From After Dark Magazine circa 1973
I remember my mother explaining who he was when he defected from the USSR in 1961. If Rudolph Nureyev's story had been already filmed, it should have been a preposterously pedantic piece directed by Ken Russell. He grew up in extreme poverty during WW2 in the USSR & yet somehow had this sterling single-mindedness, spirit, & strength to get himself out of his small town & to the West. Nureyev played a role in so many major historical & cultural events of the 20th century; his life was absolutely Forrest Gumpian.
I knew & understood who he was at early age & his image was sered into my young teenage consciousness by a photo from After Dark Magazine. Nureyev was admired by Jackie Onassis, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful, Andy Warhol, Freddie Mercury, Bobby Kennedy, & Madonna. Soviet Prime Minister Leonid Brezhnev personally tried to thwart his career. He was the very pretty face of the Cold War, an icon of the 1960’s sexual revolution, a representative of the new popularization of the celebrity personality as high culture. He was lordly, lusty, obsessive & opinionated. Nureyev was a 20th century true genius & his life is a record of that era.
Nureyev consorted with royalty & with gay hustlers. He was a dancing contradiction: defiant of authority, but an unmatched disciplinarian in the studio, needy & nonchalant, pious & promiscuous, cruelty & charitable.
Nureyev had an intimate, intriguing, tumultuous affair with Erik Bruhn, the very beautiful blond Danish ballet star 10 years older than Nureyev. He remained the great love of Nureyev's life even after their relationship ended.
I supervise fifteen 20-30 year olds, several who are gay, & today I tried to explain what he meant to our culture, but not one of them had heard of Rudolph Nureyev. It was just a few decades ago that he was everywhere, I now he seems forgotten, probably because dance is that most ephemeral of art forms.
Thousands of screaming fans used to wait for him at the stage door after his performances. Nureyev was on the cover of Time & Newsweek in the same week. Like Nijinsky, he was a dance star & a pop star.
The film of his life will have to feature a classic suspense sequence. While dancing with Kirov Ballet, the Communist Party & the KGB didn't trust Nureyev's political loyalty, & he angered them by associating too freely with Westerners while on tour. He was at the Paris airport with the Kirov, ready to fly with them to London, when he learned that he was being sent back to Flanked by KGB agents, Nureyev made an urgent appeal for help to a Paris friend, Pierre Lacotte. Lacotte brought in another friend, Clara Saint, who rushed to the airport. Posing as an adoring girlfriend, she convinced the KGB agents to let her say goodbye to Nureyev.
While kissing his cheeks, she whispered plans into his ear. Then she rushed away & got the French airport police, telling them that a famous Russian dancer wanted to stay in France. The police agreed to protect Nureyev if he could get away from the KGB & into their custody. They accompanied Saint into the airport bar where the KGB was guarding Nureyev. She approached him one last time, whispering that he needed to get to the police across the room. Nureyev bolted from his chair to the bar, a distance a few yards. He yelled: “I want to stay in France!!!” The KGB agents lunged for him & the Paris police, as promised, protected him.
The leap to freedom made Nureyev famous, but his stardom came from his impassioned, impetuous, impulsive, inspiring, intense dancing. Male Ballet dancers at that time were virile & vigorous, but they were deferential to their female partners. Nureyev gave the audiences animal attraction, allure, & astonishing sexuality onstage. I was cold cocked & riveted by his hip, flamboyant charms.
Nureyev died in 1993 from complications from AIDS. He was just 54 years old. Newsweek ran its second Nureyev cover with the headline "AIDS & the Arts: A Lost Generation."
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