Nureyev remembered

[Sharon]

Today social media is full of posts remembering Rudolf Nureyev - he would of been 80yrs old today. I only saw Rudolf dance twice, in Manchester late 70's or early 80's and then later in a tiny theatre in Italy in the mid 1980's (1987 maybe?). I think he danced in Manchester because someone was injured and he stepped in, but I could be wrong...

25 yrs since this force of nature passed and we still honour his memory, and that says it all.

 

[Jillykins]

1963,I was 9 months pregnant and the smog was horrendous. My husband drove me to London, helped by flares in Streatham High St and we went to the Stoll Theatre (I think) . Then Nureyev erupted onto the stage as the Corsair, and I was spellbound. I will never forget that performance and what it did to male dancers. I was sad to see one of his last performances at the Coliseum, my Nureyev was gone despite his continued magnetism. However what a heritage he left us. I think I was lucky to be around when he exploded onto my ballet world.

[alison]

Still smog as late as '63?  I didn't realise that.  Obviously the Clean Air Act took some time to kick in!

[Margaret]

My first memory of Nureyev is when he danced Marguerite and Armand with Fonteyn in 1965 - a performance I have never forgotton.  Later I saw him and Fonteyn in Sleeping Beauty with my mother and other family members - she said 'he can't be that good'  but later said 'oh yes he is'!

My last performance was at the Coliseum, where he danced in his version of Romeo and Juliet with Ruanne.

 

Some wonderful memories of a great artist.

 

[Scheherezade]

13 hours ago, Jillykins said:

I was sad to see one of his last performances at the Coliseum, my Nureyev was gone despite his continued magnetism.

 

That magnetism never left him, though, did it? Even when he was well past his best, all he had to do was stand on the stage and nothing and no-one else seemed to matter. Totally unique and never forgotten.

[JohnS]

The first time my wife (to be) and I saw Nureyev dance was our first visit to the ballet together - Royal Opera House 1982, Swan Lake with I think Lesley Collier.  Fabulous, Nureyev utterly commanding of stage and audience.  Our first opera visit the previous year was Berg's 3 Act Lulu in pre surtitle days - a bit of a contrast to Swan Lake to be sure but certainly made an impact.

[now voyager]

My first time was at the old Met in NYC during the 1965 tour:  the Bayadere Shades scene.  My friend and I were so overwhelmed by the magic that was Rudi and Margot that a few days later we queued for hours to get standing room for their sold-out Romeo & Juliet. Almost 53 years later, images from that performance linger.

Over the ensuing years, I saw many, many times,  with the RB,  on those marathon tours with other companies (like the Canadians and the Australians), when he seemed to dance almost every performance, and his Friends programs.  Even as the technique and line deteriorated, that unforgettable presence and sheer passion for dance remained.

[ninamargaret]

I think it's a pity that the ROH dropped the Nureyev production of Nutcracker. I rather liked the 'Russianness' of it and particularly the Snowflakes scene. I also remember seeing Nureyev take a curtain call as the producer of the ballet wearing a very glamorous brocade coat and thigh length boots - very out of the ordinary for those days! He certainly had style.

[annamk]

I SO wish I could have seen him perform live.  I have to confess that I only knew the headlines until recently when I read Julie Kavanagh's excellent biography. I found him such an extraordinary and fascinating man that I couldn't resist buying the Diane Solway and Clive Barnes books ! 

[LinMM]

For me Nureyev and Fonteyn in particular are so associated with my first independent visits to the ballet as an adult that I do find it hard to be completely objective about both of them!! I loved them both so much and even though I know they cannot have been perfect in everything ....(well I also loved Sibley and Dowell ...and Lynn Seymour and David Wall of that era....) I don't ever remember being disappointed by a performance. 

I agree that Nuryev later on in those performances at the Coliseum was not at his best technically ( maybe not so good for people seeing him for the first time then) but he still had that wonderful stage presence that somehow drew you in to whatever he was doing and also at this late stage in his career still managed to move me to tears in Songs of a Wayfarer piece (with a French male dancer I think). 

 

Id forgotten he was born on St Patrick's Day .....and if he wasn't Russian I think being Irish would have matched him perfectly too!! 

