Product Description

Born on a train in Stalin’s Russia, Rudolf Nureyev was ballet’s first pop icon. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement – both on and off stage. Nureyev’s achievements and conquests became legendary: he rose out of Tatar peasant poverty to become the Kirov’s thrilling maverick star; slept with his beloved mentor’s wife; defected to the West in l961; sparked Rudimania across the globe; gave his rabid sexuality full reign; established the most rhapsodic partnership in dance history with the middle-aged Margot Fonteyn; reinvented male technique; gatecrashed modern dance; moulded new stars; and staged Russia’s unknown ballet masterpieces in the West. Julie Kavanagh’s uncompromising and magnificent biography, ten years in the making, is a brilliant tribute to a superstar the world can never forget.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155909 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 848 pages

Review
Magnificent…comprehensive and compulsively readable (Simon Callow The Guardian )

The definitive biography, a gripping account of an extraordinary life (Lynn Barber Telegraph )

She writes with flair and abundance (The Sunday Times )

Undoubtedly the definitive biography. Rudolf Nureyev, superstar, emerges in all his terribly flawed glory (Sunday Telegraph )

From the Inside Flap
She went back to the table where the KGB men were sitting drinking cognacs.
'I forgot to say something to Rudolf,' she said smiling at Strizevsky, who
once again, nodded his assent - the girl was clearly infatuated with
Nureyev and reluctant to let him go. Whispering very quickly, she said to
Rudolf, 'You see the two men there at the bar? They're French policemen.
You have to go to them and say that you want to stay." Then we made a big
play of saying goodbye, and I left him, went to the bar and ordered a
coffee.'

Rudolf realized that it was his only chance. 'So I decide right there and
then that I'm not going back. This was goodbye time.' He jumped up from his
chair and rushed towards the bar, but Strizevsky came after him, and asked
him what was wrong. 'Nureyev was silent. And then he said, "I've made up my
mind." He didn't say what that was, but repeated that his decision was
firm, final and he wasn't going to change it.' Then, in what felt to Clara
like one second, Rudolf walked slowly- 'six steps exactly' - directly up to
the two French commisars. 'No jumping, no running, no screaming, no
hysteria, Quietly I say: "I would like to stay in your country."

From the Back Cover
`The book's subtitle deserves its definite article: this is the definitive study of [Nureyev]' Observer

`The definitive biography, a gripping account of an extraordinary life' Lynn Barber, Telegraph

`A meticulously researched and judiciously argued study which, as a record of Nureyev's career, will surely never be bettered' Daily Mail

`Undoubtedly the definitive biography. Rudolf Nureyev, superstar, emerges in all his terribly flawed glory' Sunday Telegraph

`Engrossing...Kavanagh writes with authority, clarity and eloquence' Financial Times

`Magnificent...captures every facet of this extraordinary man...a profoundly moving account' Mail on Sunday

`Kavanagh is the ideal biographer for Rudolf Nureyev' Literary Review

'Magnificent...comprehensive and compulsively readable' Simon Callow, Guardian

Customer Reviews

ALL RUDI, ALL THE TIME
Kavanagh's "Nureyev" is another first-rate dance biography, fully matching her marvelous account of Frederick Ashton. Nureyev was more a great star than a great dancer, yet his impact on male ballet dancers worldwide was transformative. Before Rudi, they were mostly earthbound dullards, either crudely straight or mincingly effeminate; after Rudi, men in ballet became nearly as turned out, pulled up, and extended as ballerinas, with a protean animalism that enabled them to live gay yet seem to love their women onstage.

Unlike her predecessor Richard Buckle, whose dance bios read like transcribed engagement books, Kavanagh offers a nearly perfect balance of details and distillation, compellingly tracing arcs in her subject's life. She pays extra attention to Rudi's first years in the West, richly detailing his two key relationships--with Margot Fonteyn, whom he ignited just as she was about to retire, and with Eric Bruhn, the one dancer he would learn from and the love of his life--plus the recasting of his dancing into a fusion of Russian and Western. Rudi's restless gay life is all there, yet without prurience. Eventually he settled down, for a time, with Wallace Potts, an all-American gay boy whose goodness and devotion shine through very attractively (other acolytes followed). In these pages, Rudi lives just like a coddled star athlete: no matter how beastly his conduct, somebody always satisfies his needs and keeps his ego fully inflated. A fine biography and a great read.

a flawed account
Julie Kavanagh seemingly had access to a number of people important in Nureyev's life who had never before spoken to a biographer. Given this, it's surprising that she seems to have so little regard for her subject either personally or professionally. If you want to read about what went on in the gay bars of New York in the 60s and 70s, then this is the book for you. If you want to read about a dancer and director who had a significant effect on classical dance in the second half of the last century, look elsewhere. Nor will you find an account of the complex and interesting man who was Rudolf Nureyev. And beware: the book is peppered with factual inaccuracies.

RUDOLPH NUREYEV: THE LIFE by JULIE KAVANAGH
This must be one of the best books on Nureyev available.The prose is excellent and the research has obviously been most comprehensively and meticulously undertaken.Brilliant.