Nureyev : The Life (9780307807342)

by Kavanagh, Julie

  For the hospitality I received in the process of my research, I must single out for thanks Jean Audy Rowland, who invited me to stay at her house on St. Bart’s, the evocative “Maison Noureev”; Soili Arvola and Leo Ahonen for help and generosity in Katy, Texas; Natasha Harley in New York and Long Island; the then British Ambassador Sir Andrew and Stephanie Wood in Moscow; Shamile Teregulov and his wife, Leonora, in Ufa; Zagida Tukmach in Asanova; and Vittoria Ottolenghi in Rome.

  To my forthcoming and indefatigable prime sources I express the deepest gratitude: Frank Augustyn, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Maurice Béjart, Marika Besobrasova, Gerhard Brunner, Michel Canesi, Leslie Caron, Jean-Luc Choplin, Robert Denvers, Gilles Dufour, Thierry Fouquet, Carla Fracci, Hugues Gall, Nicole Gonzalez, Kenneth Greve, Jane Hermann, Barbara Horgan, Charles Jude, Karen Kain, Ninel Kurgapkina, Pierre Lacotte, André Larquié, Jacques Loyau, Heinz Mannigel, Menia Martinez, Linda Maybarduk, Axel Mowitz, Alla Osipenko, Lennart Pasborg. Luigi Pignotti, Yasemin Pirinccioglu, Elisabeth Platel, Lee Radziwill, Franck Raoul-Duval, Janine Ringuet, Patricia Ruanne and Frederic Jahn, Clara Saint, Toer van Schayk, Stephen Sherriff, Marie-Suzanne Soubie, Sergiu Stefanschi, Igor Stupnikov, Maria Tallchief, Ghislaine Thesmar, Joan Thring, Hélène Traïline, the late Robert Tracy, Monique van Vooren, Jamie and Phyllis Wyeth.

