[NARRATOR WITH MASCULINE VOICE] Whatever else, the face is familiar
from a million photographs.
All over the world, even if you've never seen him dance,
you know the name:
Rudolf Nureyev.
[INSTRUCTOR CLAPS AND HUMS MUSIC]
[CLAPS AND HUMS MUSIC]
[CLAPS AND HUMS FASTER]
[HUMS MUSIC MORE SLOWLY]
[INSTRUCTOR] Preparation.
[INSTRUCTOR] One...
[INSTRUCTOR] Seconde.
[HUMS MUSIC]
[INSTRUCTOR] À la seconde.
[INSTRUCTOR] And fifth.
[INSTRUCTOR] Then we plié.
[INSTRUCTOR] And we display, and open, bring down.
[NARRATOR] It's quite difficult to dance, you know.
It needs commitment and passion.
That's what helps to make Nureyev so special a dancer.
He's totally committed with a fantastic passion for his work.
He once said:
"Every time you dance,
what you do must be sprayed with your blood."
That's a metaphorical way of speaking, but it says a lot about him.
[INSTRUCTOR CLAPS AND HUMS MUSIC]
He was talking about when you dance on stage.
That, before you ever get on stage as a dancer,
there is this routine of training.
Day after day.
Week in, week out.
Year in, year out. It never stops.
It never stops, this need to keep practicing all the time.
[INSTRUCTOR HUMS MUSIC]
Again, he was once quoted as saying:
"After three days off,
my back,
my legs, even my spine begin to deteriorate."
"After a week, my legs would shake at the barre."
"I'd faint."
[INSTRUCTOR HUMS MUSIC]
[INSTRUCTOR] Passé.
[HUMS MUSIC]
[INSTRUCTOR] À la seconde.
[CLICKS FINGERS AND HUMS MUSIC]
[INSTRUCTOR] And passé.
[HUMS MUSIC]
[INSTRUCTOR] Arabesque.
[HUMS MUSIC]
[INSTRUCTOR] Stretch.
[INSTRUCTOR] Rond de jambe.
[HUMS MUSIC]
[INSTRUCTOR] Back, attitude.
[HUMS MUSIC]
[NARRATOR] Does it look easy?
That's deceptive.
The muscles must be made to work exactly the way you want them to work.
The repetition, the little movements, gradually build up control over your body
and make it possible to do the big, difficult things on stage.
Just like an athlete,
a dancer gradually stretches himself to the limit of his capacity.
And then tries to go further.
- [PIANO MUSIC BEGINS] - Balance, control, strength.
That's what it's all about.
That's what the training is for.
Without them, the dancer can do nothing.
[PIANO MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
- [PIANO MUSIC GROWS QUIETER] - [INSTRUCTOR] Two and three.
[INSTRUCTOR] And one, two, three.
[INSTRUCTOR] And side. And pas de bourrée, and three.
[INSTRUCTOR] One, plié.
[INSTRUCTOR] And fifth.
[INSTRUCTOR] One, and two.
[INSTRUCTOR] Side.
[PIANO MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
And one, plié. Pas de bourrée.
One, and back, and bam.
Excellent for the left side. For the right side, go back.
[PIANO MUSIC ENDS]
Follow the right side.
Plié to the back...
À la seconde.
To the back, good.
- [PIANO MUSIC BEINGS] - Right, and back.
[NARRATOR] After class, rehearsal.
In this instance, the famous old ballet, La Sylphide, dating from the 1830s.
It's been handed down ever since,
from one generation of dancers to another.
Even the traditional mime gestures, like this.
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
Nureyev, himself the producer of many ballets
and a perfectionist in whatever he does,
knows the importance of getting every detail right.
[FINGERS CLICK TO COUNT BEATS OF MUSIC]
Nowadays, even in his busy life, he makes time to create new dances.
And also to pass on to others some of the traditions he has learned.
[PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES]
[PIANO MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[INSTRUCTS] More écarté.
[IN FRENCH] Wider.
More écarté.
[PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES]
[FEET STAMP TO BEAT OF MUSIC]
Wrong foot. Wrong footwork!
One, two, three.
[PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES]
[PIANO MUSIC BECOMES MORE DRAMATIC]
[PIANO MUSIC SPEEDS UP]
[IN FRENCH] It's not good, it's not right.
- Can we go, dum-dum? - [CLAPS BEAT]
- Front leg open. - [REPEATS IN FRENCH]
One, two... One, two... One, two, three. One...
[IN FRENCH] Can you do it?
And...
- [PIANO MUSIC BEINGS] - Sorry.
- [PIANO MUSIC STOPS] - Together.
[IN FRENCH] It's you who lead...
And...
[PIANO MUSIC STARTS] One, two... One, two, three. One...
[PIANO MUSIC BECOMES MORE DRAMATIC]
One, two...
One.
And one, two, three.
[PIANO MUSIC SPEEDS UP]
[PIANO MUSIC SLOWS TO CONCLUSION]
[PIANO MUSIC FADES TO END]
Can we repeat from fermée?
[IN FRENCH] With the arm... the leg.
- The same place. Lead in. - Yes.
Again.
- Lead in. And... - [PIANO MUSIC BEGINS]
Ready, and one, two, three. One, two, three.
[PIANO MUSIC BECOMES MORE DRAMATIC]
[PIANO MUSIC GETS FASTER]
- [PIANO MUSIC SLOWS TO CONCLUSION] - One...
[PIANO MUSIC FADES TO END]
Down!
Settle down.
- [CLAPS] - One and you fall.
Dum! Up.
[HUMS MUSIC]
[PIANO MUSIC BEGINS]
- [NUREYEV] And straight away. - [STAMPS FEET TO BEAT OF MUSIC]
One.
And... down!
Two.
Yes.
Okay?
One and, by two, everybody has to have a pose.
[NARRATOR] In La Sylphide, the vision of a sylph, a beautiful spirit of the air
appears on his wedding day to a young Scottish farmer.
He falls in love with her immediately, leaves his bride and his family
and follows it to the woods where other spirits like her are dancing.
But their enchanted scene together is destined to be brief
and, at the end of the ballet, he will be left alone and disillusioned.
Nureyev and Carla Fracci are dancing the love scene in the woods.
[SLOW ORCHESTRAL MUSIC FROM LA SYLPHIDE BEGINS]
[AN OBOE BECOMES PROMINENT IN THE MUSIC]
[A HARP BECOMES PROMINENT IN THE MUSIC]
[MUSIC FLARES AND FADES]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[AN OBOE BECOMES PROMINENT IN THE MUSIC]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER AND LOUDER]
[A HARP AND STRINGS BECOME PROMINENT]
[MUSIC GROWS GRADUALLY LOUDER]
[MUSIC SLOWS DOWN]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER AND LOUDER]
[MUSIC SLOWS DOWN]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS SLIGHTLY]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC SLOWS AND QUIETENS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES OUT]
[A HARP BECOMES PROMINENT]
[MUSIC GROWS SLOWER AND HIGHER]
[MUSIC GROWS TENSE]
[MUSIC SPEEDS UP AND INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS AND QUIETENS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES]
[SLOW STRING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND FASTER]
[MUSIC BECOMES LOUDER AND FASTER]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC SPEEDS UP]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[SLOW STRING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES]
[SLOW, QUIET STRING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC BECOMES MORE UPBEAT]
[MUSIC GROWS GRADUALLY FASTER]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS AND QUIETENS]
[MUSIC GROWS GRADUALLY FASTER]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[A TRUMPET BECOMES PROMINENT]
[MUSIC SPEEDS UP]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND FASTER]
[MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES]
[PAUSE, THEN LOUD MUSIC AS NUREYEV LANDS]
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC FROM LA SYLPHIDE BEGINS AGAIN]
[MUSIC SPEEDS UP]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND FASTER]
[MUSIC SLOWS SLIGHTLY]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER]
[QUIET, FAST STRING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND FASTER]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC DRAWS TO CONCLUSION]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
- [MUSIC FADES TO END] - [AUDIENCE APPLAUD]
[NARRATOR] This is where it all begins and ends.
In a theatre dressing room.
They're much alike all over the world.
Somewhere to hang your clothes, somewhere to sit.
A mirror to make up for the stage.
No trimmings.
