureyev at the Martini party, 1965

Nureyev died on January 6, 1993, France buried him. The funeral ceremony lasted one hour. Soloists grand opera they lifted the coffin up the stairs and placed it on the upper platform. Nureyev was lying in a coffin in an evening suit and in a turban. During a civil service in the building grand opera they played Bach, Tchaikovsky, the artists read Pushkin, Byron, Goethe, Rimbaud, Michelangelo in five languages ​​- such was his dying will. Pierre Bergé, French multimillionaire and owner of the firm Yves Saint Laurent, who was briefly director of the Paris Opera, said parting words. They buried Rudolf Nureyev near Paris, in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve de Bois. Thirty-two years have been lived in the West. Over the years, he was unconditionally recognized by the world, ballet, theatrical, mass. His glory, the only one of its kind, eclipsing other names, after his death turned his life into a legend.

When he stayed at Le Bourget Airport in 1961, he was still far from maturity. Over the years he has become a ballet director, choreographer, ballet director Opera Gamier. His career was on the rise. When they write that he came to the West to seek his destiny, they only distort reality. The incident that happened to him due to the stupid will of those who stood behind the Kirov Ballet pushed him to what he unconsciously strove for - to perfection. Already a famous dancer, he spent a lot of money on mastery lessons and studied either with Valentina Pereyaslavets or with Stanley Williams in New York. He managed to be familiar with all the celebrities, members of the royal houses, be known as a bon vivant, a lover of nightclubs, a player, a sybarite, and at the same time, without missing a day, stand at the machine, improving what gave the stage a feeling of incomparable artistic freedom. He had a strange diet: he liked steak and sweet tea with lemon and ate more like an athlete than a gourmet. There were much more rumors about him than knowledge of his true life. He had few friends, but those who did enjoyed his confidence, although by nature he was a distrustful person. It was said that he was capricious, and little thought was given to the way in which he mercilessly wastes himself. He was fond of Leopold Stokowski and Jean Marais, Maurice Chevalier and Maria Callas, it was impossible to get to performances with his participation, but he still, paying tribute to "social life", worked, because, apart from dance, he was not interested in anything.

Rudolf Nureyev and Margo Fonteyn.

Francoise Sagan, in her short essay about Nureyev, wrote that his house is a stage and an airplane, that he is a sad, lonely person who gradually lost those few friends who he had.

November 27, 1963 in Covent Garden in London, he danced La Bayadère, not in its entirety, but only the third act - Shadows. Choreography by Petipa, in his own version. Solor is his best match. Furious temperament and decorative impressiveness, pride and touches of oriental melancholy - all combined in this role. Triumph in Covent Garden paved the next step in his brilliant career. He performed in this performance not only as a dancer, he was his tutor and director.

The legend picked up pace. Now he needed to test himself on other stages before performing in London and Paris. He flew to Vienna, to Australia, danced there with his troupe, and then performed at renowned venues. If Balanchine staged "Raymonda" or "Swan Lake", then the program was written: "Staging Balanchine." When Nureyev staged Petipa's ballets, the program read: "Petipa, Nureyev's edition."

With all due respect to Nureyev for Balanchine, the question of moving to the Balanchine troupe or participating in his performances as a guest performer never even arose. Only in 1979 Balanchine staged a ballet especially for him - "The Tradesman in the Nobility" to the music of Richard Strauss. In Paris and London, Nureyev included The Prodigal Son, Agon and Apollo staged by Balanchine in his repertoire. In the West today they like to compare Balanchine and Nureyev. Both graduated from the same choreographic school, both danced on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, both ended up in the West. There is only one difference: Balanchine was a great choreographer and a rather weak dancer. Nureyev was a great dancer and a rather weak choreographer. He made his first attempt to prove himself as a choreographer in 1966 in Vienna, staging the ballet Tancred to the music of Hans Werner Henze. Criticism wrote about "pretentious symbolism", although some independent ideas were felt in it. Ten years later, Nureyev staged his own version of "Romeo and Juliet" to the music of Prokofiev, and in 1979 - "Manfred". But, as is often the case, his ambition to become a choreographer was not as successful as his performances as a dancer. Two different professions, which is difficult to recognize for great ballet masters who do not know what to do with themselves when their short dance age ends.

Nureyev was an outstanding classical dancer, the incomparable Siegfried in Swan Lake and Albert in Giselle, but the intriguing novelty of modern ballet attracted him. He himself admitted: “It was difficult for me to master the principles of modern dance. Classical parts are the most difficult, you always have to think about tradition, how they were danced before you. But modern dance does not have such firm canons, they have not yet been determined, and in this sense, the performer has an easier time.”