  I am also immensely grateful to: Anneli Ahanko, Edward Albee, Natalia Akimova, Gennedy Albert, Arthur Albrecht, Lucette Aldous, Margarita Alexeeva, Margarita Alfimova, Anneli Alhanko-Shoglund, Alicia Alonso, Nina Alovert, Andrea Amort, Elena Apakova, Galina Artemieva, Albert Aslanov, Claude Baignières, Svetlana Baisheva, Tania Bari, Julian Barnes, Patricia Barnes, Ray Barra, Galina Barunchukova, Edgar Battista, Dick Beard, Igor Belsky, Terence Benton, Pavel Berdin, Bill Beresford, Pierre Bergé, Deanne Bergsma, Claude Bessy, Clara Bikchova, Alik Bikchurin, David Bintley, Michael Birkmeyer, Jennie Bisset, Mario Bois, Roland Boker, Erica Bolton, Neil Boyd, Boris Bregvadze, John Bridcut, Lola Bubbosch, Claus von Bülow, Leo Carey, Jean-Claude Carrière, Arlette Castanier, Giorgio Cattarello, Yvette Chauviré, Sybil Christopher, Mary Clarke, Ursula Collein, Jennifer Rizzuto Congregane, Robert Conquest, Gilberte Cournande, David Cronin, Azalia Cuchimova, William Davidson, Vadim Desnitsky, Gerlinde Dill, Nikita Dolgushin, James Douglas, Anthony Dowell, German Drushenitsky, Irina Duddell, Natalia Dudinskaya, Wayne Eagling, Andrew Edmonson, Anne Enders, Vladimir Fedianin, Ralph Fiennes, Princess Firyal, Bryan Forbes, the late Charles France, Michelle Franco, Tim Garton-Ash, Roland Gawlik, the late Nico Georgiadis, Christopher Gibbs, Maina Gielgud, Ingrid Glindemann, Ilmira Goforova, Katia Gortchakoff, Alexander Grant, Beryl Grey, Stewart Grimshaw, Hubert Grunwald, Marit Gentele Gruson, Jean Guizerix, Eldus Habirov, Christopher Hampton, Robert Harris, Jonathan Haslam, Nicholas Haslam, Marcia Haydée-Schobert, Susan Hendl, Hans Werner Henze, Robert Hewison, Teddy Heywood, Rosella Hightower, Anna-Marie Holmes, Kate Horner, Jana Howlett, Elizabeth, Lydia and Waxy Hübner, Lieda Husainova, Robert Hutchinson, Ronald Hynd, Zizi Jeanmaire, Ellen Josefowitz, Barry Joule, Vladimir Kataev, Vadim Kiselev, Traude Klockl, Yuri Kobaladze, Irina Kolpakova, Gabriella Komleva, Nicolai Kovmir, Vera Krasovskaya, David Kuhn, Zsuzsa Kun, Bella Kurgina, Ilza Kurgusova, Edmund and Robert La Fosse, the late John Lanchbery, Nellie and Tony Liddell, Kerstin Lidström, Monique Loudières, Murray Louis, Richard McCabe, Valentina Malofeeva, Satu Marks, Monica Mason, Giuseppe “Beppe” Menegatti, Billie du Mesnil, Valentina Mironova, Olga Moiseyeva, Gail Monahan, Marie-Christine Mouis, Axel Mowitz, Federat Musin, Madina Musina, Yuri Naidich, Zaituna Nazretdinova, Anatoly Nikiforov, Igor Nikitin, Natasha Novinova, Betty Oliphant, Jerome Oremland, Adèl Orosz, Annette Page, Anthony Page, David Palmer, Galina Palshina, Merle Park, Jacqueline Parker, Georgina Parkinson, Jann Parry, Elise Paschen, Noel Pelly, John Percival, Antony Petie, Claudia Roth Pierpoint, Geordano Ponticelli, Ray Powell, Bonnie Prandato, Jasper Rees, Gert Reinholm, Vladimir Renne, Viscountess Jacqueline de Ribes, David Richardson, the late Jerome Robbins, Allen Robertson, Maslime Sabitova, Anya Sainsbury, Bruce Sansom, Sandy Scott, David Scrase, Per-Arthur Segerström, Lynn Seymour, Svetlana Shagieva, Linda Shaughnessy, Sasha Shavrov, Michael Shipster, Antoinette Sibley, Nancy Sifton, Kirsten Simone, Alla Sizova, Majorie Skibine, Inna Skidelskaya, Konstantin Slovohotov, Lina Smakova, Christina Sterner, Alexandra Stewart, Gailene Stock, Pamira Sulamanova, Gösta Svalberg, Paul Szilard, Marjorie Tallchief, Paul Taylor, the late Glen Tetley, Brigitta Thom, the late Esther Tonsgaard, Denise Tual, Raufal Tziaynov, Hamza Ula, Alfat Valeev, Marina Vasilieva, Gloria Venturi, Serge Vikulov, Grigore Vintila, Jean de Vuyst, Nina Vyroubova, David Wall, David Warner, Peter Watson, Anna-Marie Welch, Elizabeth White, Rosemary Winckley, Otmar and Elfgard Wintersteller, Nicole Wisniak, Susse Wold, Peter Wright, YuriYevgrafov, Nina Zilenko, and Elena Zueva.

  In addition, I must express my debt to the following institutions: Ufa’s Agricultural Institute, Local Party Archive, and Nestorov Museum, Moscow’s Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; the Archive of Federal Security Service Headquarters in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad region; and the Archive of St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Musical Art. Special thanks go to Marina Vivien, ex-curator of the Vaganova Academy Museum; archivist Francesca Franchi and press officer Janine Limberg at the Royal Opera House; archivists Jane Pritchard at Ballet Rambert; Josseline la Bourius at Paris Opéra Ballet; and Eszter Szudy at the Hungarian Theatre Institute; librarians Janine Button of London’s Condé Nast Publications and Elena Jack at the Royal Academy of Dance; and Madeleine Nichols, Michelle Potter, Else Peck, and Charles Perrier at the Dance Collection of New York’s Public Library at Lincoln Center.

