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Nureyev remembered

Sharon
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Douglas Allen

Douglas Allen

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I've just realised that I posted a longish entry about Rudolf Nureyev without mentioning Margot Fonteyn. It wasn't deliberate, but properly I feel that though the  partnership was famous and hugely important in ballet history, both of them are too significant to be defined by it.

 

Incidentally, as an afterthought, I've just realised that Mikhail Baryshnikov is now in his eighth decade!!!!

He was born in January 1948 so he's 70 - I suddenly feel very, very old........

Edited by Ian Macmillan
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SheilaC

SheilaC

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Sharon mentions seeing Nureyev dance in Manchester.

It was probably with Northern Dance Theatre (now Northern Ballet) which was then based in Manchester. In 1986 he became Artist Laureate for that company and in December that year he danced three performances of Swan Lake in Manchester, his first time performing there. He had been scheduled to dance Nutcracker in Manchester in December 1985 but had to cancel, at 33 hours notice, because of flu (Aids-reated?), surely a rare cancellation. One of his proteges at Paris Opera Ballet, Laurent Hilaire, took his place. The ballerina at both programmes was Elisabeth Maurin, the most English of French ballet dancers, in my view. In January 1987 they danced Swan Lake in Sheffield.

On the 25th anniversary of his 'leap to freedom'' from the Kirov in Paris, June 17, 1986, he gave his second performance at the Bradford Alhambra, in Les Sylphides and Miss Julie. In 1987 he danced The Lesson with NDT.

 

I first saw him dance Giselle with Fonteyn at the Golders Green Hippodrome in 1964; the last time in Sunderland on his final tour, in a programme that included Moor's Pavane and The Lesson. Vivi Flindt was his partner. It was reported at the time that there was loud booing at Sunderland but I was at every performance there and that didn't happen, although he was way past his prime. In truth, he lost his Kirov style early in his performance career in the West but his reputation was long protected by his charisma and magnetism. He was avid to try all styles but couldn't do full justice to some choreographers such as Paul Taylor and sometimes overacted in pieces such as Petrushka and Pierrot Lunaire. His passion for dancing was amazing and at the time he was filming Valentino he would sometimes dance Dances at a Gathering despite not being officially cast,  dancing with Seymour, Wall, Dowell ,Sibley, Connor and the other Royal dancers who were so wonderful in that masterpiece in those days.

 

 Some of his productions for the London Festival Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet are not well choreographed, crammed with too much detail, unmusical and with too many steps, technique for technique's sake, reducing emotional engagement (I remember one performance of his Romeo and Juliet performed by LFB in Newcastle where the audience laughed in the bedroom scene). Yet his production of the Shades act of Bayadere has rarely been bettered and gave the Royal corps the chance to shine and win awards.

 

He turned the Paris Opera Ballet round and nurtured some wonderful dancers there, such as Legris, Le Riche, Hilaire, Guillem, Loudieres. Guerin, Platel. Fiery though he could be, if dancers were not so passionate and hardworking as he was, he was a great friend and support to dancers he admired, if they fell on hard times, such as Seymour and Fonteyn.

 

We will not see his like again.

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mauriceC

mauriceC

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On 3/19/2018 at 21:48, MAB said:

t 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.

 

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mauriceC

mauriceC

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"His "Raymonda" actually had its first night at Birmingham Hippodrome with Fonteyn and Nureyev.........I remember it well as I had to skip the last Act because my trains did not run late enough!!!

Do not think he appeared there again but he did dance at Royal Shakespeare Theatre with both RB Touring Co(Lac) and later LFB(La Sylphide)

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MAB

MAB

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1 hour ago, Pas de Quatre said:

And we must not forget one of Nureyev's most famous partners - this performance is probably the one seen by the highest number of people worldwide. I refer of course to his Pas de Deux with Miss Piggy on the Muppet Show.

 

Highest number?  If that is true I find it deeply depressing

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Sim

Sim

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1 hour ago, Pas de Quatre said:

And we must not forget one of Nureyev's most famous partners - this performance is probably the one seen by the highest number of people worldwide. I refer of course to his Pas de Deux with Miss Piggy on the Muppet Show. Such fun!

Dancing in 'Swine Lake"!  😁

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Pas de Quatre

Pas de Quatre

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Nureyev & Miss Piggy - ballet

 

Baby its Cold Outside

 

Why depressing? I don't know the exact viewing figures but if you count repeats and youtube this Nureyev & Miss Piggy pas de deux must have been see by millions around the world. I just don't see any theatrical or regular filmed ballet performance matching that!  I had totally forgotten about the "Baby it's Cold Outside" until I looked for the Swan Lake clip.  Enjoy....

