The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Announces Gift of Rudolf Nureyev Performances and Interviews on Film, Videotape, and Audiotape

October 26, 1999, New York City -- A comprehensive collection comprising hundreds of videotapes, films, and audiotapes documenting the life and career of the legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev has been donated to the Dance Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The announcement of the gift was made by Library President Paul LeClerc at a press conference today. The archive, which will be known as the Rudolf Nureyev Collection, has been donated by two not-for-profit foundations, the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation, based in Liechtenstein, and the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation, based in Chicago. The Foundations were established by Mr. Nureyev to further the cause of dance and, on his death, to perpetuate his memory and his credo as a dancer and choreographer through the promotion of ballet performances and events; the financing of the training of young talented dancers, particularly those from Russia; and medical research. Both Foundations have also donated funds to contribute to the preservation, processing, and cataloging of the Rudolf Nureyev Collection at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

"We are honored to receive this priceless collection which includes rare footage of rehearsals and performances, much of which has not been available for public viewing in the United States before, as well as interviews, promotional clips, and documentaries," said Dr. LeClerc. "Nureyev's extraordinary artistry captured the imagination of the entire world and influenced generations of dancers, particularly male dancers. Through this magnificent gift, his legacy will continue to inspire future generations of dancers, choreographers, and dance lovers."

Containing over 370 different titles, the Rudolf Nureyev Collection consists of broadcast-quality copies of professional recordings of complete ballets, television appearances consisting of excerpts and pas de deuxs, newsreel and documentary programs, and amateur films and videotapes of performances, as well as in-house recordings of dress rehearsals, home-movies, and never before seen camera rushes.  (The BBC alone is responsible for over 28 hours of footage relating to Mr. Nureyev.)  In addition, the Collection includes dozens of audio tapes comprising radio interviews and music tracks for ballets in which Mr. Nureyev performed and in-house recordings made by the Royal Ballet (12 tapes), Vienna Opera (7 tapes) and Paris Opera (14 tapes) of Mr. Nureyev's numerous performances and/or productions at these companies. Also, the Rudolf Nureyev Collection contains many documentaries about Mr. Nureyev made after his death and recordings of his ballets which have been mounted since that time.

Highlights
Among the many highlights of the Rudolf Nureyev Collection are a 35mm print of Mr. Nureyev's famous Corsaire solo variation performed on his graduation from the Kirov school; 1959 Soviet newsreel film of excerpts from Laurentia (with Ninel Kurgapkina); the 1961 Pathe footage of Mr. Nureyev's defection to the West; 1967 BBC and American newsreel clips of Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn "busted" by the police in San Francisco; 8mm film clips of several of Mr. Nureyev's performances at the Kirov Ballet (before his defection); 8mm film clips of Mr. Nureyev's 1965 Tancredi  (his only attempt to choreograph a modern ballet); 16mm black-and-white film of Mr. Nureyev and his longtime companion Erik Bruhn taking barre together in the early 1960's; a 1972 16mm color film of Mr. Nureyev relaxing in Buenos Aires during a day off from work; CBS Television rushes of his 1989 return to Russia to dance La Sylphide with the Kirov Ballet; and unedited interview footage for the 1993 BBC obituary tribute to Mr. Nureyev, with Ninette de Valois, Anthony Dowell, Lynn Seymour, Yehudi Menuhin, and many more.

"During the next two years, the Rudolf Nureyev Collection will be preserved, processed, and cataloged by specialists in the Dance Collection," said William Walker, Senior Vice President of The New York Public Library and Andrew W. Mellon Director of The Research Libraries. "Then viewing copies of the films and video will be available for screening by dancers, choreographers, scholars, historians, and the general public, free of charge, in the Research Division Reading Room of the renovated Lincoln Center facility of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts." (Renovation is scheduled to be completed in spring 2001). During the renovation, the Dance Collection is available at the Library Annex located at 531 West 43rd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.

