He was the "
rockstar
" of ballet: thirty years ago, in Paris, Rudolf Nureyev died, a superstar dancer with an extraordinary destiny who dared to flee the USSR in the midst of the Cold War.
His passage to the West made him a legend: in 1961, escaping the members of the KGB at Le Bourget airport after a tour of the Kirov (current Mariinsky of Saint Petersburg) of which he was the one of the stars, the 23-year-old dancer, told a French officer: “
I would like to stay in your country
”.
Read alsoRalph Fiennes' Nureyev in halftone
Born of poor Muslim Tatar parents, he experienced hunger in Oufa, in the Russian West.
"
He was a rebel, he fought all his life, starting with his opposition to his father who did not want his son to dance
," says AFP Élisabeth Platel, director of the School of Dance of the Paris Opera and who was one of its regular dancers.
"
But he was not interested in politics, he especially wanted to live his artistic and sexual freedom
", explains Ariane Dollfus, author of a biography of the dancer, in reference to his homosexuality.
In Russia, he was rehabilitated only after his death.
SEE ALSO
- The National Ballet of Ukraine in Paris
ballet rockstar
"
He was an extraordinary dancer, a ballet star like there is no more, a rockstar
", summarizes Manuel Legris, named star at 21 in 1986 by Nureyev.
At La Scala in Milan, where Legris has been director of the Ballet for a year, and at the Vienna Opera, where he was director of dance just before, Nureyev, who has reworked classics for these two houses, "
is revered and his name alone is enough to fill the room
,” he said.
"
He just had to come on stage and that was it
," he recalls.
“
He didn't do 14 pirouettes like we do today but there was magic.
»
From New York to London, fans greeted her like a pop star.
At the premiere of his
Swan Lake
production in Vienna, there were 89 curtain ups, a Guinness Book record.
He will form a mythical dance couple with the great lady of British ballet Margot Fonteyn, despite their age difference (she in her forties, he in her twenties) “
It was madness.
People came to see a ballet star but he went beyond the strict framework of dance
,” says Ms. Dollfus.
Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, in Swan Lake, in 1969.
"
If he became an icon of the 20th century - he is one of the most photographed artists of his time - it is because he married his time
", from the Cold War to the AIDS years, whose he died aged 54 in 1993.
Volcanic
“
He was unfiltered.
He was someone who had psychic weaknesses and therefore he could be verbally and physically violent
, ”says Ms. Dollfus.
“
Towards the end of his career, he kicked a dancer, it ended in a trial
”.
“
His remarks were quite abrupt, he was cash, we were full of teeth … He would not have survived social networks
”, underlines Manuel Legris.
At the Opera, where he was dance director in the 1980s, he dismissed established stars for the benefit of young people and it is no coincidence that Patrick Dupond, star of French ballet, left the group during his tenure. .
"
There couldn't be two suns
," notes Ariane Dollfus.
The troupe, to which he gave international notoriety, did not always give him gifts, with in particular a memorable strike on the day of the premiere of his
Sleeping Beauty
.
iron discipline
In the studio or on stage, however, he was an example for dancers, in particular because of his discipline and his high standards.
"
He worked like crazy and, even if he went out late at night, the next morning he was at the bar
," says Manuel Legris, who is one of the "
Children of Nureyev
", a golden generation of young dancers from the 'Opera like Sylvie Guillem or Laurent Hilaire.
"
He allowed us madness while being disciplined
", testifies Élisabeth Platel.
“
He would never have criticized us if we fell on stage, but was very unhappy if we tried to cheat so as not to fall.
It built us, we feel like guardians of his heritage
, ”she adds.
The equal of the ballerina
"
He revolutionized the place of the male dancer in ballet, where the dancer is queen
", according to Ms. Dollfus, giving more depth, for example, to the characters of princes.
“
Before him, dancers had to be very discreet, very stiff.
He really unstuck the male dancer
,” says the biographer.
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