Tancredi
It seems especially fitting that Nureyev’s first original ballet premiered in Austria, the country that granted him citizenship in 1982, after two decades spent traveling on a United Nations Geneva Convention passport.
Tancredi introduced a theme Nureyev would explore for the rest of his career – his obsession with character study and with contrasts. In Tancredi, he choreographed a journey deep into the mind of a boy caught between romantic ideals and his conflicting desires towards them. He danced the title role himself, with the other figures portrayed as grim, ghostly reflections of his psyche. Tancredi is tempted by the fruits of both sacred and profane love, but he is unable to choose a direct allegiance. He longs to find his place in the world, but he is often rejected and lonely. His delicate psyche is shattered by the pressure. He is thrown into a maze of frightening hallucinations. Following his descent into schizophrenia, he dies.
Nureyev was a voracious consumer of learning and culture in all its forms, and he had shown a keen interest in psychology since his arrival in the West. Tancredi was the product of these interests and of his hunger to utilise the greater scope of artistic freedom that life in the West offered.
Nureyev began his choreography with Balanchine’s neoclassical steps in mind, but the finished production had no coherent signature in terms of style. The dancing was acrobatic and showy, rather than an extension of Nureyev’s classical prowess. Nor was it the exciting foray into the sphere of modern dance that his fans were eagerly anticipating.
The spine-tingling dramatics were the production’s greatest strength, along with the intensity of Nureyev’s performance as Tancredi. In one of the few existing photographs, Nureyev appears kneeling, arms spread as he is pulled in different directions by masked figures. One of the dancers stands directly behind Nureyev, poised as if to use him as a human marionette. The pose symbolises the control that Tancredi’s neuroses wield over him. Nureyev’s expression is of a man rent asunder, his body radiating haunted anguish.
The ballet was designed by Barry Kay. The costumes were partly inspired by images of plant life viewed through a microscope, decorated with a pattern that looked (depending on the viewer’s interpretation) like lace, veins, binding ropes, or a close-up scan of Tancredi’s disturbed brain. The main backdrop of the set resembled a Surrealist vision of a doll’s house, replete with fragmented staircases and doors leading nowhere.
Just over half an hour in length, the ballet was danced only three more times after its premiere. Nureyev appeared in the title role twice, with Michael Birkmeyer and Karl Musil taking over at subsequentperformances.
Critics had already been perplexed by the Freudian twists Nureyev had given the character of Siegfried in his recent production of Swan Lake. Tancredi’s Jungian leanings left them even more confused. However, as the first effort of a budding choreographer, Tancredi was widely viewed as a thought-provoking production that promised greater things to come.