"Early on, Rudolf realized the importance of capturing his performances on film and video not only for posterity, but also so he could improve his performances," said Wallace Potts, whose 16 mm films of Nureyev's performances in Madrid, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Geneva, among others, are part of the collection. "By watching 8 mm film of his early performances with the Kirov Ballet, made by a friend at his request, Rudolf realized how bland and unremarkable his curtain calls were and he set about to improve them. Eventually his curtain calls became part of his legend." Later on, Nureyev had friends tape his television appearances on 3/4" video tape whenever possible and frequently obtained the rushes of his television interviews. Mr. Potts, Film Archivist for the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation, has acted on behalf of both Foundations to build upon the collection that Nureyev compiled himself, gathering performances and interviews on film and video from sources around the world.

Perhaps more than any other dancer of the 20th century, Rudolf Nureyev accentuated the importance of the male role in classical dance. As a measure of his phenomenal international appeal, Nureyev appeared simultaneously on covers of Time and Newsweek magazines in the week of April 16, 1965, a feat virtually unimaginable for a male dancer before Nureyev burst upon the scene. "Rudolf Nureyev seized the imagination of audiences around the world," said Sir John Tooley, former General Director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and head of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation. "Our goal was to create a permanent archive that preserved Nureyev's legacy on film and video, which is the best way to preserve his art. The Dance Collection of The New York Public Library is the world's preeminent archive of dance related material, and is therefore a perfect home for these treasures."

"It was important to us that this archive of film and video be kept together and made accessible to the dance community and to the general public," said Barry Weinstein of the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation. "We are pleased that the collection will be in the Dance Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, because New York is an almost inevitable stop for most dancers, dance teachers, and choreographers. The fact that it will be available free of charge was also vitally important."

"Nureyev was universally recognized as one of the great dancers of the century, but I think his choreography was underappreciated in his lifetime, particularly in England and the United States," said Madeleine Nichols, chief curator of the Library's Dance Collection. "In the future I suspect that there will be another view of his choreography, because people will be able to see it and reevaluate it through these films and tapes in the Rudolf Nureyev Collection."

A Magnificent Legacy on Film and Video
On February 21, 1962, at age 23, Rudolf Nureyev made his Covent Garden debut and began his legendary partnership with Margot Fonteyn with a performance of Giselle. That performance caused a sensation throughout the ballet world, and on June 11 of the same year, Fonteyn and Nureyev's remarkable chemistry was captured on tape when they performed excerpts from Giselle for BBC television's Music in Camera. Through the Rudolf Nureyev Collection that seminal performance, and many others, will be available for public viewing for the first time in the United States.

Through television Rudolf Nureyev reached millions of viewers nationwide, most of whom had never set foot in a ballet theater. Reaching new and diverse audiences, he danced an excerpt from Swan Lake with Margot Fonteyn on The Ed Sullivan Show (1965) and Swine Lake with Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show (1977). Among the high-quality copies of Mr. Nureyev's performances on television programs are the 1962 BBC Nutcracker pas de deux (with Rosella Hightower, Nureyev's first appearance on British Television); a 1966 recording of the Swan Lake Act 3 pas de deux (with Svetlana Berisova) on The London Palladium Show; excerpts of Sleeping Beauty (with Margot Fonteyn) from a 1969 Dean Martin Show, La Sylphide excerpts (with Lynn Seymour) from a 1965 Jimmy Durante Meets the Lively Arts; and six performances on the BBC's Gala Performance series (including one in which he dances the Black Swan pas de deux with Natasha Makarova just after she defected from the Soviet Union).

Among the professional recordings of complete ballets in the Collection are 35 mm printing elements for the 1972 Australian Ballet's Don Quixote (which Mr. Nureyev co-directed), and Les Sylphides and the Corsaire pas de deux from the 1964 An Evening with the Royal Ballet (both with Margot Fonteyn). In addition, the Collection contains 16mm color film of some of his early productions (such as his 1971 Nutcracker in Buenos Aires and his 1972 Raymonda for the Zurich Ballet) and 1960's/early-1970's performances in modern ballets (George Balanchine's Apollo, Paul Taylor's Aureole  and Book of Beasts, Roland Petit's Ballet Extase and Jeune Homme et la Mort, Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane.)

