Today’s Insight into the Meaning of LIFE
Inspiration vs Technique
RUDOLF NUREYEV (1938-1993) Defected from the Ballet Kirov in 1961. Nureyev, considered the most accomplished dancer of his generation, partnered with English ballerina Margot Fonteyn and immediately they both became a sensation, travelling the world and performing to sold out audiences.
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE, (18 May 1919 – 21 February 1991), the British prima ballerina assoluta, was considered by many to be the greatest English ballerina, and one of the greatest dancers of the 20th Century.
”The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.”
Despite their differences in background, temperament, and a nineteen-year difference in age, Nureyev and Fonteyn became close lifelong friends and were famously loyal to each other. Fonteyn would not approve an unflattering photograph of Nureyev.
He said about her: ”At the end of Lac des Cygnes when she left the stage in her great white tutu I would have followed her to the end of the world.”
”Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable.” Fonteyn
”If I have learnt anything, it is that life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return? ” Margot Fonteyn
Fonteyn had married a Panamanian diplomat and playboy who would become the object of violent attacks and hatred. Once they were both arrested together.
Horor Strikes! Margot Fonteyn dances in Swan Lake at the annual Bath Festival , Bath UK , 1965 having heard that morning of an assassination attempt on her husband Dr Roberto de Arias who was shot by a rival, leaving him quaddriplegic for the rest of his life. She stayed by his side to the end.
When Fonteyn was suffering from cancer, Nureyev paid many of her medical bills and visited her constantly despite his busy schedule. When Nureyev admitted that his body was too wracked with disease and injury to dance, and he was considering conducting, Fonteyn exclaimed, “Darling, that’s perfect!!!”
Margot Fonteyn died in 1991. Rudolf Nureyev died in 1993 of AIDS. Their partnership has become a legend.
A famous bronze statue of Fonteyn and Nureyev