“White Crow” director Ralph Fiennes says the dancer’s story resonates with his own artistic quest.
Oleg Ivenko as Rudolf Nureyev in a scene from “The White Crow.” By Sarah L. Kaufman Sarah L. Kaufman Dance critic covering arts and entertainment Email Bio Follow May 3 at 8:00 AM Russia, political asylum, illicit seductions — “The White Crow” feels surprisingly current, though this new film about Soviet ballet star Rudolf Nureyev and his defection to the West centers on events in 1961.
Even there, in that temple of tradition and discipline, Nureyev was a rule breaker. His MO was evident before he defected; flouting ballet convention was his mark as an artist. Before Nureyev, ballerinas had held the spotlight in ballet, and the male dancers weren’t that exciting. Intensely aware of his own charisma and sex appeal, Nureyev shook up the pecking order by refusing to cede a scintilla of glamour to his female dance partners.
Director Ralph Fiennes, left, and writer David Hare at “The White Crow” premiere in New York on April 22. Fiennes has had “White Crow” in mind for 20 years, ever since reading Julie Kavanagh’s biography “Nureyev: The Life.” Her book chronicles the ballet star from his birth on the TransSiberian express to his death in Paris from complications of AIDS in 1993, at age 54.
Yet he didn’t want to act in this film, his third as director. But the money folks convinced him his name would bring in investors, and he became drawn to the role of Alexander Pushkin , the wise and deeply influential ballet teacher who also groomed Russian ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov.
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