Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev, born in Russia, is considered one of the greatest male dancers of the 20th century, along with Vaslav Nizhinsky and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
The famous Rudolf Nureyev was born on March 17, 1938 in a train near Irkutsk, while his mother traveled across Siberia to Vladivostok, where his father, a Red Army soldier, a political worker of Tatar origin, was quartered. His childhood passed in the village near Ufa. In childhood, parents in every possible way encouraged his passion for dancing in Bashkir folk performances.
Career
In 1955, Nureyev to get an education and entered the Choreographic Institute. A. Ya. Vaganova at the Kirov Leningrad Ballet.. Despite the late start of his career, he was soon recognized as the most gifted dancer of this educational institution.
For two years, Nuriev was one of the most famous Russian dancers in the country, which honored ballet and made its artists national heroes. Soon he had the rare privilege of traveling outside the Soviet Union, but after performing in Vienna at an international youth festival, he was forbidden to leave the cordon.
In 1961, luck again turned to face Nuriev. The main dancer, Kirova, Konstantin Sergeyev, was injured, and at the last moment, Nuriev was replaced in the Paris performance. In Paris, his performances caused a storm of applause from the public and rave reviews from critics. But Nureyev violated the rules prohibiting communication with foreigners, and it was announced to him that he would be sent home. Realizing that he was probably no longer allowed to go abroad, on June 17 at Charles de Gaulle International Airport he decided to stay in the West. He no longer saw Russia until 1989, when he arrived in the USSR at the special invitation of Mikhail Gorbachev.
A few days after the escape, Nuriev signed a contract with the world-famous ballet troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas and began to play the part in Sleeping Beauty with Nina Vyrubova. Nureyev very quickly became a celebrity in the West. His dramatic escape, his outstanding skills and, it must be said, his amazing appearance made him an international star. This gave him the opportunity to decide where and with whom he would dance.
On a tour of Denmark, he met his love Eric Brun, who became his lover and his closest friend for many years. Brun was director of the Royal Swedish Ballet from 1967 to 1972 and artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada from 1983 until his death in 1986.
At the same time, Nuriev met Margot Fontaine, the British prima ballerina, with whom he made friends very quickly. She brought him to the London Royal Ballet, which became his home until the end of his dance career. Together, Nuriev and Fontaine forever transformed such classical ballets as Swan Lake and Giselle.
Nuriev was immediately in demand by filmmakers, and in 1962 he made his debut in the film "La Sylphide." In 1976, he played Rudolph Valentino in a Ken Russell film, but he had neither the talent nor the temperament to pursue a serious acting career. In 1968, with the Dutch National Ballet, he became interested in modern dance. In 1972, Robert Helpmann invited him on a tour of Australia with his own production of "Don Quixote", it was his directorial debut.
During the 1970s, Nuriev starred in several films and toured the United States. In 1982, he received Austrian citizenship. In 1983, he was appointed director and artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, where he continued to dance and promote young dancers. Despite a progressive illness towards the end of his tenure, he worked tirelessly.
Nureyev’s influence on the world of ballet is enormous, especially it has changed the perception of male dancers; in his own productions, classic male roles received much more choreography than in previous productions. The second very important influence was his blurring of the boundaries between classical ballet and modern dance. Today it is absolutely normal for dancers to get trained in both styles, but Nureyev was the one who started it and at that time it was a sensation and caused criticism.
