Rudolf Nureyev :

The legend lives on

by Gwen Herat

Some legends are forgotten while others fade away. However, the legend of Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev keeps burning and alive, summer after summer in the vibrancy of their colour. Born on a train whistling through the mountains of Mongola, guarded by the Urals and dotted by Lake Baikal, Nureyev saw the first streak of light on March 17,1938. He became famous because of his feet disappointing his military father who wanted his only son to be a doctor.

Years later, Nureyev himself recalled the rumble of the train by polishing off its details to a burnished gloss. From the beginning, baby boy Nureyev knew the value of a spectacular entrance.

Today, he is remembered globally for his electrifying athletic leaps and the way he changed the role of the male dancer for all times. He placed himself on the centre stage that hitherto was reserved only for the prima ballerina. A star from the moment of his celebrated defection at the Paris Airport in 1961, he also became notorious on the international nightclub circuit.

Nureyev was the first male ballet dancer to become a sex symbol around the world, a status he carried to his grave.

Private man

Nureyev opted to remain a very private man despite the media glare. He was a product of Stalinist Russia. Though in dance circles he was known to be a homosexual, it never appeared in print. He was surrounded by very beautiful and powerful women including two princesses. It was believed that he never fell in love with anyone other than Margot Fonteyn that was more in an artistically influenced feel. She was 21 years older than him. His love affair resulted in a miscarriage after about a week's relationship, that his manager denied attributing it to sensational publicity.

Despite his sworn misogyny, most of Nureyev's close friends were women and not necessarily dancers. Most of them were older than him which made him more attractive to them. One such woman was Elizabeth Taylor; their friendship was immensely passionate and binding.

When Nureyev first landed at the Royal Ballet, he created a mild stir. It was an open secret that all the girls at the Royal Ballet were in love with the boys but the boys were in love with Nureyev which later, was to annoy Margot Fonteyn.

The epic biographies about his lifestyle were equal to the drama and scale with which he ran through not pausing until he was sick and not able to dance.

Private life

There were astonishing discoveries about his professional and private life that he fiercely guarded. They evolved around his fiery and devoted friendship and ballet partnership with Margot Fonteyn and about his later difficult years. Nureyev had been HIV-positive for over a decade which was kept a secret but its final outcome touched off a controversy in the gay world.

He was supposed to have never picked up a cheque in his life. Money came gushing through his window and he never knew his worth. After sex, money was the aspect of Nureyev's off-stage life that caused beads of sweat across the foreheads of his friends and colleagues. Conversation would come to a crashing halt as glasses of wine disappeared in gulps and the subject closed no sooner it was opened.

There was no bargaining and bidding. He called the shots and he was not a man to squander his money. He would buy things for himself over and over again but not for anyone else. Nureyev was a generous host and his table was consistently first rate.

Being, rude, crude and blunt he could turn nasty even without any reason. This was against his charming and magnanimous, behaviour. His wealth superseded prompting Donald Trump to quip, ‘That's not the kind of money a person makes unless he is me. That's money someone is born into. !

Island

Nureyev had seven homes around the world . He also had his own island. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to maintain seven homes? The overhead expenses would have been astronomical. A friend and I sat down with paper and pencil and tried to work out the figures. It's impossible. The most I have heard of any ballet dancer making $10,000 a performance, when people were flying to see Misha and Marlova. Even if Rudolf made that kind of money every night of his life, you are not talking anywhere near eight million dollars.

It was humanly impossible to unravel the mysteries of the Nureyev industry. Nureyev was a one-man show business empire and the fact is that the brains behind the operation belonged to none other than Nureyev himself.

Split personality

Later, he made Donald Trump look a minor tycoon. Not bad for a ballet dancer. Warm and sensual he was the ultimate of any girl's dream. Perfect to the finger tip, simply attired off stage, Nureyev was a sex symbol of the day. He knew how to play the all-time lover but would not as much as touch a woman. The only one who could have got closest to him was Margot Fonteyn with whom he would artistically fall in love over and over again dancing in new ballets. Her age never made a difference to him.

There were two reasons for it. Firstly, she discovered him and pushed him up to spectacular and secondly, she was his perfect dancing partner.

Despite his avowed misogyny, and repulsion of women, most of Nureyev's close friends were women older than him. He was comfortable in their company as long as no romantic move was made by them.

In particular, he was close to Maria Tallchief and Sonia Arova who were ballerinas but of course, Fonteyn was special for him.

He danced in all the classical ballets in their title roles, later taking on to choreography with a touch of genius. I like him best as Romeo in Shakespeare's tragedy. His brilliance also lay in classical music that he chose wisely for ballets.

His favourite composer was Tchaikovsky and melted in his scores. His greatness lay in every aspect of dance, not necessarily on dancing alone but the classical techniques involved. No dancer reached the height achieved by him and still remain the spectacular maestro of his art.

He performed in the following ballets. After his defection from Russia in 1962.

1963 – La Bayadere, 1964 – Raymonda – Laurencia, Paquita - Swan lake,

1966 – Don Quixote, Tancredi,

1967 – Nutcracker, 1972- Sleeping Beauty, 1977- Romeo and Juliet, 1979 – Manfred, 1982 – The Tempest, 1984 – Bach Suite, 1985 – Washington Square, Cinderella and 1991 – La Baydere.