Word: nureyev
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...into obscurity. It was not until Margot Fonteyn and the Sadler's Wells company brought the work back in 1949 in a performance of pristine elegance that Tchaikovsky's Beauty emerged as the belle of the ballet. Now, fitted out with new staging and choreography by Rudolf Nureyev, and preening in an elaborate wardrobe of costumes and sets, the National Ballet of Canada's new Sleeping Beauty is on display at the Metropolitan Opera. It is a stunning production...
...Nureyev's choreography differs chiefly in its shift of emphasis from princess to prince. Other first-class productions that have been performed in Europe for the past 50 years have hinged on Princess Aurora while Prince Florimund never danced at all. In this production Nureyev's prince has half a dozen solos. They are uniformly pleasant-if unaccountably confined to traditional danse d'école figures and Nureyev executes them to glacéed perfection...
More important than his choreography is the effect of Nureyev's presence among the well-schooled but less experienced dancers of the young troupe (founded in 1951). Their performance is neat and crisp until Nureyev steps onstage. The intensity mounts, and the dancing, which had previously been clean-cut, becomes dazzling...
...FILM records some great dancing despite itself, which is hardly surprising since the cameras are focused on some of the best dancers now active. It is wonderful to watch Nureyev exercising: the control in his legs and his amazing, back-breaking discipline. The Field Figures segment is fairly successful, partly because modern ballet, like modern dance, depends more on physical relationships than on theatrical effects and can therefore stand the closeness of the camera, and also because Bergsma is a fascinating dancer. She has legs which rival Nureyev's, in their own special way. And, of course, he and Fonteyn...
There are some great moments--watching Nureyev is always rewarding--and for those who are willing to eat bread when they should be getting cake the film is worth seeing. But one of the great potentials of film is that it can record performances in the other arts, relaying the talents of an artist to those unable to attend live performances, and preserving them for posterity. It is hardly too much to ask that a film about Rudolf Nureyev preserve the dignity of his talents and some semblance of the authentic experience of ballet...