No glamour.
A dancer like Nureyev is accustomed
to finding himself in strange dressing rooms.
Perhaps it stems from the fact his family were Tartars:
a race famous over the centuries as warriors and nomads.
He was even born travelling, in a train.
And sometimes it seems he has never stopped travelling.
First to Leningrad, where he learnt to dance
and, since then, all over the world.
Wherever there is an audience waiting to see him perform.
He has to dance all the time.
He likes to dance all the time.
HE SAYS: "I dance best when I'm tired."
"Then, if I'm on my second wind, I know it will work."
"My muscles will just go my way."
The clothes a dancer wears to rehearse in are not meant to be glamorous.
What matters is they keep your muscles warm.
Nureyev is very much engrossed in the Classical Ballet,
ballets like La Sylphide or The Sleeping Beauty.
After all, he was trained at the Kirov, the world's greatest classical school.
These classical ballets are valuable for their own sake
and as a point of departure for dancers and choreographers to move forward.
And, as a dancer, Nureyev wants to be seen in modern works as well.
Glen Tetley, the American choreographer, created the ballet Field Figures,
a very original modern work
to music by the avant-garde composer, Stockhausen.
And he personally taught Nureyev the leading role in it.
Tetley explains he's fascinated by the carefully judged distances
we all unconsciously permit between ourselves and other people
and the instinctive guarding of territory about us
that is part of our animal heritage.
In Field Figures, he used that idea as the starting point
for movement that explores the transitions between movements
rather than the fixed, brilliant positions usual in Classical Ballet.
He'd often say in rehearsal:
"Do you know those steps in between your arabesque, jeté, pirouette?"
"Well, try to make them look as though they were not between."
Another unusual feature of Field Figures is that
Tetley wanted the dancers not to see each other's movements,
but rather to hear them and react or not.
This makes an unusual and fascinating relationship.
Whereas, in Classical Ballet,
dancers are seldom allowed total physical involvement,
Field Figures starts like this rehearsal with Deanne Bergsma
with the protagonists as intimately involved as possible.
[DISSONANT MUSIC BEGINS]
[LOW RUMBLING MUSIC]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND HIGHER-PITCHED]
[LOW MUSIC CONTINUES]
[MUSIC GROWS HIGHER]
[LOW MUSIC CONTINUES]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC GETS HIGHER]
[LOW MUSIC CONTINUES]
[TENSE WHISTLING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GETS HIGHER]
[A HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLE BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOWER AND TENSER]
[BEEPING MUSIC BEGINS]
[BEEPING STOPS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC QUIETENS]
[BEEPING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC BECOMES HIGHER]
[TENSE WHISTLING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC BECOMES HIGHER AND MORE INTENSE]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND MORE INTENSE]
[MUSIC SLOWS AND QUIETENS]
[MUSIC FADES TO END]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
When we get here, step right?
[NARRATOR] Every modern choreographer has his own approach
and his own way of using his dancers.
Tetley's idea in Field Figures was to explore certain kinds of movement.
To see and use a visible break.
To realise balance is a constant state rather than a heart-stopping verticality.
And, above all, to emphasise continuity.
[LOW RUMBLING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC BECOMES LOUDER AND HIGHER]
[A LOW RUMBLE GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC BECOMES HIGHER]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND INTENSIFIES]
[VIBRATING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC BECOMES HIGHER]
[MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES OUT]
It takes time for dancers and audiences to accept other forms of movement
and a different kind of music.
It had to be studied from the beginning, like going back to school.
Nureyev said that what was wonderful for him
was the actual experience of working directly with Tetley.
[RUMBLING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC BECOMES HIGHER AND MORE INTENSE]
[MUSIC BECOMES HIGHER]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC GROWS QUIETER AND HIGHER]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER AND LOUDER]
[MUSIC QUIETENS]
[PIZZICATO STRINGS BECOME PROMINENT]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND FASTER]
[MUSIC QUIETENS WITH KNOCKING SOUND]
[MUSIC STOPS AND QUIET, DISSONANT SOUNDS BEGIN]
[DISSONANT MUSIC BEGINS]
[QUIET, HIGH-PITCHED MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC CONTINUES AND FADES]
One remark Tetley made about Field Figures
was that he used many animal images
simply to stimulate the dancers to move more deeply.
