The world of arts

Another day, another place

Gwen HERAT

And so on; He lives all over where he was revered and much loved and as the world pays tribute on his seventieth birthday, he is revived and resurrected in all magnificence. Rudolf Nureyev can never be erased from the pages of history as the legendary ballet dancer who danced to the end even though infected with AIDS.

He retained his passion for his beloved art unto his deathbed. No dancer, or for that matter a Russian, has been overwhelmingly projected by the media.. not even Diana, Princess of Wales who was one of his ardent admirers.

Nureyev’s mother Farida, stood on the platform hugging her three daughters but laden heavy with her fourth child. This was a cold morning at the juncture of the Asian steppes with the Mountain of Mongolia which is the horizon dotted by Lake Baikal which is also the highest and largest inland sea in the world.

Her thoughts were of her husband serving elsewhere and to which place she was bound along with her children, that her husband’s fondest dream was to realise. Finally on 17 March 1938, the baby arrived in the train, delivered into the arms of his ten year old sister, Rosa.

Ironically, the boy was destined to die half a century later as the train sped past the city of Irkutsk known as the Paris of Siberia that was full of theatres and opera houses.

He also arrived feet first, another indication what his famous feet would do later much to the disappointment of his father who wanted his only son to be a doctor to serve the Russian army. Years later, Nureyev was the famous dancer in the world with no one to eclipse him.

Bumbed

When Farida arrived in Vladivostok to join her husband, little did she realise that she was a woman who had bumped into history as the future would unroll. The first half of Nureyev’s life was spent in places where secrecy was the norm and secondly, in a profession that lived to talk.

The biggest problem that Nureyev faced was the intrusion to his privacy but perpetual motion caused the alabaster and an ebony goddess called Peggy Hookham better known as Dame Margot Fonteyn. She guided and determined his professional life and the outlooks. By now, Fonteyn’s life and career were every bit as sensational as nureyev’s who leapt over the Iron Curtain. Fonteyn was deported from Panama for gunrunning and their endless rhapsodies on love between the ivory of the Royal Ballet were the most important aspects of their lives. It was the telephone call of Fonteyn to Vera Volkova in the autumn of 1961 that triggered off their famous union and the lasting complex relationship between two very shrewd professionals. Nureyev was just twenty two and Fonteyn forty two on the verge of retiring from ballet. Nureyev turned her around with his youthful vibrance and virtuosity and the ‘ageing’ Fonteyn suddenly sprang to life as never before seen by the public. She became brilliant and passionate. Gone were her cold looks and stone face. She danced as she had never danced before. At fifty two Fonteyn danced the fourteen year old Juliet while Nureyev was only thirty two as Rome in Shakespeare’s tragic love story mounted by the Royal Ballet. In spite of the disparity in their age. It was known that Nureyev and Fonteyn would fall artistically in love each time they danced a new ballet. For Fonteyn it mattered little that Nureyev was gay. She rose above the fact to be his closest friend and companion as long as they lived.

Lovers

Taken and given; were they lovers? There are those who say they were and those who say they were not. But some friends very close to them swear that Fonteyn at forty five years of age, miscarried Nureyev’s child. This high-profile miscarriage according to biographer, Peter Watson ‘was in its way, fortunate. Fonteyn intended to have an abortion.

As it was, it prevented her the indignity she would have faced in consult a doctor to terminate her pregnancy. She did not tell Nureyev that she carried his child until it was too late. Apparently, he was devastated but being the new budding homosexual, Nureyev already had a list of heterosexual conquests. But then Fonteyn already had a DPL husband. She, virtually, never led Nureyev out of her sight.

She was also aware of Nureyev’s sexual involvement with Alexander Pushkin’s wife and Maria Tellchief. Fonteyn was clearly possessive of him and she did things she would never have done for others. She even cleaned his rooms and packed his bags whereas he had hundreds of helpers only too eager to serve him. In a sense, Fonteyn found it rewarding that he distanced himself from women because of gay activities. It was rumoured at the Royal Ballet that all the girls were in love with the boys and that all the boys were in love with Nureyev.

After his defection from Russia in 1960, Nureyev steered well clear of any chance for a K. B. G. surprise and even more shrewd as he kept his gay socialising a safe distance from his colleagues in the ballet. He guarded his privacy very closely and was essentially a private man. Understandably, after the defection Nureyev became the man everyone wanted see and wanted to know offstage as well. He was the walking sensation at the time and the media hunted him down no matter what time of day or night was. Nureyev’s personal standing for the rest of his life added more distance and mystery as he fought shy of the media glare. The faces shifted over the years as he danced through the new worlds of show business. Even to his inner circle, he remained an enigma. Some attributed this to the personal aloofness created by Nureyev’s inbred mistrust of strangers but left his new friends to fill in the blanks on their own. The one person he trusted to the end and opened up to was Fonteyn. His personal magnetism, fame, fits of temper, sexual glamour, classical technique was so unique that only Fonteyn was able to react to.

Hero

Nureyev met his only hero for the first time at Copenhagen in the autumn of 1961. The encounter changed the course of both dancers’ lives onstage and off. The dancer was Erik Bruhn. At the inception, Bruhn taught him the finer side of technique and the purity of classical ballet. As much as the Danish dancer was getting more than attracted, Nureyev was more eager to reciprocate. So began the century’s stormy sexual relationship between them. They were passionately in love.. to the end until Bruhn died after inflicting Nureyev with AIDS. After Bruhn’s death, Nureyev had hundreds of partners, including ‘blacks’.

As ballerina after ballerina sought to dance with him. Choreographers found their dreams in him. Shakespeare characters came to life as he danced them. There had never been a colossus like him with his technical imprecision and his lack of civility did not matter. He was the lord of the stage and commanded it. He was a whole new species and made men dance a complete new vocabulary.

Gone were the days when the ballerina occupied centre stage. He put the male dancer exactly where she was and made Balanchine’s fabled assertion ‘Ballet is woman’ looked ridiculous. The attention of the audience was now shared by both ballerina and her partner and Nureyev reigned supreme over this concept. Today, the male dancer is ever grateful to him.

Rest

And when Nureyev was laid to eternal rest, he had selected The White Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genvieve-des-Bois, lowered into the granite grave to the theme of ‘Giselle’ one of his greatest ballets.

Today, the world pay birthday tribute to this spectacular superstar whose legend lives forever in the pages of history as the most fabled Russian ever to be born.

..................................

<< Artscope Main Page