Remembering Nureyev: the Trail of a Comet
Has anyone had a chance to look at this? Or heard anything about itt? (It comes from the University of Florida Press, which is becoming a national leader in ballet/dance publication here in the U.S.}
Ellinor Teele, reviewing the book in the California Literary Review, writes:
QUOTE
For Rudolf Nureyev, the audience was all. The first male superstar of ballet, he traversed the world, year after year, reviving old works, commissioning new, demanding, cajoling, insisting that his sole purpose, no matter how old he was, no matter how sick, was to dance for someone.
This is the impression we gain, at any rate, from Rudi van Dantzig’s reminiscences. As written by the innovative choreographer and artistic leader of the Dutch National Ballet, Remembering Nureyev is a hybrid of sorts. It is not a biography — we learn nothing of Nureyev’s early years in the Soviet Union — nor is it a straightforward account.
Rather, it is a conversation between the living and the dead. On one side of the divide is van Dantzig, an intellectual interested in pushing the boundaries of avant garde and modern art, a phlegmatic, almost introspective narrator, a man accustomed to order, a splash of pale blue. On the other, Nureyev, the lover of classic showpieces, the Tatar who delights in romanticism and spectacle, the scarlet streak who thrills, dramatically, to the business of living.
This is the impression we gain, at any rate, from Rudi van Dantzig’s reminiscences. As written by the innovative choreographer and artistic leader of the Dutch National Ballet, Remembering Nureyev is a hybrid of sorts. It is not a biography — we learn nothing of Nureyev’s early years in the Soviet Union — nor is it a straightforward account.
Rather, it is a conversation between the living and the dead. On one side of the divide is van Dantzig, an intellectual interested in pushing the boundaries of avant garde and modern art, a phlegmatic, almost introspective narrator, a man accustomed to order, a splash of pale blue. On the other, Nureyev, the lover of classic showpieces, the Tatar who delights in romanticism and spectacle, the scarlet streak who thrills, dramatically, to the business of living.