Bird, snake, monkey.
Positions of display and submission.
Patterns of defining boundaries.
He wanted the movement to grow organically
within the arbitrarily chosen context
and to develop its own relationships and tensions as it did so.
[HIGH-PITCHED RUMBLING MUSIC WITH PIZZICATO BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER AND INTENSIFIES]
[HIGH-PITCHED HUMMING MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER WITH HOWLING SOUND]
[HIGH-PITCHED HUMMING MUSIC CONTINUES]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER WITH HOWLING SOUND]
[HIGH-PITCHED HUMMING MUSIC CONTINUES]
[MUSIC CONTINUES, BECOMING HIGHER]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER WITH HOWLING SOUND]
[MUSIC QUIETENS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC CONTINUES WITH KNOCKING SOUND]
[MUSIC FADES TO END]
Formation happened in England, not in Russia.
I had the baggage of knowledge
but, how to operate with it, I learned in England.
And I spent most of my dancing years in England.
So it means a lot to me.
But to say, like, London is my home or France or Paris or Italy or Milan.
Or Vienna, I can't say that.
I live in suitcases.
And my only ground is my work, at the moment.
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC BEGINS]
Well, it was my very greatest fortune to meet Margot.
I invited him to make his first appearance in England at this charity matinee.
It was a very exciting moment.
[MARGOT] At the time, Rudolf was very anxious that I should dance with him.
I hadn't met him at all and all the negotiations went on by telephone.
But I thought: "Well, I've never seen this boy."
"He's half my age and why should he insist that I dance with him at this matinee?"
Somehow I didn't dance with him at that performance
but, at his next appearance in England,
I did do Giselle with him and ever since then.
We've danced together a great deal.
I'm very happy that I finally did accept to dance with him
because I've gained a lot from it.
Well, I think it's complex and very simple.
And always interesting.
Often he's very amusing and to say that one was never going to be bored with him.
He has a lot of changes of mood.
Sometimes they're bad but they're not very serious.
He doesn't mean them.
He means it at the time but, in five minutes, it's gone.
So his character perhaps superficially might appear to have bad sides,
but most of them I don't think are important.
[PIANO MUSIC BEGINS]
[NARRATOR] Margot Fonteyn and Nureyev are rehearsing Marguerite and Armand,
a ballet which was created for them
by Sir Frederick Ashton.
- [MAN 1] Straight up? - [MAN 2] Yes.
[MAN 1] I have a great shot of her running away, looking away.
[PIANO MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER]
I'm a very romantic character, so naturally I'm drawn to romantic heroines.
And Marguerite Gautier is somebody who's always fascinated me.
And I read a great deal about her.
Then, quite by accident, I heard this sonata of Liszt's
one day on the wireless.
And I sat there and I saw the whole thing that could be contained in this music.
Margot seemed to me the epitome of Marguerite Gautier.
Rudolf seemed to me the epitome of Armand.
Well, I guess Fred's got a very good eye for typecasting.
[FRED] Well, he's a passionate human being and Armand was a passionate human being.
I'm often accused that it was just merely a vehicle for two star performers
AND I SAID: "What's wrong with that?"
I mean, Sarah Bernhardt had many vehicles written for her
and were very successful.
She also was a great Dame aux Camélias.
[MARGOT] I can't imagine that it could feel better
to be acting or singing the role.
It's marvellous to dance it.
And, of course, to dance it with Rudolf.
I also couldn't imagine dancing it with anybody else.
I think it has to be Rudolf as Armand.
It was a very, very important moment,
I would say, the first ballet being choreographed for me.
I didn't want it at all to be a realistic thing.
I wanted it to be more...
[IN FRENCH] poetical evocation.
[LISZT PIANO SONATA IN B MINOR BEGINS]
[NARRATOR] In the last moments of her life,
Marguerite, a courtesan known as La Dame aux Camélias,
dying of consumption
relives, in a delirious dream, the story of her passion for Armand.
How they met at a party
and fell in love at first sight.