  Throughout the decade it has taken to complete this project I have had the priviledge of working with two people whom I came to regard as partners: Marilyn La Vine and Roman Gerasimov. One of Rudolf’s most loyal New York fans, whose vocation it was to assemble a near-complete clipping archive (now housed in Washington’s Library of Congress), Marilyn has played a crucial role in enriching my book. It’s thanks to her that Rudolf’s voice is so often present on the page, a result of being able to draw on thirty years of articles, which she tirelessly faxed to me. To my regret there was not enough space in the book to include her definitive chronology—another labor of love—but, with her consent, it has been posted on the official Nureyev Web site for the benefit of dance scholars worldwide. A perfectionist with an encyclopedic knowledge of Nureyev’s career, Marilyn has been a sounding board as well as a heaven-sent collaborator: I thank her with all my heart. My Russian translator Roman Gerasimov was a nineteen-year-old star pupil of English professor Igor Stupnikov when he started to work with me. From day one he proved irreplaceable—whether opening the closed doors of classified archives or charming reluctant sources into telling their stories. A young man of culture he is also irrepressibly entertaining, and was the best possible travelling companion. Much of the new material in the early chapters was obtained through Roman’s enterprise and perseverance. I must also thank my other Russian translators: Alex Bisset, Yelena Demikovsky, Ann Pasternak Slater, and Geoff Whitlock; my German translators Uli Minoggio and Barbara Bischoff-Schnell; and Gedeon Diennes, who helped me with introductions and written material in Hungary.

  To soul mates Peter Eyre and Selina Hastings (my lodestar biographer and unofficial editor), who read each chapter as I wrote it, and responded with impeccable judgment and morale-boosting support, I send my warmest thanks. To my two critic friends who read the text at a late proof stage, I owe a huge debt: the hawkeyed Godfather of dance scholarship, Clement Crisp, and the one-and-only Alastair Macaulay, whose spot-on suggestions were invaluable. Then I must thank Patrick O’Connor for my writing aerie at the top of his Richmond house, and for two years of encouragement and stimulating companionship; Bob Gottlieb for lending me his rue Jacob apartment as my Paris base; Anniska’s Gerry McGoldrick and Ilia Paliatseas for providing the Greek idyll where I (nearly) completed the book; and my own adopted family, Tina Brown, Harry, George, and Izzy Evans for ensuring that I always have a home in
New York.

  I count myself incredibly fortunate to have the dynamic Lynn Nesbit as my New York agent, as well as her fabulous young counterparts in London, Tif Loehnis and Rebecca Folland. How lucky, too, that the British rights were scooped up by Figtree’s Juliet Annan, whose enthusiasm and forbearance I greatly appreciate, along with that of her colleagues Jenny Lord, Sarah Hulbert, Rosie Gailer, and Alex Elam. To Bela Cunha I owe special thanks for her scrupulous, eleveth-hour copyediting. Finally to my dream team at Pantheon: I express deep gratitude to Carol Janeway for handling my foreign rights; to Sue Llewellyn, for her dedication, wit, and sensitive copyediting of my text; to Andrew Dorko for his immense patience and tour de force of coordinating and overseeing the final copyedit; to Ken Schneider and Robert Grover for their good-natured efficiency; and to Michiko Clark for her imaginative schedule of Nureyev events. I feel blessed to have been shared between two of the most eminent editors in New York: Bob Gottlieb and Shelley Wanger, for whose inspirational editorial guidance, fun and friendship I will forever be in debt.