 

[Sharon]

1 hour ago, ninamargaret said:

I think it's a pity that the ROH dropped the Nureyev production of Nutcracker. I rather liked the 'Russianness' of it and particularly the Snowflakes scene. I also remember seeing Nureyev take a curtain call as the producer of the ballet wearing a very glamorous brocade coat and thigh length boots - very out of the ordinary for those days! He certainly had style.

I liked your post particularly about Nureyev's fashion sense 😉

But however much I adored Rudolf his dancing, acting and a lot of his choreography, I really don't like his Nutcracker, the gpdd is full of difficult moves but I think it's ugly. It's my opinion and I own it 😋

[ninamargaret]

10 minutes ago, Sharon said:

I liked your post particularly about Nureyev's fashion sense 😉

But however much I adored Rudolf his dancing, acting and a lot of his choreography, I really don't like his Nutcracker, the gpdd is full of difficult moves but I think it's ugly. It's my opinion and I own it 😋

I rather agree about the gpdd even when danced by him with Merle Park; maybe in an ideal world we need a compilation of all the best bits of the many different Nutcrackers! And as far as the production is concerned, that's my opinion too!!!

[LinMM]

I just seem to remember his Nutcracker had loads of steps to the music in ...so was a little unnecessarily complex ..though I think he was trying to make it more of an adult version .....not sure if works for the Nutcracker ...but cannot blame him for trying something different I suppose.

[ninamargaret]

I may be wrong, but I think this version used Ashton's

marvellous  Arabian Dance, which I read one critic describe as a miniature ballet in itself. And I think.Nureyev's Drosselmeyer showed how much he enjoyed himself playing a character part.

[Odyssey]

I saw him dance just the once - a performance of La Sylphide with London Festival Ballet in the 1980s at Stratford upon Avon Memorial Theatre - sadly, he was  not at his best, but it remains a much treasured memory  - the thrill of seeing this legend in front of you with the knowledge of all that he had achieved.

I agree with comments about the grand pas de deux from the Nutcracker - I so want to like it , but there is an awkwardness about the choreography which doesn't look graceful - it's like you can see the effort and endeavour required . I find the extraneous details of the costumes ( sleeve cuffs and neckties/overlarge headdress) also distracting and spoils the beauty of the shape and  line.

 

[Sim]

I am not quite old enough to have seen Nureyev in his prime, but I feel blessed to have seen him two or three times in the early 80s at the Nureyev & Friends shows at the Coliseum.  As others have said, his mere presence was enough to make it worth going along.  He could have stood there and read the London phone directory and I would have been thrilled.  He was one of the most magnetic, charismatic people I have ever seen grace a stage.

[ninamargaret]

Saw him with Fonteyn quite a few times, including a ballet choreographed by Roland Petit called Paradise Lost. It must be one of the most ' modern' ballets that Fonteyn did. Nureyev was definitely a stage animal - and what about his performance in the film about Valentino and the famous tango with Anthony Dowell?

[LinMM]

Yes very tasty!

[ninamargaret]

4 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Yes very tasty!

That says it all!!!

[MAB]

I was lucky enough to have seen him in roughly forty of his roles and a fair number of his productions and creations too.  Sad he merits no official Royal Ballet recognition in this year that marks eighty years since his birth and twenty five since his death.  He gave the company the third acts of La Bayadere and Raymonda (the Sadlers Wells company got a full length version) and I can only imagine the excitement that must have been felt in seeing those great works for the first time. 

 

In her excellent biography Diane Solway credits Nureyev with creating the famous ballet boom of the 1970's and points out that between his appearance on the scene in1961 and 1974 the US ballet audience grew from one million to ten million and the number of ballet companies from twenty four to three hundred and sixteen.

 

For myself I miss the excitement and the glamour of those days, when tickets were so rare that even A-list celebrities stood, often in full evening dress, at the back of the stalls circle and curtain calls went on for half an hour or more.  Night after night I'd sleep out on the pavement in Floral Street to get a standing or a rare return.  I think we all knew how special what we were seeing was and how unlikely it would be to ever see anyone like that again.  Those as they say really were the days.

[LinMM]

I remember a couple of over nighters!! When the flower market was still there so somehow it felt quite safe and people took it in turns to get coffees or teas etc. And flowers to throw! It was a very exciting time. 

