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Rudolf Nureyev

December 2024

  • Still the best Nutcracker on offer in the UK … Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 2024 production.

    Ballet legend Peter Wright: ‘Margot Fonteyn was cold as ice. Rudi Nureyev was a bit of a pain’

    At 98, the choreographer has lost none of his love for dance – or his scathing wit. As his famous Nutcracker is performed again, he talks about grit, the ‘rubbish’ classics and directing a historic duo

October 2024

  • Jeevan Braich as Rusty, far right, with the cast of Starlight Express.

    The best theatre to stream this month
    The best theatre to stream this month: Starlight Express, Nye, Beat the Devil and more

    A cast recording for the souped-up train musical is released, Michael Sheen plays the NHS hero at the National and David Hare delivers his Covid memoir

July 2023

  • Five foot two 'and shrinking' … Wayne Sleep photographed at the Royal Opera House.

    Wayne Sleep at 75: ‘Did Rudolf Nureyev pinch my bum? More than that’

    He danced with ballet’s legends, partied with Freddie Mercury, and became a household name. As he celebrates his birthday with a gala performance, the 5ft 2in dynamo looks back at an action-packed life

April 2023

  • Soviet born ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev performing with Ghislaine Thesmar in 1980.

    Bolshoi ballet about Nureyev dropped due to ban on ‘LGBT propaganda’

    Russian law restricts ‘demonstration’ of LGBTQ+ behaviour, preventing portrayal of dancer’s homosexual relationships

March 2023

  • Ako Kono and Chengwu Guo in Australian Ballet's 2023 production of Don Quixote

    Don Quixote review – Australian Ballet returns to Nureyev in a sumptuous, exuberant showcase

  • Lynn Seymour as Ophelia and Rudolf Nureyev as Hamlet during rehearsals for Robert Helpmann's ballet Hamlet at the Royal Opera House, 1964.

    Lynn Seymour obituary

February 2023

  • Alessandra Ferri at Royal Opera House, London.

    Observer New Review Q&A
    Alessandra Ferri: ‘Dancing with Nureyev​,​ I swear he had an energetic aura around him’

    The principal ballerina on portraying Virginia Woolf, why she’s so enthusiastic about ageing, and what she learned from the greats

October 2022

  • Audra McDonald in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill in 2017.

    The best theatre to stream this month
    The best theatre to stream this month: Billie Holiday’s blues, McKellen’s Lear and Newsies

    Our roundup of stage shows to watch at home includes a Tony award-winning musical, international dance and a radical dramatisation of the crucifixion story

September 2022

  • Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Pavel Kolesnikov in The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

    The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988; Nureyev: Legend and Legacy review – making sound visible

  • Francesco Gabriele Frola in The Flower Festival in Genzano, pas de deux, part of Nureyev Legend and Legacy @ Theatre Royal Drury Lane (Opening 05-09-22 ©Tristram Kenton 09-22 (3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550 Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com

    Nureyev: Legend and Legacy review – firecracker spins and star turns

January 2022

  • Galina Samsova<br>La danseuse étoile soviétique, Galina Samsova, dans le ballet 'La Fille des neiges', sur la scène du théâtre des Champs-Elysées, à Paris, France le 17 novembre 1964. (Photo by KEYSTONE-FRANCE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

    Galina Samsova obituary

    Ballet dancer with a distinctive Russian style who was noted for her musicality and acting ability

July 2021

  • Archive Observer magazine covers, for OM, 26/11/2020. Sophia Evans for The Observer

    From the Observer archive
    From the archive: a profile of Rudolf Nureyev, July 1972

    A decade after his defection to the west, the dancer and his sex appeal continued to fascinate. By Chris Hall

June 2021

  • Rudolf Nureyev’s photographed in his US stage debut performing with Ruth Page’s Chicago Opera Ballet at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, March 1962.

    From the Guardian archive
    Russian ballet star Rudolf Nureyev asks for asylum – archive 1961

    On 16 June 1961, Kirov Ballet’s principal dancer broke free from Russian embassy guards at Le Bourget airport and requested asylum in France. See how the Guardian and Observer reported events

May 2021

  • The Bolshoi ballet premieres its production Krakatukin Moscow in January 2020.

    Top 10s
    Top 10 books about ballet

    From Noel Streatfeild to David Hallberg, this is a literature of passion and madness, ambition and addiction

February 2020

  • Ballet dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn rehearsing Marguerite and Armand at Covent Garden, London, 8 March 1963.

    From the Guardian archive
    Margot Fonteyn: 'I've never been a dedicated dancer' – archive, 1970

  • Backstage at an English National Ballet tour of Hong Kong and Australia, 1999

    3-tutu-1-go! Ballet superstars backstage – in pictures

January 2020

  • Russian Ballet v2

    The long read
    ‘They will destroy you’: in Putin’s Russia, how far can an artist go?

    The long read: A decade ago, a new spirit of tolerance of the avant garde blossomed in Russia. But these days, it’s impossible to know where the lines are – as the country’s most celebrated director discovered to his cost

July 2019

  • Dame Beryl Grey

    Ballet legend Beryl Grey: 'It’s amazing what the human body can take'

    She did Swan Lake on her 15th birthday, collaborated with the combustible Rudolf Nureyev and was the first westerner to perform with the Bolshoi. The dame reflects on a life in dance

May 2019

  • Margot Fonteyn at a window in Granada, Spain, in 1953.

    Prime mover: Margot Fonteyn centenary – in pictures

    One hundred years after her birth, join us as we step back in time to celebrate the life of the Royal Ballet’s prima ballerina assoluta

March 2019

  • CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019)<br>JUDE LAW &amp; BRIE LARSON Character(s): Walter Lawson, Carol Danvers Film ‘CAPTAIN MARVEL’ (2019) Directed By ANNA BODEN &amp; RYAN FLECK 28 February 2019 SAY98030 Allstar Picture Library/MARVEL STUDIOS **WARNING** This Photograph is for editorial use only and is the copyright of MARVEL STUDIOS and/or the Photographer assigned by the Film or Production Company &amp; can only be reproduced by publications in conjunction with the promotion of the above Film. A Mandatory Credit To MARVEL STUDIOS is required. The Photographer should also be credited when known. No commercial use can be granted without written authority from the Film Company. 1111z@yx abcde 6 18

    Box office analysis: UK
    Captain Marvel lords it over Us at UK box office

    Brie Larson’s superhero stays top as Jordan Peele’s horror tale lands at No 2 – and Fisherman’s Friends rides a wave of affection
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