{"id":8907,"date":"2009-01-30T06:14:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T11:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=8907"},"modified":"2015-12-28T09:08:46","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T14:08:46","slug":"even-his-walk-made-him-different-from-everyone-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=8907","title":{"rendered":"“Even his walk made him different from everyone else.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m reading Nureyev: The Life<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Julie Kavanagh right now, and it is superb!! I don’t know anything about ballet, and know very little about the ballet world itself – and while the bare bones of Nureyev’s story are familiar to me (he was world-famous for my entire life) I didn’t know anything else. I was not aware that he was Muslim, for example. His grandfather was a well-respected mullah in their small village. Stalin’s persecution of the Tatars, as well as all the various religious groups in the Soviet Republics, made Nureyev’s religion against the law – and while he never was a practicing Muslim, he was drawn to churches his whole life. He adored the ritual, the “show” of it. I suppose part of it was because such rituals were banned in his homeland. It is fascinating. Kavanagh was a ballet dancer herself, so one of the things I truly appreciate about this book is her knowledge of dance itself, and what it was – technically and emotionally – that made Nureyev so special. She is able to make someone ignorant, like myself, understand the technicalities – the differences he brought to things like plies<\/i>, and what the differences are between the different “schools” of ballet – Danish, Russian, French, English – etc. It’s also fascinating in terms of the Cold War. The chapter on his defection reads like one of the greatest spy thrillers of all time. You can’t believe it really happened that way, but it did.<\/p>\n

Additionally, any author who approvingly quotes from Robert Conquest’s book to support her themes and to create the appropriate atmosphere is okay in my book. Conquest is one of my all-time idols and I felt a weird proprietary thrill when I saw her quoting from The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine<\/a>\"\"<\/i> and The Great Terror<\/a>\"\"<\/i>. Yup. It really WAS that bad. The stories of how all of Nureyev’s friends and family were persecuted as a result of his defection are devastating.<\/p>\n

I also appreciate Kavanagh’s honesty about Nureyev’s personality, which was notoriously difficult. One of the impressions I am getting from the book, so far, and it is really moving – is that Nureyev was one of those people who was aware, very early on<\/i>, that life is short, we do not have a lot of time, and you have to take your chances when you can find them. You also must make your own destiny. You want to dance for Balanchine? Make it happen. He was ruthless, relentless, and he always always always had his eye on the ball. This made him a nightmare, even for other geniuses in the field, who perhaps had more of a balanced response to life … but Nureyev was not balanced. It was dance, and dance only. This was a man with a destiny. You can sense<\/i> it. And he could too. Such creatures are rare.<\/p>\n

I am loving the book. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

Here’s a picture of Nureyev, age 14 or 15, in a ballet studio in Ufa, where he grew up. This was before he moved to Leningrad, and joined the Kirov.<\/p>\n


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