In Performance

Nureyev’s first professional performance was in April 1958 at the Kirov Theatre, Leningrad, and his last at the Hungarian State Opera House, in March 1992.  

The years between saw him dance over 90 leading roles with at least 35 companies around the world.  

Nureyev was already a star in his native Russia, but his first performances in the West, in 1961, were revelatory: a mix of hauteur and savage intensity that had never been seen before. Over the next decades, his combination of technical brilliance, artistry and personal magnetism attracted sell-out houses across the globe, his relentless schedule often including 250 performances in a single year. 

Nureyev was never a permanent member of any company in the West but he had a longstanding relationship with The Royal Ballet, where he developed a legendary partnership with Margot Fonteyn. He was a frequent guest artist with the National Ballet of Canada, The Australian Ballet and the Vienna State Opera Ballet and spent almost a decade as director of the Paris Opéra Ballet. 

Nureyev’s repertoire included not just the standard classical and modern ballet titles, but also newly created works by the great 20th century choreographers: Frederick Ashton, Roland Petit, Rudi Van Dantzig, Maurice Béjart and George Balanchine.  

His guest appearances with the Paul Taylor and Martha Graham companies made him the first major ballet star to work regularly with the leading modern dance choreographers of the time.  

In later years, as the rigours of dance became more difficult, Nureyev found other routes to perform, in film, television and musical theatre. In the final year of his life, he carved out a new performing career, as orchestral conductor.