Rudolf Nureyev and Eric Brun: the strangeness of love against the background of ballet steps

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Sometimes love takes on very unexpected forms and can radically change the lives of people whose hearts have been hit by the arrows of Cupid. This is exactly what happened with the ballet dancers, who were connected not only with creativity, but also with passionate feelings. Dance geniuses, they took from life what they wanted: pleasure, money, fame and admiration. But with personal happiness, everything was much more complicated …

Rudolf Nureyev is a great ballet dancer

The life of the brilliant dancer Rudolf Nureyev was not always cloudless. As a child, he had to learn real poverty, which, however, forced him to achieve a comfortable existence with extreme perseverance. But the path to a dignified life was very difficult. Although Nureyev was engaged in ballet since childhood, he began to master professional technique rather late.

Contemporaries argued that when Rudolph mastered various movements at the Vaganova school, it was clear that the guy had significant technical problems. Moreover, Nureyev himself saw this, and this infuriated him. He did not hesitate to show his rage in public and often ran away from the hall during rehearsals with tears in his eyes.

But when everyone left, he returned and persistently practiced various pas alone until he achieved perfection. This is how the dancer was formed, about whom the great Plisetskaya would later say: "Before Nureyev, they danced differently." After all, men traditionally played a secondary role in ballet, emphasizing the importance and professionalism of the fair sex. But Nureyev's dance was so bright that it was simply impossible not to pay attention to it.

Eric Brun - the genius of ballet art

Eric Brun is the exact opposite of Nureyev. The reserved and cold-blooded Dane possessed amazing technique, charisma and instantly won the audience's favor. In 1949 he was admitted to the corpse of the American Ballet Theater, and his every performance was a real sensation. Tall and aristocratic blond, resembling outwardly a Greek god, with a high forehead, a regular, sharply defined profile, delicate features, and sad blue-gray eyes, he was refinement itself. He attracted the eyes of almost all women … Eric Brun had a bride, the famous beautiful ballerina Maria Tolchif. But she would have known that his heart would not be given to her.

Distance acquaintance

When Bruno toured the USSR in 1960, Nureyev did not manage to get to his performances. But the admiring responses of his acquaintances to the Dane impressed Rudolph so much that he even found several amateur recordings of this foreign dancer. Nureyev sincerely admired the gracefulness of the great Eric's dance and then said about Bruno: "So cold that it burns."

A meeting

Ironically, the two ballet geniuses were brought together by Maria Tolchiff. She was associated with tender feelings with Eric, and after the breakup, she fell in love with Rudolph. It was she who, in 1961, asked Nureyev to accompany her to Bruno, with whom she performed the part in a ballet production in Copenhagen. During the trip, she called Eric and said carelessly: "There is someone here who really wants to meet you!" It was then that future lovers will hear each other's voice, and Tolchiff herself will lose both of her boyfriends at once.

The first meeting took place at the Angleterre Hotel, and Bruno will feel sympathy for the handsome Tatar, dressed with a certain casual elegance. Nureyev did not know English well, so it was difficult for him to maintain a conversation when meeting, and Tolchiff and Eric, trying to hide the embarrassment and awkwardness of the situation, also did not strive for communication.

After this meeting, they periodically met at rehearsals, and even then Rudolph became more and more attached to Eric, who conquered on stage with incredible grace and grace, and besides, he was beautiful like an ancient god.

Development of a relationship

Nureyev's affection for Bruno was mutual. Eric caught himself thinking that he wanted to spend more and more time with Rudik, and on one of these days the dancers decided to dine alone, without Maria Tolchiff. This enrages the ballerina, she throws a real tantrum. The whole troupe is watching the relationship of the love triangle. But Tolchiff fails to extinguish the flames that have erupted between her two partners.

They were direct opposites. Nureyev is a passionate, frantic Tatar, almost a savage, and Brun is a calm, judicious Scandinavian. Brun was refinement itself. Restrained, balanced. Tall blond with blue eyes. And at the same time they could not imagine life without each other.

Passions were just simmering! Rudolph, when it seemed to him that something was wrong in their relationship, yelled, stamped his feet and threw things around the apartment, and the frightened Eric ran away from home. Nureyev rushed after him and begged him to return. “Our meeting was like a collision and explosion of two comets,” Eric commented loftily on these kitchen showdowns.

Once Rudy was asked if he was afraid of being exposed? In response, he laughed and promised to shout to the whole world that he loves Eric:

Even Nureyev constantly cheated on his beloved. Eric did not like this promiscuity. He was jealous, suffered and periodically collected money. Nureyev begged to stay, swore that he loved only him, swore that it would not happen again … He told unfortunate Eric everything that walking men usually say to their unfortunate wives on such occasions. Nureyev had affairs with the legendary lead singer of the "Qween" group Freddie Mercury, with Elton John; and rumored even with the unforgettable Jean Marais.

But there was one more thing that haunted Eric, perhaps even more than the constant betrayal of his partner - that his, a talented dancer, in many ways even more talented than Nureyev, was completely overshadowed by the insane popularity of his lover. In the West, the image of Nureyev, who fled the USSR, was so promoted that no one else could compete with him. “It was enough for him to move a toe to make hearts beat like tom-toms,” wrote one critic. This hysterical interest convinced Brun that he himself would forever remain unnoticed.

Parting

Tired of the Tatar yoke, Eric fled to the end of the world - to Australia. Nureyev called his beloved every day and wondered why Eric was rude to him on the phone. “Maybe you should call once or twice a week? - Rudolph's acquaintances advised. "Perhaps Eric wants to be alone." But Rudolph did not think so.

But he flew in vain, their relationship never improved. “I cannot be with him, we are ruining each other,” Brun complained to his friends. Nureyev, on every corner, declared that he was ready to stay in Eric for life. To which Eric retorted: “- explosions, collisions, - this could not last long. If Rudolph wanted things differently, well, I'm sorry. " So unoriginal - "I'm sorry" - and ended this whirlwind love story.

In 1986, when it became known about Brun's serious illness, Nureyev dropped everything and flew to him. They talked until late at night, and in the morning, when Nureyev came to him, he could no longer speak and only watched Rudolph with his eyes. And in March, Brun died, according to the official version, from cancer, but evil tongues claimed that from AIDS. Rudolph did not recover from this blow until the end of his days. Eric's photo was always on his desk. He outlived his lover and idol by 12 years.

The love story of another couple inextricably linked with ballet - Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin does not seem trivial - he gave her not only his love, but also ballets instead of bouquets, and she embodied the images presented to him on stage.