  *The Rudolf Nureyev Foundation (formerly Ballet Promotion Foundation) was founded in 1975 as a means of channeling funds for the encouragement and development of dance and dancers, and for transfering money to Rudolf’s family in Russia. Registered in Liechtenstein, with a correspondence office in the United Kingdom, it is responsible for the investment and management of funds accruing to it. On Rudolf’s death RNF became responsible for paying legacies to the family and to a few close friends in accordance with his will, as well as observing other instructions related to the perpetuation of his memory and his dance credo. RNF encourages and funds East-West choreographer/dancer exchanges in Russia and Europe; awards annual scholarships in Rudolf’s name at the principal ballet schools in the European cities with which he was closely assoicated. Ideally, candidates are Russian or Eastern European. The Royal Ballet’s Ukranian star Ivan Putrov was helped from 1996, while Ukranian star-in-embryo Sergey Polunin, the Royal Ballet School’s multiple award-winning student who is now a member of the company, received the Foundation’s support from 2003. In addition, RNF helps finance the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, and runs a medical Web site, established and overseen by Michel Canesi, designed for dancers and doctors in conjunction with a general Nureyev Web site, organized by Katia Gortchakoff. RNF licences performances of Rudolf’s productions, and promotes film screenings and exhibitions. It is developing a considerable Nureyev archive of photographs, letters and documents in its UK office in Bath (which can be made available to dance scholars by appointment).

  Since it was established in 1992, the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation has contributed more than four million dollars in grants to benefit dance in the United States. (In 2006 it won the Career Transitions for Dancers’ Award for Outstanding Contributions to the World of Dance.) It provides a number of scholarship endowments, most notably in collaboration with the School of American Ballet, which since 1994 has granted the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Scholarship to thirty-one promising male dancers for advanced training. It has assisted various American dance companies to revive works in which Rudolf was associated: José Limón’s The Moor’s Pavanne; the Joffrey Ballet’s revivial of L’Après midi d’un faune; San Francisco Ballet’s restaging of Raymonda; a full season performance of Aureole by Paul Taylor Dance Company. In 1997 Le Corsaire, which had not previously been performed in the United States, was staged by Boston Ballet with RNDF’s support, and filmed by WNET with RNDF as a primary sponsor, and is now in the permanent repertory of American Ballet Theatre. RNDF helped finance the publication and distribution of English editions of two seminal books which throw light on Rudolf’s Leningrad period—Rudolf Nureyev: Three Years in the Kirov Theater, and Gennady Albert’s analysis of Pushkin’s classes, Alexander Pushkin. Master Teacher of Dance. In 2004 RNDF sponsored the exhibition at Lincoln Center mounted in homage to Margot Fonteyn and provided funds for the completion of the internationally acclaimed film Ballets Russes.

  SOURCE NOTES

  Unless sources are given, all interviews were conducted by the author. Where no note is cited for a Nureyev quotation it may be assumed that it comes from my own taped interviews with the dancer (for “Nureyev Speaks!” published in British Cosmopolitan in May 1977 and “Nureyev Dances On,” published in Vanity Fair in July 1986). Quotations attributed to Nureyev, if not sourced, are from my own interviews with his friends and associates, or from material to which I have been given exclusive access. (This includes the 1997 interviews with Wallace Potts, Jeannette Etheredge, and Maude Gosling conducted by Robert Gottlieb in preparation for the authorized Rudolf Nureyev biography.) Quotations from Margot Fonteyn, Frederick Ashton, and Ninette de Valois, if not sourced, are from my own interviews (for the Vanity Fair article and for my Frederick Ashton biography, Secret Muses). To avoid overloading the text with names, many quotations are attributed below and are from my interviews with the persons named. Unless otherwise noted, Roman Gerasimov was the translator of all Russian interviews and written material.

  Access to the Nureyev film archive—a virtually complete collection of the dancer’s every known performance on film and video, compiled by Wallace Potts with the backing of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation—is available through the Performing Arts Department of the New York Public Library (the online catalogue is available at www.catnyp.nypl.org.htm). Key works in the collection have also been placed at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris.