[PIANO MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[RAPID BASS LINE BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC GROWS SLOWER]
[MUSIC GROWS FASTER]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[ASCENDING SCALES BECOME PROMINENT]
[MUSIC GROWS SLOWER]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[MUSIC QUICKENS RAPIDLY]
[RAPID DESCENDING SCALE BECOMES PROMINENT]
[BASS NOTES BECOME PROMINENT]
[GENTLE MELODY BUILDS]
[MELODY REPEATED AT HIGHER PITCHES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[GENTLE MELODY BUILDS]
[LOUD AND SOFT MELODIES ALTERNATE BETWEEN DANCERS]
[SOFT MELODY CONTINUES]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[A HIGH, GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWLY FADES]
[A NEW, GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[ASCENDING SCALES]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[A GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[ASCENDING SCALE]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[HIGH TRILL]
[ASCENDING AND DESCENDING SCALES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[ASCENDING SCALE TO CLIMAX]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
She remembers how she left her rich protector
and went to live happily with Armand in the country.
Until the day when Armand's father arrived
and begged her to leave her young lover,
which she did without telling him why.
[TENSE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES]
[MUSIC BECOMES GENTLE]
[FAST ASCENDING AND DESCENDING SCALES]
[FAST DESCENDING SCALES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[LOUD FOOT STEPS]
[SLOW, DRAMATIC BASS NOTES]
[LOUD FOOT STEPS]
[MUSIC STOPS]
[SLOW ASCENDING SCALE]
[SLOW DESCENDING SCALE]
[SLOW PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES]
[MUSIC SLOWS AND QUIETENS]
[DRAMATIC BASS NOTES BEGIN]
[ASCENDING NOTES]
[DRAMATIC BASS NOTES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS AND QUIETENS]
[MUSIC FADES]
[A GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[MUSIC QUICKENS SLIGHTLY THEN SLOWS]
[MUSIC FADES]
[A SAD MELODY BEGINS]
[HIGH ASCENDING AND DESCENDING SCALES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[FAST DESCENDING SCALES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[DRAMATIC SCALES]
[MUSIC SLOWS BUT REMAINS DRAMATIC]
[MUSIC BECOMES GENTLE]
[GENTLE ASCENDING AND DESCENDING SCALES]
[A GENTLE ROMANTIC MELODY BEGINS]
[SLOW DESCENDING SCALE]
[BASS NOTES BECOME PROMINENT]
[MUSIC FADES]
[QUIET BASS NOTES BEGIN]
Misunderstanding her motives, Armand followed and publicly insulted her
by throwing money in her face.
[A GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[RAPID SCALES ALTERNATING]
[DRAMATIC BASS NOTES]
[CHAOTIC SCALES AND MELODIES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[SUDDEN LOUD BASS NOTES]
[ASCENDING SCALE WITH ABRUPT END]
[LOUD BASS NOTE CONTINUE]
[CHAOTIC SCALES]
[DRAMATIC ASCENDING MELODY]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[BASS NOTES]
[BASS NOTES SLOW]
[A GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[LOUD AND SOFT THEMES ALTERNATE]
[MUSIC FADES]
[A FAST, GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[MUSIC SLOWS SADLY]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
Alone, she lies dying.
But Armand hears the truth, at last, from his father
and returns in time for Marguerite to die in his arms.
[HIGH, FAST NOTES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[DRAMATIC BASS NOTES]
[LOW DESCENDING SCALES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[DRAMATIC SCALES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[HIGH TRILL]
[SILENCE]
[A SLOW MELODY BEGINS]
[MUSIC ASCENDS SLOWLY]
[MUSIC DESCENDS SLOWLY]
[A SLOW, QUIET MELODY BEGINS]
[BASS LINE INTENSIFIES]
[BASS STOPS AND MUSIC SLOWS]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[MUSIC FADES]
[SLOW DESCENDING BASS SCALE]
[SLOW, HIGHER NOTES BEGIN]
[MUSIC FADES]
One of the things Nureyev is most proud of in his career
is his partnership with Fonteyn.
"If there's no understanding and no trust between you and your partner, he said,
it hardly matters how well you dance."
"But, when I dance with Fonteyn,
there is one aim, one vision."
"There is no tearing us apart."
He's always been glad to dance with others too
to match himself against another personality, other points of view.
