Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev Chametowitsch ( Tatar Rudolf Xämät Uli Nuriev / Рудольф Мөхәммәт улы Нуриев, Russian Рудольф Хаметович Нуриев, scientific transliteration Rudol'f Chametovič Nuriev; born March 17, 1938 in near Irkutsk, † January 6, 1993 in Levallois -Perret, France) was a dancer of Tatar origin who grew up in the Soviet Union in 1982 and took Austrian citizenship. He is considered one of the best male ballet dancers of the 20th century and was the biggest star in the classical ballet in the second half of the twentieth century. Nureyev influenced both the roles of interpretation in the classical repertoire as well as contemporary choreography. After leaving the Soviet Union, Nureyev justified the emancipation of the male role parts in ballets that were tailored to ballerinas as the center. He gave a virtuoso technique and athletic presence, as they were maintained in the Soviet ballet in the West and led so here is a renaissance of classical ballet one. His partnership with Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the Royal Ballet Margot Fonteyn from the interpretation is considered a high point in the classical repertoire. As far back as an icon of the dance, he was through media coverage and reporting a broad, also known ballet foreign audience.
- 2.1 flight at Le Bourget
- 2.2 Nureyev Ballet Legend - Fonteyn
- 2.3 Significant productions
- 2.4 Later career
Life
Family and Childhood
Nureyev was born to Tatar parents in a train of the Trans-Siberian railway near Irkutsk, when his mother traveled across Siberia to Vladivostok, where his father was stationed as a soldier in the Red Army. He grew up in a village near Ufa in Soviet Bashkortostan.
Training
In Ufa, Nureyev began his training as a partner of his sister in ballet lessons. After gaining experience in folk dance, he took first private ballet lessons from the former professional ballerinas Anna Udeltsova and Elena Vaitovich. This led him to the classical ballets and encouraged Rudik, as he was usually called, against the resistance of his father and despite his advanced age - Rudolf was already 17 years old - to run for a State ballet training in Leningrad. Surprisingly finally began the already too old really for the Kirov Ballet Academy in 1955, Nureyev a ballet training at Choreographic Institute Leningrad. He came by his tenacity as his talent to the famous men's class of Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin ( among others formed Pushkin and Mikhail Baryshnikov from ), but had to start in the sixth grade and was three to four years older than the other students in the group. Nureyev's training time at the Kirov was characterized among other things by constant confrontations with the Board. Nureyev was in danger of not being able to finish because of its rather parochial nature and his irrepressible refusal to submit to the ballet line training. In addition to the characterological obstacles Nureyev plagued but especially the fact that his fellow students were several years ahead of him. Later Nureyev admitted that his classmate Yuri Solovyov was technically much better than him.
Soloist with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet
His former ballet teacher of the classical pas de deux Natalya Dudinskaya, a first soloist and long-time trainer of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in the Kirov Theatre, Nureyev owed the incorporation into the classical repertoire and his dance refinement, particularly in the expression and presence was his Dudinskaya a role model. As a partner of Dudinskaya His first solo role in Kirov on November 20, 1958 in the favorite of her ballet Laurentia. The success in Laurentia and its sensational appearance with Alla Sisowa in Le Corsaire at the Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1958 strengthened Nureyev's position, and he was engaged as a soloist. His partner in the Leningrad period was mainly Ninel Kugakpina, but he also joined on with Natalia Dudinskaya ( Laurentia ) and Alla Sizova (Le Corsaire ) on.
Soon he enjoyed the then rare privilege to go on trips abroad, and danced with Sisowa in Le Corsaire in Vienna at the International Youth Festival, where she won a gold medal despite strong competition. Among other things, there came from the Kirov Ballet Yuri Solovyov still and Natalia Makarova and the first soloist of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Wassilijew on. Shortly after his trips abroad were prohibited for disciplinary reasons. He toured instead in the Russian provinces as well as in the GDR. According to the Berlin Festival in October 1960, Nureyev had to compete through the GDR a forty -day tour over 5000 km. Accompanied only by a pianist Nureyev found himself in a circus -like companies in third-class performance venues, what his rebellion against the ballet line only reinforced.
Nureyev was within two years as a soloist at the Kirov one of the most famous dancers of the Soviet Union. His first presentation of Siegfried in Swan Lake, in the nine years older than Kugakpina the Odette / Odile danced, took place in April 1961 in Leningrad instead, just two months before he emigrated to the West.
