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Nureyev (2017)
Nureyev is a 2017 biographical ballet for the Bolshoi Theatre, tracing the life of dancer Rudolf Nureyev from his Soviet upbringing through his defection from the USSR. The article credits the choreography to Kirill Serebrennikov and Yuri Posokhov, working together for the second time after their 2015 ballet A Hero of Our Time, with a score by Ilya Demutsky (matching our record) and a libretto completed the same winter as the score.
What is danced
The source article does not describe the choreography itself: it gives no synopsis, no scene breakdown, no named numbers or divertissements, and no description of steps, partnering, or technique. It states only that the ballet covers 'the biography of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev who was born in the Soviet Union and then escaped from his native country' and names Vladislav Lantratov as the dancer who created the title role at the premiere. Anyone wanting the actual movement vocabulary — how the work handles a dancer playing a dancer, whether it stages known Nureyev repertory, how it treats his Kirov training against his later Western career — will need a source beyond this article; none of that is recoverable from what is given here.
Context
The ballet was made for the Bolshoi's 241st season (2016/17) at a moment when the theatre's relationship with the Russian state was under strain: a planned 11 July 2017 premiere was called off by the theatre's director Vladimir Urin, and the article reports that culture minister Vladimir Medinsky described the production as 'gay propaganda,' which newspapers cited as the real reason for the cancellation. The production went ahead five months later, on 9 December 2017, after a new date was announced in September and tickets went on sale on 18 November. Serebrennikov was separately accused of embezzling 68 million roubles around this period, entangling the ballet's fate with his broader legal prosecution rather than with any purely artistic dispute.
Staging history
The article records a single staging: the 9 December 2017 premiere on the Historical Scene of the Bolshoi Theatre, with Vladislav Lantratov as Rudolf Nureyev. It does not mention any subsequent revival, transfer, or restaging, so nothing further can be reported here.
How to watch it
Approach it as a biographical narrative ballet built around a real dancer's career and defection, rather than an abstract or plotless piece — the article frames the whole work around that arc. Because the source gives no scene-by-scene detail, a viewer should look elsewhere (programme notes, reviews of the 2017 run) for how specific episodes of Nureyev's life were translated into stage action.
Credits
- composer: Ilya Demutsky