Rudolf Nureyev led a life packed with drama: his famous defection from the Soviet Union in 1961; his tempestuous eccentricity and sexual escapades; his global stardom; his command over the Paris Opéra Ballet as artistic director in the 1980s; his tragically early death from AIDS at 54.
Yuri Possokhov’s ballet Nureyev, which premiered at the Bolshoi Ballet in 2017, highlights all of that. It also triggered backlash in Russia. The newspaper Russia Beyond reported that year that a personal order from Vladimir Medinsky, the Minister of Culture at the time, who objected to the production’s depiction of “nontraditional sexual values,” delayed its opening. (An article from the Russian news agency TASS specifically cited scenes in which dancers performed naked and that the set included an enormous nude photo of Nureyev by Richard Avedon.) The Bolshoi dropped the ballet from its repertoire in 2023.
This year, Staatsballett Berlin is reviving Nureyev, starting March 21. (This staging marks the first performance of the production since its cancellation.) Christian Spuck, the company’s artistic director, saw the ballet in Russia in 2020. “I found the work perfectly suited to the artistic vision I had for the Staatsballett Berlin,” he says. “In my view, this production is not only artistically outstanding but also enormously important because of its political message, and it would be a great loss not to be able to stage it.” Although the company hasn’t danced a Possokhov ballet before, Spuck says he is excited to see the dancers embrace the choreographer’s style and movement language.
Possokhov, who only saw Nureyev dance once at the Vienna State Opera, describes being profoundly changed by the experience. He says he is happy that the production, which shows the dancer in all his contradictions, has found a new home. “Thanks to the dancers’ high level of versatility, the ballet was transferred seamlessly between the Bolshoi and the Staatsballett artists,” he says. The only changes, made by Possokhov and Kirill Serebrennikov, the production’s original librettist, stager, and set designer, have been adjustments to fit the Staatsballett stage, which is smaller than the Bolshoi’s.
Staatsballett principal dancer David Soares, who has been cast as Nureyev for the revival, began watching videos of the superstar as a 9-year-old in Brazil. As a dancer with the Bolshoi, he also performed in the gala scene in the original 2017 production. Now, while preparing to dance the titular role in Berlin, he has confronted new artistic challenges. “[Nureyev] could appear emotionally strong, even cold, when it came to the difficult decisions in his life—such as leaving his country and changing his entire future,” he says. “Yet onstage he was the opposite: full of passion, emotion, and intensity.”
Soares, who left Russia in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine, shares a parallel experience with Nureyev in his own life. He is grateful for what he learned in Russia, from his student days at Moscow’s Bolshoi Academy through his promotion to leading soloist with the company. Still, he says, “I also carry strong meaning behind the decision to leave—to seek freedom, artistic realization, and the possibility to live in a place where I can truly be myself.”
In light of recent events, Spuck has realized his dream of letting the ballet fly again as a legitimate work of art—this time, with additional relevance. “I am proud that we are the first to revive it,” he says.
Possokhov also wants the restaging to honor Nureyev’s legendary life, which transformed male dancing: “I would like the audience not only to know, but to truly feel, his dedication to the art form—a commitment that has had a lasting impact not only on dance but on culture itself.”