He ended up in America just when modern ballet began to penetrate the repertoire of classical ballet troupes. Paul Taylor, for example, staged Halo to music by Handel for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1968, which would have been decidedly impossible in the early 1960s. Halo is the first American modern ballet that Nureyev danced with the Paul Taylor Company in Mexico and London. Glen Tetley specially for Nureyev staged "Tristan" and "Labyrinth" to the music of Berio. "Moon Pierrot" - the famous Tetley ballet to the music of Schoenberg - Nureyev always danced with great success. He learned José Limón's The Moor's Pavane and studied with Martha Graham. He took lessons from her, repeated every movement like a student. Martha Graham staged "Lucifer" especially for him (Margot Fontaine danced with him) and "Letters to Scarlett", which he danced without her. Martha Graham said about him: “Nureyev feels everything so subtly, embodies it so accurately that, looking at him, it seems to me that I am dancing myself. He is a brilliant dancer, but there is something else in him besides this - only his inherent individuality. That's why no one can repeat any of his roles."

With the troupe of Martha Graham, he danced the ballets "Night Journey", "Clytemnestra", "Equatorial". There was a period when he became addicted to dancing modern ballet. Murray Louis staged three ballets for him and for him: "The Moment", "Vivace" and "Canarian Venus". The more he grew up, the more he wanted to dance. His dream was to dance six or seven times a week, he was ready to conduct “full-length” ballets, and not just dance one-act ones, which is very common in the West. His manager Serge Gorlinsky organized tours with the Australian Ballet, with the National Ballet of Canada, with the London Balle Festival, and Nureyev danced almost every evening with different partners. From the outside, it looked like a tour of the "star" surrounded by a troupe supporting the dance of a celebrity. All this gave rise to countless rumors. But he could not dance.

Gorlinsky sometimes organized the evenings "Nureyev and friends", the programs were varied, Nureyev showed them in London, Washington, New York, Paris. Very few dancers in the world are capable of drawing crowds of spectators. Clive Varne in his book "Nureyev" writes: "The name of Maya Plisetskaya provides a full house in Paris and New York, but in London she is not considered as a" big star ". Nureyev in these years was at the peak of his popularity not only in New York, but in all cities of the world. Every summer, since 1976, Nureyev danced in a huge hall Coliseum Theater in London for a few weeks. It was impossible to get tickets."

His thirst to dance was boundless, many wondered: why? Not a single dancer in the world danced as much as he did, the meaning of his life was dance, the stage was his home. He earned astronomical money, became very rich, apartments in Paris, New York, Monte Carlo, an island in the Mediterranean, collections of paintings, porcelain, sculptures. Everything was earned with their feet. Of course, it can be assumed that, like all people who were born in poverty and lived their youth in poverty, he sought, as it were, to compensate for what was not there. But it was not wealth that drew him to the stage, it was not wealth that made him dance every evening. His plasticity was fraught with beauty and mystery, his temperament was exciting, the dance worked visible miracles, and the world applauded him. Nureyev knew that the age of a dancer was too short, and he hurried Time. He was interested in life when he danced. This was the solution to his riddle. He was a truly romantic dancer, brought up in Leningrad, in the Kirov Ballet, where, after graduating from college, he immediately became a soloist and took a leading position in the theater.

The time when he came on stage gave the world Vladimir Vasiliev, Yuri Solovyov, Eric Brun, Peter Martins, Edward Villela Jorge Donna, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Anthony Dowell. But Nureyev is sharply different from them. And it was not by chance that he became a legend of ballet, its myth in the second half of the 20th century.

He was born in a train carriage along Lake Baikal on March 17, 1938. His father was a Tatar. He looked like a Tatar, oriental blood nourished his temperament. As a child, no one was involved in his upbringing, he was impolite and did not understand the intricacies of behavior. He had three sisters. In his youth, he was friends with his sister Rosa, in the late 1980s she came to him in Paris, he gave her his villa in Monte Carlo, then they quarreled. After his death, she sued the foundation in his name for an inheritance. An ordinary, trivial story. His first teacher in Ufa, where he lived as a child, was Anna Ivanovna Udaltsova. At the age of seventeen he came to Leningrad. The director of the Choreographic School did not like him, but he got into Pushkin's class and quickly began to master the art of classical dance. In Leningrad, fame came to him. Admirers gathered for his performances. The future belonged to him. He had no intentions to go to the West. Of course, he wanted to see the world, he was glad to go to Egypt with the Kirov Ballet and took Paris as a gift of fate. Dumb politics, smeared with communist ideology and the mediocrity of those who enforced it, provoked what happened at Le Bourget airport. He did not forget Russia. His "Autobiography", written or spoken by him in 1962 (it was published in England), is full of love for Leningrad. At the end of his life, already very sick, approaching death, he came to his homeland. He was in Ufa, in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), danced on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, came more than once. Shortly before his end, he stood at the conductor's stand in Kazan, was passing through Moscow, but went to Paris to die. He did not want to return to Russia, more than thirty years of life in the West made him a "man of the world." Although Russia has always attracted him, and he always remembered what the nature of his success was: traditions and the Russian school.

Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Back in the years when every trip abroad was an event, the prima ballerina of the Azerbaijani ballet, in those years its artistic director Gamar Almas-zade, told how, having arrived with the Baku Ballet troupe in Monte Carlo, she immediately met Nureyev, who had specially come to see their performances and to see her. They knew each other from Leningrad, he, one of the few, knew that Gamer Almas-zade was a Tatar by birth.

He met with Vasiliev, Maximova, Plisetskaya, Grigorovich, the personal archive of the choreographer contains many rare photographs of Nureyev during their meetings in the West in those years when it was strictly forbidden. Nureyev was a difficult, nervous, capricious person, it was not easy for his partners with him, and it was not easy for him with them. He quickly forgot the grievances, they - no. Although those who knew him closely claim that he was a very shy person. It’s just that he was always at the mercy of creative impulses, and at that moment he was inaccessible to everyday life, and when he was pestered, he became irritable and rude.

His years of partnership with Margot Fontaine are the zenith of his career. His dance was full of psychological details. He danced the Princes as people with a romantic imagination. Only Galina Ulanova could dance female parts in ballet like that, he always admired her, and wherever she stayed when she came to the West, her hotel room always had flowers sent by them. Even in those years when it was strictly forbidden to communicate with him, he found an opportunity to let Ulanova know that the flowers were from him.

"Raymonda", "Sleeping Beauty", "Swan Lake", "La Bayadere" - a celebration of classical dance, when Nureyev danced. He constantly created his own versions, found new interpretations, the Kirov ballet did not let him go, remained in his memory. Dancing was everything to him.

In his personal life, he was often tired, irritable and lonely, although there were always some young people, old ladies, countless admirers around him. He learned English, spoke relatively fluently, but with a strong Russian accent. He also had strong friendships with people, he cherished them, but after the death of Margot Fonteyn, and especially Eric Brun, only the scene awakened him. The years were coming. In 1982, he was already forty-four years old, rumors spread that he began to dance worse. But the magic persisted. In the West, ballet dancers are not taught acting, Nureyev was familiar with the Stanislavsky school. As a man of genius, he gradually moved on to roles in which acting was important. He loved to study. Eric Brun was a famous performer of the Bournonville choreography, he was magnificent in the ballet The Folk Tale, he performed in a role in which there were no dances, but he struck with the accuracy of his gestures, the manner that created the image of a certain folk hero who embodied, as it were, the spirit of Andersen's fairy tales. When Nureyev danced La Sylphide in New York with the National Ballet of Canada, critics noted the influence of Eric Brun, although Nureyev was too temperamental for Bournonville's choreography, he was not his choreographer. But the party's romanticism persisted. "Sylphide" he danced in 1973. Now, nine years later, he tried to appear on stage in parties where he could demonstrate artistic skill.

Carla Fracci and Rudolf Nureyev in The Nutcracker, La Scala, 1970-71

Behind was a huge life on the ballet stage. Why didn't he dance! Antigone directed by John Cranko, Macmillan's Leisures to music by Britten, Symphonic Variations and Marguerite and Armand are ballets by Frederic Ashton. Liszt's music, on which Ashton set Marguerite and Armand, inspired Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, the parts were woven from sharp, confused feelings and the fabulous beauty of duets. The costumes for this ballet, the scenery was done by Cecil Beaton. None of the performances that Nureyev danced with Margot Fonteyn was as successful as this romantic ballet. The dancer spent a lot of effort on "The tradesman in the nobility." The ballet put Balanchine on it to the music of Richard Strauss, but during the rehearsals Balanchine fell ill, and Nureyev continued to work with Jerome Robbins. Then Balanchine returned to work and finished the ballet himself, which had always interested him. In 1932, he created the first version with Tamara Tumanova and David Lishin in the troupe of René Blum in Monte Carlo, based on a libretto by Boris Kokhno. In 1944, Balanchine again staged The Tradesman in the Nobility in the United States, and now, in 1979, according to the old libretto by Kokhno, he staged it for Nureyev. The premiere took place on April 8 with Patricia McBride.

