Genius, demon, fallen angel … Rudolf Nureyev. Part 1. Conquest of Olympus
All the best male ballet roles were in his repertoire. He slept no more than five hours a day and gave up to 300 performances a year for 20 years. A destiny completely subordinated to ballet and touring schedule … No one could work as intensely and with the same dedication as the inimitable and unsurpassed Rudolph. The best stages in the world accepted any, the strangest of its conditions and were ready to pay fabulous fees to an unparalleled dancer.
The greatest benefit to be derived from life is
to spend your life on a cause that will outlive us
William James
With whom to compare the incomparable? How do you measure the frantic? What words to choose for someone who was visible in any crowd, who radiated passion in every movement, who was always bright as a rainbow? Another, as far from the ordinary as the sun, which is always OVER … We will tell you about the life of Rudolf Nureyev, the secret of his success, and the originality of his nature through the prism of Yuri Burlan's System-Vector Psychology.
An apple that fell far from the apple tree
Already by the fact of his birth - on a train that crossed the great country from east to west - Rudolph did not fit into the framework of an ordinary person. Childbirth, in which the elder sister was the midwife, and the midwife was the woman in labor, in itself is an extraordinary thing. Rudolph always perceived this as a special sign, which confirmed that God did not give him an extraordinary fate by mistake.
Although the common phrase "God gave" is not very applicable to someone who built his own life and often - in spite of everyone and in spite of everything.
His father, who went through the great war as a political instructor, returned home safe and sound. What happiness a hero-father should have become for the boy in those difficult years of devastation!
He could, but did not become … He was a political instructor to the core - a mentor, a role model. An officer in charge of lower ranks. His son had to go where the major of the army and his father had directed him. If the boy did not fit into the upbringing scheme invented by his father, then he had to be corrected by word or hand.
This is how Khamet Nureyev understood his role. The house for the political instructor is a part of the army, where a firm army principle was in effect: "If you do not know how, we will teach, if you do not want, we will force." The easiest way was to force it with a belt, a stick, or a fist.
The father's attempts to raise Rudolph as a real man gave a result that was very far from what was expected. The main thing that the major achieved, who had gone through all five years of military hell, is fear, which has forever become entrenched in the soul of his delicate, sensitive skin-visual son and largely predetermined the scenario of his life. After all, the father, who raised his hand against the child, destroyed the main thing that he had to provide him - the feeling of security and safety, which is so important for the harmonious development of the personality.
“From his very return to this day, my father has remained in my memory as a stern, very powerful man with a strong chin and heavy jaw, like a stranger who rarely smiled, spoke little and who frightened me. Even in my mind I am still afraid to look at him directly,”- this is the admission of the dancer at a time when his name was already making any performance sold out.
The confrontation between father and son grew out of the contradictory opposition of their leading vectors. Khamet Nureyev possessed an anal vector. His penchant for the transfer of experience found application at work and allowed him to rise "from the plow" to the rank of major, strengthening him in the correctness of army methods of education. In his worldview, a man was assigned the role of a creator of indisputable values: a respected worker, a family man, a model for children. The long-awaited son, endowed by nature with completely different qualities, could not fit into the system of anal values of political instructor Nureyev.
A genius who made flight with his soul
For a skin-visual boy who adored spinning in front of a mirror and dancing in front of his mother and sisters, his father became the first serious obstacle in his life. Even then, classes in the folk dance circle were the greatest joy for an eternally hungry child. And this despite the fact that at home he was awaited by a brutal flogging for "not male" activities.
What a power of desire one must have in order not to give up one's aspirations! And this is a teenager opposing an adult, authoritative person! Rudolph survived and even continued his studies, taking private lessons from the famous ballerina, whom the evacuation of the war years brought to Ufa.
His mother Farida supported her son in every possible way. A simple woman who did not have the opportunity to study, was the owner of the visual vector. Sensitive, compassionate, sacrificial, able to see beauty even in that cruel, difficult time, she treated her children with care. Through the prism of her innate visual properties, realizing how they need vivid festive impressions in a poor and meager life, Farida took the children to the Ufa Opera and Ballet Theater for the play "Crane Song".
Rudolph was only seven years old, but he experienced an extraordinary delight. At this moment, the most powerful and all-consuming love of his life was born - for ballet. Not even a young man, but a boy, took this event as a landmark that determined his fate.
Recalling, he said: “The first trip to the theater lit a special fire in me, brought inexpressible happiness. Something took me away from a wretched life and lifted me to heaven. Only when I entered the magic hall did I leave the real world, and a dream captured me. Since then I became obsessed, I heard the "call" … From about eight years old I lived as an obsessed, blind and deaf to everything except dance … Then I felt that I had escaped from the dark world forever."
The beginning of the way
His first teacher, Anna Udaltsova, in whose caring hands Rudolph fell, was an outstanding woman.
A skin-visual beauty with a high level of vector development, she realized her innate inclinations on stage. Once, being the prima ballerina of the Diaghilev troupe, she traveled all over the world with her.
Knowing three foreign languages and a huge cultural baggage at that time, she generously shared her knowledge with her students. She taught her pupils not only ballet, but also music, history, literature, geography … It seemed that life itself compensated Rudolph for the suffering that his father inflicted on him, giving him a sensitive mother and a brilliant teacher …
At least, his visual vector was able to develop to the level at which a person is able to see and appreciate the external beauty, the beauty of the material world, which is very important for the minister of art. It was the choreographer Udaltsova who saw the extraordinary abilities of Rudolph, and a phrase flew out of her mouth, which was later only confirmed by thousands of fans: "This is the future genius!"