[mauriceC]

He had stage presence like no other.

In  an interview she gave for BRB when staging Ashton's Isadora Waltzes,his frequent partner,Lynn Seymour mentioned that no other dancer worked so hard.

The full length Raymonda for SW you mention was unfortunately only staged  at the Spoleto Festival and its Autumn Tour performances ,opening in Coventry were withdrawn and replaced by  Sleeping Beauty with Fonteyn.

I think the reason given was the unsuitability of the designs ;it was favourably reviewed by John Percival in Dance & Dancers,particularly for Doreen Wells in the leading role.

His production for The Australian Ballet was later given in this country by A.B.

[Scheherezade]

10 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I remember a couple of over nighters!! When the flower market was still there so somehow it felt quite safe and people took it in turns to get coffees or teas etc. And flowers to throw! It was a very exciting time. 

 

1 hour ago, MAB said:

Night after night I'd sleep out on the pavement in Floral Street to get a standing or a rare return.  I think we all knew how special what we were seeing was and how unlikely it would be to ever see anyone like that again.  Those as they say really were the days.

 

Absolutely the best times. Coffees and breakfasts from the greasy spoon in Floral Street, invitations to come up for a cup of tea from the residents in the nearby flats, the general camaraderie. Things haven't changed for the better.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, mauriceC said:

His production for The Australian Ballet was later given in this country by A.B.

 

At the New Victoria Theatre opposite Victoria Station.  That was a regular venue for ballet back then and Festival Ballet performed there often.  It's the Victoria Apollo now and ballet no longer features there at all.

[ninamargaret]

I wonder if the difficulty in getting tickets, and the general aura surrounding Fonteyn and Nureyev added to our enjoyment? These days we can get our tickets without leaving our homes or offices, we can visit different web sites for information, look at Facebook etc - even use this forum! We have been able to see more foreign companies and dancers and can travel pretty easily so can see even more. So we are probably better informed, more knowledgeable, but maybe the downside is that a little bit of the excitement in going to performances at that time has been lost. And companies have become more open in providing things like open rehearsals, insights - things I used to wish I could see when they were not available. I don't think I'd want to go back to those times.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, ninamargaret said:

I wonder if the difficulty in getting tickets, and the general aura surrounding Fonteyn and Nureyev added to our enjoyment? These days we can get our tickets without leaving our homes or offices, we can visit different web sites for information, look at Facebook etc - even use this forum! We have been able to see more foreign companies and dancers and can travel pretty easily so can see even more. So we are probably better informed, more knowledgeable, but maybe the downside is that a little bit of the excitement in going to performances at that time has been lost. And companies have become more open in providing things like open rehearsals, insights - things I used to wish I could see when they were not available. I don't think I'd want to go back to those times.

 

I would imagine if we could have bought tickets on line back then the world-wide demand would have crashed the system.  We most certainly travelled to see Nureyev abroad just as his fans flocked to London from across the US and Europe.  Rehearsals were no less common at ROH than now and anyway I've often simply asked to watch a rehearsal and been allowed in.  Personally I find people less informed than now, something that can be verified by comparing the number of serious books on ballet published in the past to the miserly numbers of today.

 

As for the number of companies seen, it is true that for political reasons we never saw any Russian companies between 1974 and 1986, (though they came frequently before) but from when I started regular ballet going in the 1960's we had visits from the Royal Danish Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, ABT. NYCB. Joffrey Ballet, Canadian Ballet, Australian Ballet, Zurich Ballet all at ROH or the Coli, some multiple times, also many less well known troupes at Sadlers Wells.

 

What I don't see today are the overwhelming numbers of people flocking to ballet performances nor do I see audiences full of young people, in fact I worry about where the audiences of the future will come from as all art forms struggle against the onslaught of tawdry popular culture.

[Pas de Quatre]

I too saw Nureyev many times, both in his prime and when older. Very few dancers ever have had the  stage presence and charisma he projected - as well as his amazing technique. He was simply wonderful except when in a strop. I saw him ruin a ballerina's performance because they seemed to have had a row.  Only Matthew Bourne seems to generate similar levels of excitement today to normally non-dance audiences.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Pas de Quatre
Spelling

[GTL]

On the other hand, I was siiting near the stage at a fairly low-key matinée at the London Coliseum watching him in a mainly Balanchine programme with Zurich Ballet (c 1980) when, early into the big pas de deux, his obviously nervous ballerina could be heard to say, "I can't go on!".  He talked her through the rest of it, with lots of "Good, good" and they took their bows graciously together.  I doubt many would have noticed anything amiss, but oh, to have been a fly on the wall once the curtain went down.

