Impact & Influence

Rudolf Nureyev was a revolutionary in classical ballet.

Rudolf Nureyev redefined dance in the West, elevating the male dancer from a mere supporting partner to an artistic and dramatic force equal to his ballerina. Unafraid to challenge conventions, Nureyev introduced technical and choreographic innovations that are now absorbed into the mainstream. He broke boundaries of style, crashing the gates of modern dance and bringingpsychological drama to his own choreographies and to his stagings of 19th century classics.

As a dancer, his celebrity was unprecedented: part of a New Aristocracy of singers, actors, photographers, models and hairdressers, Nureyev influenced global pop culture and inspired ‘Rudi mania’ throughout the sixties and into the seventies.

His impact and influence on dance, dancers and the companies with which he worked was both immense and profound. It is still evident today.

“As long as my ballets are danced, I will live.”

RUDOLF NUREYEV

In 2007, the Foundation commissioned Julie Kavanagh to research and write the authorised biography, Rudolf Nureyev: The Life. Kavanagh had trained as a dancer at the Royal Ballet School and graduated from Oxford University with a First in English. Her book is described by critics as ‘the definitive biography’ and ‘a gripping account of an extraordinary life’.

In this specially commissioned series of essays, Julie Kavanagh draws on her book and the extensive research that underlies it to explore Nureyev’s impact and influence, his legacy and his life.

The book was the inspiration for the 2019 film, The White Crow, directed by Ralph Fiennes. He describes the book as ‘an eye-opener – the story of Nureyev, his extraordinary personality and his complexity is brilliantly told and described. His drive to explore, challenge and inspire himself as a dancer moved me, as did his profound curiosity about other art forms – painting, theatre and literature. I recognised something in his hunger to absorb and learn from other modes of expression, but it was a quality in him of almost ‘spiritual impatience’ that quickened my pulse – as if life is only so long and you must take every minute and push yourself to the limit.’