Nureyev: The Life | Julie Kavanagh | INSIGHTFUL COMMENTARY IN THIS STUNNING BIO

Nureyev: The Life | Julie Kavanagh | ALL RUDI, ALL THE TIME

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Nureyev: The Life

	Nureyev: The Life Julie Kavanagh Pantheon, 2007 - 782 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Rudolf Nureyev had it all: beauty, genius, charm, passion, and sex appeal. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement, for both men and women, on or off the stage. With Nureyev: The Life, Julie Kavanagh shows how his intense drive and passion for dance propelled him from a poor, Tatar-peasant background to the most sophisticated circles of London, Paris, and New York. His dramatic defection to the West in l961 created a Cold War crisis and made him an instant celebrity, but this was just the beginning. Nureyev spent the rest of his life breaking barriers: reinventing male technique, ?crashing the gates? of modern dance, iconoclastically updating the most hallowed classics, and making dance history by partnering England?s prima ballerina assoluta, Margot Fonteyn--a woman twice his age. He danced for almost all the major choreographers--Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Kenneth MacMillan, Jerome Robbins, Maurice Béjart, Roland Petit--his main motive, he claimed, for having left the Kirov. But Nureyev also made it his mission to stage Russia?s full-length masterpieces in the West. His highly personal productions of Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet, and La Bayadère are the mainstays of the Paris Opéra Ballet repertory to this day. An inspirational director and teacher, Nureyev was a Diaghilev-like mentor to young protégés across the globe--from Karen Kain and Monica Mason (now directors themselves), to Sylvie Guillem, Elisabeth Platel, Laurent Hilaire and Kenneth Greve.

Sex, as much as dance, was a driving force for Nureyev. From his first secret liaison in Russia to his tempestuous relationship with the great Danish dancer Erik Bruhn, we see not only Nureyev?s notorious homosexual history unfold, but also learn of his profound effect on women--whether a Sixties wild child or Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill or the aging Marlene Dietrich. Among the first victims of AIDS, Nureyev was diagnosed HIV positive in 1984 but defied the disease for nearly a decade, dancing, directing the Paris Opéra Ballet, choreographing, and even beginning a new career as a conductor. Still making plans for the future, Nureyev finally succumbed and died in January l993.

Drawing on previously undisclosed letters, diaries, home-movie footage, interviews with Nureyev?s inner circle, and her own dance background, Julie Kavanagh gives the most intimate, revealing, and dramatic picture we have ever had of this dazzling, complex figure.

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INSIGHTFUL COMMENTARY IN THIS STUNNING BIO

He was born on a train as his mother and sisters journeyed to be with his soldier father. Of this unusual entrance into the world, Nureyev was to say "...it was the most romantic event of his life, symbolic of his future statelessness and nomadic existence."

His was a life lived from place to place from humble beginnings in a Russian village to the most luxurious surroundings the world could offer. He was an icon, libidinous, both men and women were drawn to him. The great love of his life, according to this author, was the great Danish dancer Erik Bruhn. One reason for his defection Nureyev is quoted as saying is because he wanted to learn to dance like Bruhn and "to study with Bruhn's teacher, the Russian born Vera Volkova, a childhood friend of Pushkin's."

Many were to play a part in Nureyev's life and career, They helped him in numerous ways, introductions, opportunities, advancing his talent. However, once these people had served their purpose they "became dispensable."

A trained ballet dancer Ms. Kavanagh brings insightful commentary to this stunning biography, which abounds with quotes from letters, diaries, and interviews. All of these bring an immediacy to her narrative, an accessibility, if you will, to Nureyev's thoughts and ambitions. He was, of course, a superstar, an idol who lived a flamboyant life and brought a spectacular aura to the world of dance. Nureyev the man was unparalleled, and so is his biography by Julie Kavanagh.

- Gail Cooke

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ALL RUDI, ALL THE TIME

Kavanagh's "Nureyev" is another first-rate dance biography, fully matching her marvelous account of Frederick Ashton. Nureyev was more a great star than a great dancer, yet his impact on male ballet dancers worldwide was transformative. Before Rudi, they were mostly earthbound dullards, either crudely straight or mincingly effeminate; after Rudi, men in ballet became nearly as turned out, pulled up, and extended as ballerinas, with a protean animalism that enabled them to live gay yet seem to love their women onstage.

Unlike her predecessor Richard Buckle, whose dance bios read like transcribed engagement books, Kavanagh offers a nearly perfect balance of details and distillation, compellingly tracing arcs in her subject's life. She pays extra attention to Rudi's first years in the West, richly detailing his two key relationships--with Margot Fonteyn, whom he ignited just as she was about to retire, and with Eric Bruhn, the one dancer he would learn from and the love of his life--plus the recasting of his dancing into a fusion of Russian and Western. Rudi's restless gay life is all there, yet without prurience. Eventually he settled down, for a time, with Wallace Potts, an all-American gay boy whose goodness and devotion shine through quite attractively (other acolytes followed). In these pages, Rudi lives just like a coddled star athlete: no matter how beastly his conduct, somebody always satisfies his needs and keeps his ego fully inflated. A fine biography and a great read.

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utterly briliant

I have been buying books my entire adult life and off Amazon since its inception, however never have I before felt compelled to review until now, which speaks to the brilliance of Julie Kavanagh's book. I try to read outside categories I know, and this one was no exception, no absolutely nothing about ballet or dance. But this book made me feel and appreciate both, as well as the epic life of Nureyev. Passionately told and incredible well researched, this is a biography worthy of its subject.

Fascinating

Nureyev: The Life
This is a page turner of a book- not only for the unusual life of Nureyev but also for a look into the world of dance. As great a dancer as he was, even he struggled repeatedly to find his place in the world. As he aged, he needed to change his repertoire, and, eventually, his career. Julie Kavanagh is a dancer who understands the politics of dance and builds in enough detail to make us feel the frustrations and struggles of Nureyev as he tries to find a company which fits his personality.

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The man and his amazing talent

Rudolf Nureyev, flamboyant dancer with the Kirov Ballet of Leningrad (St. Petersburg), began life on a train to the Eastern Russian front. He was the son of Tatar parents from a remote part of the Soviet Union. His father was a soldier who was rarely home. The family was extremely poor and often hungry, but his mother managed to sneak them into a performance of a ballet when Rudolf was five. He was determined from that time on to learn to dance and perform on the stage. He had the talent, determination and perseverance to succeed.

Julie Kavanagh has documented the life of this dancing man in this encyclopedic volume. She includes information about Nureyev's early training in his hometown, Ufa, his extensive training with mentor Pushkin and Pushkin's wife, Xenia in St. Petersburg. She details his defection to the West in Paris that read like a spy novel - complete with KGB operatives.

Nureyev passion for dance and for learning propels him to work with choreographers from the Paris Opera Ballet to West Side Story. Kavanagh includes titillating factoids about Nureyev's personal life - hobnobbing with the rich and famous, his womanizing, his homosexual lifestyle, and his final battle with HIV/AIDS. She also talks about his dancing.

Nureyev is first and foremost a ballet dancer and she documents his transition from the formal classical ballet style to the avant-garde modern dance styles he helped to create.

This tome, and it is a tome of nearly 700 pages without counting the extensive footnotes, acknowledgements and index, is an extensive account of a fascinating person. It is quite readable, with the caveat that there are multitudinous Russian names, ballet terminologies, and musical references. These kept me reading somewhat slower than usual.

The book also has three large sections of photographic illustrations.

Armchair Interviews says: Anyone with a strong interest in ballet history or in Nureyev himself will find this to be a very satisfying book.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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