  Press material on Nureyev was drawn largely from the Marilyn J. LaVine collection—an archive of fifty volumes of approximately five thousand reviews, interviews, and articles—which is housed in the Music Division of The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. A complete chronology compiled by LaVine can be located on www.nureyev.org. This incorporates every Nureyev performance until 1963 (a full Russian chronology has never before been published in the West), followed by the first performance of every new role until 1992. It also cites all Nureyev productions, original ballets, and his 1991–92 conducting schedule.

  ABBREVIATIONS OF FREQUENTLY CITED SOURCES

  Auto Rudolf Nureyev, An Autobiography.

  A Bl Alexander Bland.

  Blue Simon Robinson, A Year with Rudolf Nureyev.

  Bois Mario Bois, Rudolf Noureev.

  Cl B’s N Clive Barnes, Nureyev

  DD David Daniel’s interviews for his unpublished book Nureyev Observed (an extract of conversations with Alexander Minz, Paul Taylor, and Merle Park was published in the August 1976 issue of Christopher Street. Daniel’s interview with Violette Verdy was published in Ballet Review 5, no. 2, 1975–76).

  D&D Dance and Dancers.

  DS Diane Solway, Nureyev: His Life.

  DT Dancing Times.

  EB Erik Bruhn.

  EB John Gruen, Erik Bruhn.

  EBtrs transcripts of interviews for EB.

  Eg B Transcript of RN interview, courtesy of Egon Bischoff.

  F&N Fonteyn & Nureyev: Ballet’s Legendary Partnership, written and directed by Peter Batty; produced by Peter Batty Productions for Britain’s Channel Four Television, 1985.

  FOY-MF Margot Fonteyn, produced and directed by Patricia Foy, an Antelope/Aurora Production for Channel Four Television, 1989.

  FOY-RN From the documentary Nureyev, produced and directed by Patricia Foy, A London Weekend Television production, produced by Antelope Films, 1991

  GB Transcript of interviews by Gerhard Brunner, October 29, 1980, March 30, 1982, May 13, 1982.

  I nb B Francis Mason, I Remember Balanchine.

  JP’s N John Percival, Nureyev.

  LB Transcripts for “The Lynn Barber Interview: A Dance to Defy Time,” The Independent on Sunday, August 19, 1990.

  MB/JA Transcript of Mikhail Baryshnikov interview for Joan Acocella’s profile, “The Soloist,” The New Yorker, January 19, 1998.

  MF Auto. Margot Fonteyn, Autobiography.

  MG Maude Gosling.

  MT Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina.
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  NC@NYDL Nureyev Collection at Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.

  NdV Ninette de Valois.

  NG Nigel Gosling.

  NYT New York Times.

  PW Peter Watson, Nureyev: A Biography.

  RNA Rudolf Nureyev Archive.

  RN/EK Interviews for Elizabeth Kaye’s Esquire article, “Dancing in His Own Shadow.” March 1991, sound recording, NC@NYDL.

  RN/NG taped interviews for Auto.

  SAtrs Transcript of John Gruen interview for EB.

  SG “Sylvie Guillem discusses Rudolf Nureyev” unedited footage, 2003, NC@NYDL.

  3 Yrs T. I. Zakrzhevskaya, L. P. Myasnikova, et al., Rudolf Nureyev: Three Years in the Kirov Theater.

  Unz Transcripts for Nureyev Unzipped, a Landseer production for Channel Four Television, produced and directed by Ross MacGibbon, 1998.

  UTM Ufa Theater Museum.

  1 • A VAGABOND SOUL

  Rosa Kolesnikova’s account of the train journey and life in the barracks of Alkino is drawn from my own interviews and from her handwritten notes, which were translated into English for this book by Ann Pasternak Slater.

  1. “vagabond soul”: LB.

  2. “shaken out of the womb”: FOY-RN.

  3. “overjoyed, Father came”: Auto.

  4. “it came from inside”: Tausia Sultanova.