Nureyev worked with Bejart, Roland Petit. Bejart's duet "Songs of the Wanderer" to the music of Mahler, he danced in Brussels in 1971 with the famous Italian. Nureyev embodied a searching spirit, one was in white, the other in black tights. In the same period, Nureyev danced "The Rite of Spring" at Bejart's. They were friends with Roland Petit, quarreled, worked. The wife of Petya Zizi Zhanmer, a famous ballerina who had already finished dancing, was a friend of Nureyev. From the memoirs of Roland Petit:

Spring 1989. Dinner at Nureyev's after the presentation of the scene from the "Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris at the Grand Opera. Wax from candles on a Russian copper chandelier falls drop by drop into plates and solidifies like pearls on the oysters we eat. A political conversation about Rasputin's career as a dancer and whether it is possible to keep the position of director of Opera Gamier. I advise him not to stay between two chairs, between the Opera and Broadway. The atmosphere is warm and friendly. We are surrounded by paintings of all sizes, all eras, depicting Neptunes, Icarus, other mythological heroes, naked and exciting. When dinner comes to an end, we blow out the remaining candles and go to the living room to drink coffee with herbal tinctures. Rudolf puts on an oriental peignoir, takes off his shoes, and while the guests do not dare to talk about anything else besides the owner of the house, he, prostrated on the sofa in a languid pose, massages his feet, at the same time dialing phone numbers all four parts of the world to find out about the state of their affairs. The 1980s were largely devoted to the Parisian grand opera.

Becoming a leader Opera Gamier, he raised the level of the troupe, created a first-class corps de ballet, staged many performances, prestige Opera Gamier under Nureyev became very large. Naturally, he was called a dictator, a tyrant, they did not forgive him for his sharp antics. Sylvia Guillem left the troupe and went to work in London. Later, after Nureyev's death, she will say that working with him was the best time of her life, and that she highly appreciates his gift of leadership. Scandals flared around him. But he staged his last performance on stage Opera Gamier. It was his favorite La Bayadère. To be precise, the performance was practically staged by Ninel Kurgapkina, who once danced with him in Don Quixote in Leningrad and now came from Russia at his request to work on the performance. Sometimes he came to rehearsals, or rather, they brought him on a stretcher. At the premiere, he was supported by two dancers. He could hardly walk anymore. The stage was full of flowers, and he looked at the raging auditorium, half-closed his eyes.

A year before his death, he tried to change his profession. Once Karayan advised him to stand at the conductor's stand. His natural musicality was extraordinary. He began to study, he was helped a lot by Vladimir Weiss, who worked at the Bolshoi Theater, and then, on the recommendation of Nureyev, in Australia. Nureyev quickly learned the laws of the new profession. He conducted in Vienna, Athens, in March 1992 he flew to Kazan and was very pleased with the concert. On May 6, 1992, he took over the console in Metropolitan Opera, Conducted the ballet Romeo and Juliet. I was very worried. Here he danced many times. In 1980, with the troupe of the Berlin ballet, he had a huge success in The Nutcracker and at the same time showed his prince Myshkin in The Idiot after Dostoevsky, the ballet was staged by Valery Panov. Now he conducted "Romeo and Juliet", the most significant version of this ballet was created by him for the first time in London in 1977, and then in Milan, in La Scala in 1981 In 1983 he became the head Opera Gamier, According to his passport, he was an Austrian citizen. Now that was over. He conducted and understood that there were friends and admirers in the hall, the success was great, and the next day Anna Kisselgoff, a regular columnist for the ballet of the most influential newspaper The New York Times, published a review, finding kind words from which it was clear that his conducting was not an event. At the end of May 1992, he once again flew to Vienna and conducted a concert consisting of arias by Mozart and Rossini.

A terrible disease, it is called the plague of the 20th century, took its toll. There were no more forces. On the eve of his fortieth birthday - he was still dancing - he admitted: “I understand that I am getting old, you can’t get away from this. I think about it all the time, I hear the clock ticking my time on the stage, and I often say to myself: you have very little left ... ”Now he no longer danced. No longer directed. He was dying. Everyone knew that he was sick. he lived recent times only the support of the audience, ready to applaud him as soon as he appeared on the stage, no matter what he did. From the memoirs of Roland Petit:

Still, I advise him to conserve his strength. “I myself wanted my life to turn out this way,” he replies. Looking very deep into his eyes, I try to ask him a provocative question: “But you will die on the stage?” “And I would like that more than anything,” he replies, squeezing my hand. Voice<…>breaks off in mid-sentence, and I clench my fingers so as not to show all the sadness that covers me.

NURIEV RUDOLF NURIEV RUDOLF (ballet dancer; died on November 20, 1992 at the age of 54). Nuriev died of the plague of the twentieth century - AIDS. The disease was discovered in the great dancer at the end of 1984. Nuriev himself came to an appointment with a young Parisian doctor, Michel Canesi, with whom he

NURIEV Rudolf NURIEV Rudolf (ballet dancer; died on November 20, 1992 at the age of 54). Nuriev died from the plague of the twentieth century - AIDS. The disease was discovered in the great dancer at the end of 1984. Nuriev himself came to an appointment with a young Parisian doctor, Michel Canesi, with whom he