Word: nureyev
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...Rudolf Nureyev and Dizzy Gillespie transformed their...
...WENT DOWN DEFIANTLY, ALL guns firing. Until the very end of his long struggle with AIDS, Rudolf Nureyev continued to live ravenously, leading an amazingly active life, conducting when he could no longer dance, continuing to travel the world, transforming his beloved private island off Italy's Amalfi coast as if he would be able to live there for decades. Above all, working. When he died last week at 54, the world of the performing arts mourned him as not only a great dancer but also a rare source of energy in artistic life...
Against the odds, he clawed his way to Leningrad and the Kirov school at age 17 -- very late to start serious classical training. His sheer will and magnetism won the day. Perhaps because he began by playing catch-up, Nureyev was not considered a natural dancer. He was blessed with a high leap and, in addition to athletic vigor, the noble, generous moves that are nearly impossible to teach. But he lacked, say, the sublime coordination of Mikhail Baryshnikov, and he had to work hard for his technique; a former colleague recalls that he was always looking for someone...
...American Ballet Theater ballet mistress Georgina Parkinson, then a soloist with the Royal. "But when he staged La Bayadere, he came to us as a dancer. He understood our shortcomings and was tireless in helping us and broadening our horizons." That was with the women. To Royal's men, Nureyev was nearly a catastrophe. He took over everything, and other promising careers never fully developed. Later, when Baryshnikov came West, Nureyev was to know similar emotions. The world was, in fact, big enough for two Soviet superstars, but the blazing of a younger version of his own career...
...Nureyev danced everywhere in a huge variety of roles, from the full-length classics to modern works by Martha Graham, Paul Taylor and Maurice Bejart, among many others. During the '70s his plasticity began to decline, robbing his performances of their wonderful flow. By the '80s the problem had become severe, but despite the advice of friends and critics he would not quit. He was not, however, just a nomad. In 1983 he became artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet for six colorful years. Again his temperament made headlines, but Nureyev gave the company a professionalism it had virtually...