Nureyev: The Life
by Julie Kavanagh
Published by Pantheon Books
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Reviewed by Beth Cummings
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.