When the chance comes to try something new,
he's always eager to take it.
A dancer's career is a short one.
He has to dance.
It's no good sitting around waiting.
Of course, between the new challenges, he always goes back to the Classics.
They are the basis for all his other work.
So much so, in fact,
that he has produced his own original versions
of all the great Russian classics he was brought up on.
Ballets such as Swan Lake,
The Sleeping Beauty,
The Nutcracker,
Don Quixote,
Raymonda, and others.
[ORCHESTRAL MUSIC BEGINS]
Now, in the wings, Nureyev and Lynn Seymour get ready to dance
the big classical pas de deux from the last act of The Sleeping Beauty.
This is the moment before any performance, of a familiar work or a new one,
when the long grind of daily class and rehearsal have their justification.
The hard work isn't over.
The hardest part, in fact, begins when the dancer steps on stage.
But now, in front of an audience, the work is transformed
and can become its own reward.
[TCHAIKOVSKY THE SLEEPING BEAUTY: "PAS DE DEUX, AURORE ET DESIRE" PLAYS]
[A GENTLE MELODY BEGINS]
[GENTLE WOODWIND AND PIZZICATO STRINGS BECOME PROMINENT]
[ASCENDING HARP SCALE]
[A GENTLE MELODY RETURNS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[ASCENDING HARP SCALE]
[MUSIC SLOWS SOLEMNLY]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES CHEERILY]
[ASCENDING HARP SCALE]
[SILENCE]
[STRINGS AND HORNS BEGIN]
[HARP SCALES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[SILENCE]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES WITH FULL ORCHESTRA]
[MUSIC QUIETENS]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES WITH FULL ORCHESTRA]
[DRAMA BUILDS IN MUSIC]
[DESCENDING STRINGS]
[A GENTLE MELODY BEGINS ON WOODWINDS AND STRINGS]
[MUSIC SLOWS]
[MUSIC BUILDS GRADUALLY]
- [PLUCKED STRING] - [CADENCE]
[LOUD APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
[CONTINUED APPLAUSE]
["DESIRE, VARIATION I" PLAYS]
[AN UPBEAT MELODY BEGINS ON STRINGS WITH ORCHESTRA]
[MUSIC BECOMES FASTER AND MORE DRAMATIC]
[UPBEAT MELODY RETURNS]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
[SILENCE]
["AURORE, VARIATION II" PLAYS]
[A DELICATE MELODY BEGINS ON STRINGS]
[AN OBOE BECOMES PROMINENT]
[ALTERNATING BRASS AND PLUCKED STRINGS]
[OBOE SCALE OVER BRASS AND STRING]
[A SOLE VIOLIN BECOMES PROMINENT]
[MORE STRINGS ENTER]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC QUICKENS]
[APPLAUSE]
[SILENCE]
[LIVELY ORCHESTRAL MUSIC BEGINS]
[MUSIC GROWS LOUDER]
[STRINGS BECOME PROMINENT]
[BRASS BECOMES PROMINENT]
[PIZZICATO STRINGS BECOME PROMINENT]
[BRASS AND ORCHESTRA INTENSIFY]
[DESCENDING BRASS SCALES]
[MUSIC INTENSIFIES]
[MUSIC SPEEDS UP TO CRESCENDO]
[APPLAUSE]
Whatever the ballet he has been dancing that night,
there comes the moment when it is all over.
When he can gradually relax from the tension,
can enjoy, for a time, a private life like anyone else.
But not for long.
Tomorrow, the routine will start all over again.
What does he say himself?
"You may look cool on stage,
but it has taken so much effort to prepare."
"Of course there are compensations, applause and praise."
"But the reward of your own satisfaction..."
"That doesn't come so often."
"All the same, life is one's work."
"There is nothing else."
"While I'm working,
I'm content."
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[LOUD INDISTINCT CHATTER]
"That is it, simply."
"You have to be faithful to what you do."
"Dancing is what I do."
"It is my life."
["DESIRE, VARIATION I" PLAYS]
[FAST, LIVELY MUSIC]
[MUSIC FADES TO END]
[THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, "APOTHEOSE" PLAYS]
[TRIUMPHANT, ORCHESTRAL MUSIC]