Despite his late start, his dancing talent prevailed. His dancers personality was especially recognized in its special charisma, musicality, masculinity and technical virtuosity, even if his life he never reached the technical brilliance of contemporary soloists such as Erik Bruhn, Anthony Dowell, Mikhail Baryshnikov or. However, he by his obvious already at the beginning stage presence those dancers who had enjoyed a more thorough training and also technically reached greater perfection, as his classmate and fellow student in Alexander Pushkin's master class, Yuri Soloviev, now in the shade. However, be extremely difficult temperament was evident. Unplaned language aufbrausendes occurrence, stubbornness and later pronounced arrogance difficult working with Nureyev.
Star career after emigration
Flight at Le Bourget
On June 1, 1961, Nureyev danced for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. A mutual exchange of the leading ballet companies in East and West allowed Nureyev to perform with the Kirov at the Paris Palais des Sports for the opening of the Paris season of the Kirov Ballet as Siegfried in Swan Lake. Immediately after an evening on the 15th of June at the Palais Garnier, he took the chance to escape to the West. Whether it was carefully planned or whether Nureyev was followed by a spontaneous impulse, is answered differently by different sources. Although the tour was to be continued after the acclaimed performances in Paris, in London, the ballet Nureyev Directorate announced on the morning of June 16, 1961 at Le Bourget airport, he had to go to the invitation of the Soviet party leadership immediately to Moscow. Nureyev 's response was to have in the terminal building of the company and cleared in France for political asylum.
Left to their own and besieged by the press, Nureyev tried as quickly as possible to establish a connection to a Western company. He signed as early as the first week with the Ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas, a maximum six-month commitment and danced from June 23 to July 29 at the Théâtre des Champs- Élysées in Sleeping Beauty with Nina Wyrobowa. The company then stepped in August to a gala on in Deauville and continued her tour of Europe and Israel continues. Rosella Hightower and Yvette Chauvire were Nureyev's first known female partners in the West. Nureyev was a longer commitment to the private company but not ready because he was secretly hoping to be hired on a permanent basis at the Royal Ballet.
Through the mediation of the older Russian Ballet emigrants from the area of the Ballets Russes Nureyev started quickly with the differences with the Soviet style to familiarize, also by studying unknown to him roles in Western ballets. Decisive for its further development, the encounter with the then most important danseur Noble of the West, Erik Bruhn, who was ten years older, and for many years his lover and closest friend was was. He helped Nureyev to refine his then technically still unpolished and more rugged style. With Bruhn, Nureyev made his first casino in Cannes in January 1962.
Ballet legend Nureyev - Fonteyn
With an invitation to participate the 19-year old English prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn Assoluta, at a gala performance in honor of the Royal Academy of Dance on 2 November 1961 began a memorable ballet partnership. Their first appearance occurred in the Covent Garden Opera in an exemplary performance Giselle on 21 February 1962, when the couple was called 23 times before the curtain. This evening founded classical partnership of unequal pair, and they became the " dream couple of the dance ". The debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London established a connection to the leading ballet company in Europe, which continued until the end of his dancing career, however without ever was a member of the Royal Ballet. Because of the refusal of the Directorate, Nureyev offer a fixed soloists point, Nureyev was dependent throughout his career of involvement in various homes. Nureyev therefore began with his own productions, its popularity also economical to use and built himself on a trademark. The first dancer he demanded high individual salaries, which was unusual by then.
The classical repertoire Nureyev and Fonteyn included, in particular the classical works of romance like Petipa's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire and Giselle. Nureyev developed in the West for the first time since the Ballets Russes and a single pre-war performance of the Sadler's Wells Ballet under Ninette de Valois, an original version of Petipa and Tchaikovsky's longest and most elaborate ballet, Sleeping Beauty. In Ninette de Valois Nureyev was also an important patron found. But Margot Fonteyn benefited from the taper which meant Nureyev for the ballet world. The aging prima ballerina Fonteyn, who was standing with 42 years actually at the end of her career and was no longer the first choice of the Royal Ballet, earned a fame that was unprecedented in ballet in the second half of the 20th century by Nureyev.
The popularity of Nureyev / Fonteyn led in 1963 to choreograph the then chief choreographer and later director of the Royal Ballet Frederick Ashton, a full-length story ballet Marguerite and Armand by Alexandre Dumas ' La Dame aux Camelias with music by Liszt for the two. Only after the death of Fonteyn and Nureyev dance this choreography was re- listed for the first time with Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche. During his lifetime Fonteyn / Nureyev was an unspoken ban rehearsing the ballet in a different formation. Another important step was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet with choreography from the Soviet Union, which brought out Ashton on 9 February 1965 at London's " Covent Garden ". After the performance, the audience applauded 40 minutes.