[Scheherezade]

2 hours ago, Grand Tier Left said:

On the other hand, I was siiting near the stage at a fairly low-key matinée at the London Coliseum watching him in a mainly Balanchine programme with Zurich Ballet (c 1980) when, early into the big pas de deux, his obviously nervous ballerina could be heard to say, "I can't go on!".  He talked her through the rest of it, with lots of "Good, good" and they took their bows graciously together.  I doubt many would have noticed anything amiss, but oh, to have been a fly on the wall once the curtain went down.

 

How lovely to read about his caring side rather than the usual reports of his stormy nature and difficult temperament.

[Scheherezade]

14 hours ago, MAB said:

 

At the New Victoria Theatre opposite Victoria Station.  That was a regular venue for ballet back then and Festival Ballet performed there often.  It's the Victoria Apollo now and ballet no longer features there at all.

 

I recall seeing a production there from a visiting company in the early 70s. I can't remember who or what it was but can clearly recall how difficult it was not to laugh at the over-the-top make-up, plastered-on smiles and playschool-bright costumes so dazzling that sunglasses should have come as standard with the ticket price.

[Melody]

I saw him and Fonteyn in Swan Lake once. It was a very memorable performance; I think I managed to get a ticket that had been returned or something because I remember getting it at the last minute and staying late that evening when I hadn't intended to, and nearly missing the last train home. Worth it, though!

[Douglas Allen]

I want to thank Sharon with total sincerity for remembering this anniversary and giving us all the chance to reflect on the life and significance of the most important male dancer in the history of the Royal Ballet.

Nureyev's drive and determination took him from the most unpromising beginnings (considerable poverty, geographical remoteness and family indifference/hostility/incomprehension) to get to Leningrad and the Kirov and then to the West. Though a very late beginner he achieved the most remarkable technical mastery coupled with that rare combination - to preserve classicism and to seek out new forms of expression in dance.

We are all fortunate to have had the opportunity to have seen so much of his achievements.

There is a famous quote (originating, I think, from David Blair) that Nureyev's arrival at the Royal killed off a generation of male dancers. To a certain extent, there is some truth in that, but it would be more accurate to reflect that it engendered a new belief in the power of male dancing and energised and stimulated generations of male dancers of a higher standard than had ever been the case before. Just one example of this was Michael Coleman who quickly established himself as technically more proficient than anyone who had gone before him in the Royal. Others who came later were inspired by teachers who were themselves affected by the Nureyev example.

Nureyev wasn't perfect - his partnering could be alarming. Whoever was dancing with him needed to be strong or to bring out the father-figure in him. Anything else could result in total abandonment mid-performance! I still remember a series of Bayaderes where he was dancing with Vyvyan Lorrayne (who was substituting for an injured dancer) where Nureyev quickly decided not to bother with the niceties of partnering and got on with his own performance and left Lorrayne to her own devices. When they were due to be dancing together with the scarf, she held on to her end, but the other might just as well have been floating in the wind for all the support she got from Nureyev!

With hindsight it is a  matter of huge regret that the Board took the decision in 1976 (when Macmillan was changing/being eased out of his role) not to offer the  Directorship to Nureyev but to go for Norman Morrice. The decline in technical standards in the company and the school in subsequent years might have been averted. The reason for the Board's decision allegedly was due to a concern that Nureyev might cast himself too often. This was a justifiable concern, but, in the light of his behaviour when he went to run Paris, perhaps overstated.

His choreography was more variable ranging from the good to the indifferent but his productions of the Russian classics were usually very good. It is his dancing and his proselytising for the cause of dance for which he will go down in history, for which, I think, he will be regarded as one of the three greatest male dancers of the 20th century.

[Sharon]

Thank You Douglas for thanking me 😉

Seriously, I really enjoyed reading your post and everyone else who have shared their precious memories of this amazingly important man in the history of ballet.