RUDOLF NUREYEV

RUDOLF NUREYEV BALLET DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER

A famous Soviet dancer who defected to the West, Nureyev became a celebrity known and admired far beyond the dance world. Often compared to the great Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), he reached a wider public than Nijinsky through films and TV.

Born March 17, 1938 in the Central Asian part of what was then the USSR, Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev studied in Leningrad at the school of the Kirov Ballet and joined the company in 1958. On tour in France in 1961, he asked for political asylum and remained in the West. As principal male soloist of the British Royal Ballet, he built a great reputation as the partner of Margot Fonteyn.

Nureyev appeared with the world's major ballet companies, and with his strong technique he proved that male dancers are more than mere supports for ballerinas. He excelled in classic roles in Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and Romeo and Juliet, and in some modern works. He staged ballets for many companies and became artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet in 1983.

By 1990 it was rumored that Nureyev had AIDS. In October 1992, the New York Times said he was too weak to stand to accept an award in France, but Paris Opera officials offered no comment. When he died on January 6, 1993, his doctor said, "He died of a cardiac complication after a cruel illness. Following Mr. Nureyev's wishes, I can't say any more." But in an interview with Le Figaro a week later, he admitted that he had been treating Nureyev for AIDS, which he now revealed "because there are no shameful illnesses....He was too famous to hide the truth." French authorities saw the article as a violation of a dead patient's right to privacy. Next Card 38: WILLIAM PARKER: Baritone