Significant productions
Nureyev stood next Fonteyn on with all the leading ballerinas of the West and Soviet emigrants. His Nutcracker production for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1968 with Merle Park as Clara was based on a Soviet choreography and was considered outstanding. She remained in the late seventies, part of the company 's repertoire. With Carla Fracci Nureyev appeared in Giselle Balletto dell'Opera di Roma. In 1962 he presented in London with the Royal Ballet before the Soviet choreography of Le Corsaire in the West. In 1966 he brought his version of Sleeping Beauty at La Scala in Milan. In 1972 he was at the instigation of Robert Helpmann to Australia, where he made his directorial debut with Don Quixote. With the Australian National Ballet Nureyev 1970 Don Quixote, Raymonda in 1975 for the stage at the American Ballet Theatre produced. For Eva Evdokimova and the London Festival Ballet ( English National Ballet) in 1975, he created a new choreography of Sleeping Beauty. In the production of Cinderella for the Paris Opera in 1986, he raised the future star of the European ballet scene, Sylvie Guillem, to the rank of " Étoile ". With the Ballet de l' Opéra Nureyev closed on 8 October 1992 at the Palais Garnier with his last major production, La Bayadere, only months before his death, his re-interpretation of classic ballets and new production from.
Since his emigration to Nureyev also tried in modern dance, among others, the Dutch National Ballet and works by contemporary choreographers, including George Balanchine, Hans van Manen, Glen Tetley, Roland Petit and Martha Graham.
Later career
In 1964 he went to Vienna, where he worked as a dancer and choreographer at the Vienna State Opera Ballet until 1988. Because he had lost Soviet citizenship after his escape and as a stateless person only had a Nansen passport, making travel very difficult, he took through the mediation of former ballet director Gerhard Brunner 1982, the Austrian citizenship.
In 1983 he became director of the Paris Opera Ballet, which he directed in which he danced, and where he promoted especially young dancers, the exceptional talent Sylvie Guillem. He danced with her as a partner in many classic games. Despite its progressive HIV disease, he worked tirelessly as a dancer and choreographer.
Illness and death
The immune deficiency disease AIDS became known to the general public in France about 1982. Nureyev was infected probably in the early eighties with the HI virus. For many years he denied rumors about his health condition, and about 1990, when his disease was evident, he pushed against other ailments. In his final performance of La Bayadère in 1992 suffered Nureyev, who was too weak and had to sit on a chair, while the onset of spontaneous ovation from the audience faint. The French Minister of Culture Jack Lang awarded him France's highest cultural award, Nureyev was appointed Chevalier de l' Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Rudolf Nureyev died a few months later at the age of 54 years from the effects of AIDS. His coffin was laid out publicly, and on 12 January 1993, he was buried according to his will in the Russian cemetery in Sainte -Geneviève -des- Bois near Paris. The extraordinary tomb Nureyev ( 1996), which is covered with a mosaic in the form of an oriental Kelimteppichs, the Italian set designer Ezio Frigerio created.
In 1998 ( 22nd District ), the Rudolf Nureyev - promenade named after him in Vienna Danube city.
Nureyev's effect
Nureyev brought about a revival of the classical repertoire in the West. He freshened the Soviet choreography of the great classical ballets with its changes. He also favored a more oriented to technical virtuosity considers the roles so romantic ballet Giselle, in the previously emerged the mimic- acting moment. Nureyev's stage presence gave the male part, the virtuoso bravura solos required a more athletic dancer type in Soviet ballet, more weight. It also makes it suited to ballerinas lyrical ballet into more of a type in which the soloist played an equal role and not only acted as a pas -de- deux partner of the dancer.
Nureyev in film, literature and art
In addition to ballet, he was also active in other artistic fields. During the seventies Nureyev appeared with moderate success in several films and toured the U.S. with a revival of the Broadway musical The King and I. In 1976 he played Rudolph Valentino in Ken Russell's film, but he had neither the talent nor the discipline for a serious film career. In 1977 he was a guest star on The Muppet Show ( Season 2 ).
The Irish- American writer Colum McCann sat Nureyev in his fictional biography The dancer a literary monument. The German - French sculptor and graphic artist Arno Breker recorded in Paris, Nureyev, who was his model, with two lithographs of Chagall master printer Fernand Mourlot withdrew in 1974. The American photographer Richard Avedon made immediately after Nureyev's arrival in Paris footage of him.