Mikhail Smondyrev kindly sent us this account of a meeting held in Moscow to mark the anniversary of Nureyev's death.
Moscow informal society of balletgoers «Friends of the Bolshoi Ballet»
organized Nureyev memorial meeting «Born to Dance» which took place on
January 18 2003 at the A.A.Bakhrushin State Theater Museum. The members
of the society prepared a small exhibition of Nureyev's photos and
portraits including previously not published materials concerning his
Death in Venice. Video records demonstrated at the meeting contained not only known fragments of his performances but also some records from private collections.
Ninel Kurgapkina was invited from St. Petersburg for the memorial meeting. She was prima-ballerina at the Kirov Ballet, Rudolf's friend and one of the first partners during three years he spent there at the beginning of his fantastic career. Later Mrs. Kurgapkina helped Nureyev to stage La Bayadere for the Paris Opera Ballet. At her post 70-s Mrs. Kurgapkina was so enthusiastic talking about `Rudik', recalling the common job in Paris and their partnership in Gayane, Laurensia, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire... `Everything was ideal in this boy, - she told in her beautiful low voice - the extension, the feet, the beautiful ballet face. Everything was ideal - except of the temper. He spent only three years at the ballet school but knew already that this was NUREYEV. Nobody felt the lack of his ballet education. Just the opposite, one could notice only his superiority. He was abused at the beginning, then dancers started to imitate his dance'.
Andris Liepa, the former premier of the Bolshoi company, recalled his
meetings with Nureyev in a period when Rudolf was not still allowed to be back to the USSR. `He was a symbol of dance, - told Andris He appeared at the stage as a snake-charmer and the audience behaved like hypnotized cobras'.
Vadim Gaevsky, the ballet and art critic and the author of the book
Petipa's Home about Kirov (Mariinsky) Ballet company, made a resume of the memorial meeting describing personal impressions on Nureyev's dance and his influence on the ballet art.
Russian newspapers reacted on the Nureyev memorial meeting stressing that the action of Moscow balletomanes was the only tribute to the great dancer in Russia.
And for those who read Russian, a couple of links:
Olga Gerdt: `Rudik didn't give a damn for all that!':
'Gazeta', Jan. 20 2003
Maja Krylova: `Snake-Charmer':
`Nezavisimaya Gazeta', Jan. 20 2003
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