At the age of 16, a talented teenager was admitted to the corps de ballet of the Ufa theater, and a year later he was enrolled in the Vaganov School - the cradle of many ballet stars. In the first year of study, there were different things: a misunderstanding with the teacher who called Rudolph a "redneck", the confrontation between the provincial overgrowth and the capital's elite children, eye tears at rehearsals from their own ineptitude and amazing skin persistence in achieving the goal.
Life once again made Rudolph a gift - Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin became his mentor, who managed to carefully and accurately transform the Ufa nugget into a diamond shining with unprecedented facets.
The combination of the developed visual-cutaneous ligament with the anal vector allowed A. I. Pushkin to achieve the highest professional level. At the time, he was known as one of the world's best classical ballet teachers. Alexander Ivanovich did not adjust the student's individuality to the standard of the profession, but lovingly cultivated the sprouts of the students' natural abilities.
The famous American choreographer John Barker learned Russian only in order to talk with Alexander Ivanovich and "learn from him how to become a better teacher." And this fact speaks volumes …
Nureyev did not forget his beloved teacher, in whose house he spent the night more often than in a student dormitory. According to Rudolph, “he filled the soul with excitement and a desire to dance … His combinations made you dance, they were irresistible … tasty, delicious … He associated music with emotions. Steps, gestures had to be filled with feeling."
Start, end … and start again
Two theaters - Kirovsky (Mariinsky) and Bolshoi - opened their doors to the twenty-year-old graduate of the choreographic school. Rudolph chose the Mariinsky. It seemed that his fate stood on a solid track of success and prosperity. In the first half of 1961, the international community awarded him the title of the best dancer in the world.
If he knew how to subordinate his desires and urges to the prevailing values of contemporary Soviet society, as he skin-like subordinated his body to a rigid schedule of rehearsals, then perhaps his fate would have turned out differently …
But behind the doors of the theater, Rudolph wanted to remain himself, following his “unconventional” sexual urges. Even today, homosexual relationships are naturally rejected by representatives of the Russian urethral-muscular mentality. In those days, his sexual orientation was one of the reasons that forced the rising star of Russian ballet to become a "defector." “I made a decision because I had no other choice,” the dancer admitted.
The step that divided life into "before" and "after" was made at Le Bourget airport on June 17, 1961. Taken off the tour before the plane left for London, Nureyev asked the French police for political asylum. His request was granted.
Rebel demon with "sun in blood"
A new life began for Rudolph, in which he had to conquer his "place in the sun". No one opened the gates of paradise for him, no one paved the road with a red carpet … However, here, in the skin West, he got the opportunity to be himself, which he practiced with endless hours of rehearsals to the point of exhaustion, elevating his talent to the pedestal of a world-class star. Not with a fabulous golden key, but with exhausting routine work, he opened his way to the Olympus of world ballet.
All the best male ballet roles were in his repertoire. He slept no more than five hours a day and gave up to 300 performances a year for 20 years. A destiny completely subordinated to ballet and touring schedule … No one could work as intensely and with the same dedication as the inimitable and unsurpassed Rudolph. The best stages in the world accepted any, the strangest of its conditions and were ready to pay fabulous fees to an unparalleled dancer.
His track record includes the London Royal Ballet, where he danced for 15 years with the most brilliant prima ballerina in Europe, Margot Fontaine. English newspapers called them "the duet of the Tatar prince and the English Lady", so bright was the combination in English of the aristocratic restrained Margot and the demonically sensual-passionate Rudolph.
An absolute theatrical record is recorded in the Guinness Book: the curtain was raised 80 times after Swan Lake with the divine duet Fontaine - Nureyev. In one interview, Margot Fontaine, slightly mockingly but with deep respect, said of Rudolph: "It works like a steam engine."
On the top
In 1983, the Parisian Opera Grand Opera offered Rudolph an exclusive status: director, chief choreographer, leading dancer. Nureyev received a troupe torn apart by hostility, rivalry, intrigue and hooking so common for theatrical environment.
This is typical for a team that unites people with a cutaneous-visual ligament of vectors. They are all aspiring to success and hard to bear the superiority of others. Huge physical activity from an early age does not allow the visual vector to reach a high level of development. Dancers and ballerinas are often averse to compassion and compassion. All their efforts are directed towards career growth and personal success.
In six years, under the imperiously rigid leadership of the new director, a ballet troupe was created, which took a place in the top five in the world. Once again, Rudolph showed everyone that his talent is multifaceted. He, like no one else, knew how to conquer the highest peaks, whether it was his famous jump-flight, shooting in Hollywood, working as a choreographer, leading a troupe or conducting a symphony orchestra.
It could not be otherwise, because, according to the famous French choreographer Roland Petit, Nureyev “… was a man who burned himself in the profession … in love for his art and for life, into which he gnawed his teeth with such fury that he died from this love."
Critics who wrote about ballet more than once called Nureyev a demon, whose appearance became a milestone that divided the art of dancing into two eras. The male dance, which filled the pauses between the female solos, acquired individual features, came out of the shadows to the ramp. Previously, dancers were part of the ballerina's surroundings, providing supports and backdrops. Rudolph danced with inspiration, passion, emotionally living all the plot conflicts on the stage.
The dancer used his skin body as an attribute of technique. It was beautiful, and Nureyev was able to emphasize this. He was the first in the history of ballet to wear ballet leotards on a naked body, the first to go on stage with a naked torso. Many technically new elements were introduced by Rudolph into classical dance. His jump with hovering in the air (elevation) remained unsurpassed, his postures and rotations on high half-fingers served and serve as the standard of ballet technique. This showed innovation, the desire to be the first in everything, to go ahead of the whole planet, so characteristic of skin people.
Continued in the article “Genius, demon, fallen angel … Rudolf Nureyev. Part 2. Fallen Angel.
