Rudolf Nureyev – A Documentary to be screened

The documentary, which is produced and directed by Patricia Foy, will be screened in a matinee show on 20 October at 2.00pm.

Titled simply Rudolf Nureyev – A Documentary, it is the story, in his own words, of the most brilliant dancer of his generation.

A legend in his own time, Nureyev has been hailed as the most committed and versatile dancer in the history of ballet. In Foy’s 1991 documentary, the artist himself appears before the camera, one year before his death, reflecting on his own rich and eventful life.

Nureyev’s meteoric rise took him from a poverty-stricken provincial childhood to life as a student at the Kirov, through defection to the West in 1961, and on to the great classical roles on the world’s most famous stages. Foy explores all these developments with insights of the star’s closest artistic partners, including Ninette de Valois, Merle Park, Sylvie Guillem, Roland Petit, and Margot Fonteyn, with whom Nureyev enjoyed a sublime professional partnership. As much the study of a life apart as a profile of a tireless jet-setting artist, Foy not only shows Nureyev’s evolution as a supreme exponent of modern dance, with the help of extensive excerpts from many of his signature ballets, but suggests that for all Nureyev’s desire to be a member of the corps, he always felt isolated. Indeed, Nureyev himself concludes with the revelation that he never felt a part of society.

Joburg residents now have the chance to be absorbed by the genius that no words can capture, through what has been described by Wesley Classics as a “definitive and insightful biography”.

Details: Clive M Beck Auditorium, RCHCC, corner Glenhove Rd and 4th Street, Houghton; R50 entrance includes refreshments; booking Hazel or René: 011 728 8088/8378; 011 728 8378; rchcc@telkomsa.net; rene.s@telkomsa.net

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