Among the digital videotape copies of professional recordings of complete ballets, are the Canadian Ballet's 1972 Sleeping Beauty, Bavarian Opera Ballet's 1979 Giselle (with Lynn Seymour), Rome Opera Ballet's 1980 Giselle (with Caral Fracci), La Scala's 1982 Romeo and Juliet (with Carla Fracci as Juliet and Margot Fonteyn as Lady Capulet), Rome Opera Ballet's 1982 Marco Spada (with Ghislaine Thesmar) and Japan Broadcasting Corporation's 1983-1984 Giselle, Songs of a Wayfarer, and Le Spectre de la Rose (all of which Mr. Nureyev performed with Vienna Opera Ballet).

Filmed and videotaped home-movies in the Collection include an 8mm film of Nureyev's ballet teacher Alexandre Pushkin; a 1990 amateur tape recording of Mr. Nureyev's performance in The King and I; half a dozen VHS recordings from the early 1990's of his brief career as orchestra conductor; and tapes of Mr. Nureyev's Virginia farm and of his Italian island (formerly owned by Leonide Massine). Documentaries in the Collection include not only broadcast-quality copies of commercial recordings (Peter Batty's 1985 The Perfect Partnership: Fonteyn and Nureyev; Patricia Foy's 1990 Nureyev; Oxford Television's 1997 Dancing through Darkness, about Mr. Nureyev's coping with AIDS), but also high-quality copies of French, Italian, Russian, and American documentaries about Mr. Nureyev.

Included in the Collection are uncut camera rushes for the 1986 Paris Opera's commercial video of The Nutcracker (directed by Mr. Nureyev); the 1989 Paris Opera television recording of Mr. Nureyev's updated version of Cinderella (set in 1930's Hollywood); the Christie's 1995 promotional video for the Nureyev auction (footage detailing Mr. Nureyev's art and antique collection); and Wall-to-Wall Television rushes of Mr. Nureyev's "production-designed" Quai Voltaire apartment in Paris before it was sold.

Until Perestroika, the name of "Rudolf Nureyev" had been banished from the Soviet history books and his pictures had been removed from the walls and destroyed. Reflecting the post-Perestroika change in attitude toward Mr. Nureyev are a number of Russian-language broadcasts, including a 1991 program which celebrates his artistry; a 1993 tribute to him on his death; a 1998 program spotlighting a 3-day symposium devoted to Mr. Nureyev in St. Petersburg; and a 1999 program discussing Mr. Nureyev's defection to the West.

Dance Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The Dance Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is the largest and most comprehensive archive in the world devoted to the documentation of dance. Chronicling the art of dance in all its manifestations -- ballet, ethnic, modern, social, and folk -- the Collection is much more than a library in the usual sense of the word. It is part museum, part film production center, and part consulting service to the professional dance community. It preserves the history of dance by gathering diverse written, visual, and aural resources, and it works to ensure the art form's continuity through an active documentation
program.

Founded in 1944 as a separate division of The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library, the Dance Collection is used regularly by choreographers, dancers, critics, historians, journalists, publicists, film makers, graphic artists, students, and the general public. Working with the Collection's vast resources, a user can reconstruct an Elizabethan court dance, a 19th-century Italian tarantella, or a 20th-century Ceylonese devil dance; determine what makeup Nijinsky work in Scheherazade; learn the problems Picasso faced in working on the ballet Parade from letters in his own hand; or compare the modern dance styles of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Doris Humphrey.

While the Collection contains over 30,000 reference books about dance, these account for only 3 percent of its vast holdings. In addition to the Jerome Robbins Archive of the Recorded Moving Image, other resources -- available for study free of charge -- include audiotapes, clipping files, prints, original designs, posters, photographs, manuscripts, diaries, and memorabilia.

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