Nureyev: The Life (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780375704727)

Rudolf Nureyev, one of the most iconic dancers of the twentieth century, had it all: beauty, genius, charm, passion, and sex appeal. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement, for both men and women, on or off the stage.

In this superb biography, Julie Kavanagh deftly brings us through the professional and personal milestones of Nureyev's life and career: his education at the Kirov school in Leningrad; his controversial defection from the USSR in 1961; his long-time affair with the Danish dancer Erik Bruhn; his legendary partnership with Margot Fonteyn at the Royal Ballet in London. We see his fiery collaborations with almost all the major living choreographers including Ashton, Balanchine, Robbins, Graham, and Taylor. And we see Nureyev as he reinvigorated the Paris Ballet Opera in the early 1980s before his death from AIDS complications in 1993. Nureyev: The Life is the most intimate, revealing, and dramatic picture we have ever had of this dazzling, complex figure.

Author: Julie Kavanagh
ISBN-10: 0375704728
ISBN-13: 9780375704727
Publisher: Vintage
Language: English
Published: 11/11/2008
Pages: 848
Format: Paperback
Weight: 2.33lbs
Size: 9.16h x 6.20w x 1.69d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 12/21/2008 pg. 20