Edited by Pas de Quatre
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Bruce Wall

Bruce Wall

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Those clips remind me of one different outing (outside of many, many balletic performances - Oh, for those Miss Julies - especially on one vivid occasion with a replacement called Martine Van Hamel) I remember Nureyev for which was in The King and I with Alan Jay Learner's widow, Liz Robertson ... as well as - most vividly - an elaborate top hat and tails number (up and down an over sized staircase I seem to recall) he did with Anthony Dowell during a Charity Gala at Radio City Music Hall.  They certainly had a blast on that occasion - as did the audience.  He had - at least on stage - a very sharp wit and was capable - on those occasions at least - of laughing alongside himself. 

 

 

Edited by Bruce Wall
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Pulcinella

Pulcinella

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On 21/03/2018 at 21:27, mauriceC said:

"His "Raymonda" actually had its first night at Birmingham Hippodrome with Fonteyn and Nureyev.........I remember it well as I had to skip the last Act because my trains did not run late enough!!!

Do not think he appeared there again but he did dance at Royal Shakespeare Theatre with both RB Touring Co(Lac) and later LFB(La Sylphide)

 

This was the first time I saw Fonteyn and Nureyev live. I had to beg my mother to allow me to go with a friend as I had never been allowed to go into the city centre at night before but it was worth it. I saw him several times after that, with the RB (especially memorable in Dances at a Gathering, where he made himself just one of the group not the "star" turn) as well as with other companies and his Nureyev and Friends groups. The last performance I saw him in was La Sylphide with LFB at Stratford where he was a shadow of his former self but still had that charisma, as others have said. I loved his Shades scene from Bayadere and wish this could be revived by either the Royal or another company.

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jmb

jmb

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I never saw Nureyev dance, although I am old enough to have had the possibility. Growing up in rural northern Tasmania in the 50s, I didn't come across much ballet, and it is a mystery to me as to why I persuaded my mother into driving me 20 miles every Saturday morning to the regional centre where there was a real ballet teacher. That lasted a year, and as a result I first formulated what has become my life-long attitude to my body - best described as 'armed neutrality' - I won't mess with you if you don't mess with me. Be that as it may, I was still interested in ballet, and one day in the mid -60s, television having finally arrived in northern Tasmania, I turned on our set to see figures from Greek Black-figure pottery dancing in two- dimensional glory. I was transfixed. I didn't know who they were or what they were doing (apart from dancing) but the memory of those dancing two-dimensional figures stayed with me. Life intervened and it didn't include ballet, and then suddenly, unexpectedly, amazingly, only a very few years ago, I fell in love with ballet all over again. And so I was doing my homework for the Australian Ballet's performance of Nijinsky (which was, in current parlance, awesome). As part of my preparation, I was trying to watch ballets associated with Nijinsky on youtube. I found a link to Joffrey Ballet's production of L'Apres-midi d'un Faune, with Nureyev, which looked worth watching, so I settled down to watch. And to my astonishment, there, on my screen, was my freize of dancing two dimensional ladies. And Nureyev - earthy, sexy, magical Nureyev. He gave my dancing freize a name and a place, and this was his gift to me. And for this I owe him a boundless debt of gratitude.

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MAB

MAB

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Although it seems the British ballet world has chosen to ignore these anniversaries, that isn't the case elsewhere.  In Russia where they never forget great artists from the past, the Bolshoi plans a celebration and last month Andris Liepa arranged a gala performance in his memory.  This is all the more touching when you remember how few people actually saw him in his home country.

 

In Toronto the Canadians hosted a special performance in his honour coinciding with a large reunion of his fans who also attended rehearsals and talks.  Quite a few people I know were able to go to this, both from the US and the UK.  I'm told they had a wonderful time.  I believe there is also something happening in Vienna in the summer (Nureyev was an Austrian citizen), when I have details I'll post them.

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LinMM

LinMM

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Would love to have been at La Scala Milan for the gala....with Bolle performing in Apollo....a role I loved Nureyev in. I'm sure Bolle is one of the few dancers who will do the role justice anyway.

Perhaps there should be some big celebrations for Nureyev in 2021 .....sixty years after he defected. 

Perhaps the Bolshoi coming to UK with the new ballet Nureyev!

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Estreiiita

Estreiiita

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Probably because of the coming ballet festival  in Copenhagen that starts in the end of the week, the Danish television decided to show the film from the British series "Artists in love" from 2015 about Rudolf Nureev and Erik Bruhn:

https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/artists-in-love-eps-1-10/-/en-kaerlighedshistorie-erik-bruhn-rudolf-nurejev#

The film can be seen until the 6th of June, 2018.

Edited by Estreiiita
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