Nureyev: The Russian Years August 30, 2007
I caught this fascinating PBS broadcast yesterday (wow! Los Angeles PBS is actually showing something besides Andre Bocelli!) and I must tell you, I was mesmerized. Nureyev is someone I didn’t really know much about. When I was young, we had a laser disc (remember those?) of the Nutcracker Ballet he choreographed with the Paris Opera Ballet, and man, it was WEIRD…starving refugees instead of Arabian coffee? Fighting over food? And we had this coffee table book of beautiful photographs of him and Margot Fonteyn, and the photographer wrote little vignettes about Nureyev, how temperamental he was, etc. And I knew he died of AIDS. And that’s about it! I had seen some footage of his dancing, but compared with the dancers of today, he didn’t quite impress me 
. How can you judge someone’s dancing by video footage anyways? It’s harder to get the electric quality of stage presence off of a shaky video from 30 years ago.
I really enjoyed the PBS broadcast of Nureyev: The Russian Years, because most of the stuff on Nureyev is on his famous partnership with Margot Fonteyn, and his defection from the Soviet USSR. The interviews with his friends in Russia and former dance colleagues was so interesting…his old roommate at the Kirov school, his former female partners, the French dancers. It’s so amazing to see how Nureyev shaped ballet that affected the way ballet has been formed today…the history of it all is so interesting to see. Watching all that rare footage was also very interesting, but I wonder, if Nureyev was dancing on stage today, he probably wouldn’t have made such a big splash on the ballet world. Technique has improved so much; and no one could get away with starting serious ballet training at age 17 like Nureyev did.
But the historical parallels between male dancers since Nureyev are interesting, at least for me: (Nureyev–>Baryshnikov–>Malakhov, Corella, Carrenos?) (Nijinsky’s in there somewhere too) Each generation sets the stage so that the next has to be more amazing than the rest. So with the amazing level of dance there is today, I can be grateful for Nureyev’s contribution to dance as setting the standard back then so we can enjoy dance today.
Some themes struck me between Nureyev and the rest of the male dancers that followed:
1) Defection: Nureyev defected, ran into the arms of Paris officials in order to escape communism. Baryshnikov did the same. Carrenos got lucky and received the blessing of Alicia Alonso to leave Cuba to dance in America. Malakhov escaped the discrimination against foreigners at the Bolshoi to dance freely in America. Corella escaped the torturous practice of soccer playing boys and boys kicking each other in the mouth in Spain to dance on stage. (haha, just joking)
2) Loneliness & Promiscuity: Nureyev had an unfulfilled love life early in his adulthood, and was rumored to be promiscuous. We all know what happened with Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland, and is commonly known to be a womanizer. Malakhov was a lonely child, separated from his mother while attending ballet school. Angel Corella had no friends when he was a child in school, unpopular because he couldn’t play soccer. (Well, I do know that ballet doesn’t make you very popular in U.S. elementary schools)
Some things I learned about Nureyev:
1) He loved wearing tights (making his leg look longer) and was probably the one proponent of men wearing tights that stuck to today. Dang it, Nureyev! Let’s get those guys in pants again…I swear, most of my friends refuse to go watch ballet cuz of those tights. I had an interesting discussion with a swimmer friend of mine; it doesn’t really bother her that those male swimmers wear speedos, but she hates those white tights male ballet dancers wear. That completely doesn’t make sense; speedos show off waaay more skin than tights. I don’t know what it is; it’s like a mental barrier that keeps an audience away from ballet.
2) I love how Nureyev was into other arts and philosophical discussions, away from ballet. I think it really makes for a well-rounded artist and applaud him from stepping away from the world of ballet once in a while.
3) Nureyev proposed to a woman?!? Who knew! The affair with Pushkin’s wife! SCANDALOUS!
4) Nureyev was a diva. Can a male dancer, however famous, still be such a diva today? My guess would be probably not? Who knows 
Such a tragic life; one fulfilled in his artistic ambitions, but left many behind (Teja Kremke behind the wall in East Berlin, the Russian dancers/partners at the Kirov, his parents) to a life of obscurity. Makes it almost seem like Nureyev made a selfish choice in defecting and leaving everyone behind, while he pursued his dreams. The documentary made it clear it was not an easy choice to make, and he lived with the impact of those decisions for the rest of his life.
That marriage proposal was a bit confusing to me. She said he proposed, then right after that another woman (I can’t remember all their names) said she asked him why he wouldn’t marry her and he said something like then he’d never be able to leave Russia?…(sorry, I can’t exactly remember at this point), but I just remember being confused.
The diva thing is funny — I think Gia Kourlas referred to Julio Bocca that way a bit — somewhat jokingly, but still, made me wonder if he was that way at all (I didn’t see much of Julio’s dancing until towards the end of his ABT reign).
I’m not sure that getting the “guys in pants” would help anything – checked any male gymnasts’ uniforms lately? They’re pretty revealing.
I can really see the point of wanting tights, for line alone, back in the early 60s. Most of the current ultra-stretchy fabrics we have today were a chemist’s dream then… (Lycra, anyone?!)
Yeah, I was thinking of the pants in “Clear” — those were good
(Hi, e2c, by the way!) I saw a bunch of small dance things over the past couple of weeks in NY and a lot of the modern guys were wearing normal pants — some far too baggy; you couldn’t see the body move properly at all — it made them look kind of short and squat, and they really kind of looked silly for dance. But I’d forgotten about that “Born to Be Wild” tape, Jennifer! I think as long as they’re tight enough to showcase the body properly and made of stretchy material so the guys can move — perfect!
the pants in “Born to be Wild” were perfect, Tonya
who else do you think is a diva at abt? Would be perfect if M jumped into the discussion, but I doubt he’d spill :p
all of them do seem really nice and down to earth though. i can hardly imagine temper tantrums occurring behind the curtains during intermission.
I know, they do all seem too nice and down to earth for temper tantrums! I do wish that M would spill, hehe — maybe if he’s still all high on those vitamin IVs he will
hi, i know this is an old post, but i was just perusing…I’d have to say, pants on a ballet dancer would just be ridiculous…
The tights show the body and legs, pants don’t. it’s that simple. If your friends don’t watch ballet simply because they have a problem with it, isn’t that a little childish? Jeez. Do they have a problem with the male body or the form of the body? I know a few females that devilishly love the tights, for obvious reasons. They show alot
I guess to each his own. But i think some traditions should endure, and i’m a pretty progressive person.
Men and women in tights in ballet!
(by the way, I’m a totally straight guy