Current partners: Perpetuating Nureyev's legacy

The Rudolf Nureyev Collection is a comprehensive collection of film and video donated to the New York Public Library by the Foundation in 1999. It was compiled by Wallace Potts – film maker and close friend of Nureyev – from sources around the world and includes broadcast quality professional recordings of entire ballets, interviews and rehearsal footage, as well as home movies and never-before-seen camera rushes.

The Foundation is pleased to support the Performing Arts Dance Research Department of the New York Public Library to expedite digitisation of legacy format audiovisual recordings of Nureyev held within the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation Collection at the Library.

First staged in Moscow in 2019, this evocation of the life of Rudolf Nureyev by Kirill Serebrennikov and choreographed by Yuri Possokhov was presented in 2026 by the Staatsballet in Berlin under its director, Christian Spuck.

The Foundation is pleased to have supported Bel Air Media to deliver a live broadcast and digital capture of this production, which can be seen online.

This research project – hosted by the CNSMD Lyon – aims to create a full reconstruction of thePas de la Vestale, choreographed at the Paris Opéra in 1807 by Pierre Gardel (1758-1840).

During his years as ballet director of the Paris Opéra, Rudolf Nureyev encouraged not only innovative modern choreographers, but also the reconstruction of works of historical interest, evoking the cultural roots of ballet tradition. In 1986, Nureyev asked Ivo Cramér to remount La Dansomanie by the same Pierre Gardel (the only attempt to reconstruct a ballet by this prolific choreographer).

Echoing Nureyev’s spirit and intent, Natalie van Parys, Pierre Darde and Bruno Ligore will combine their strengths as choreographers, teachers and researchers to retrace the connections between baroque dance of the eighteenth century and the classical dance of the early nineteenth century. The project will produce a visual record of Gardel’s and Bournonville’s versions of this highly challenging pas de deux alongside pedagogical workshops, live performances and conferences, promoting talented young dancers and reviving this important piece of dance history.