Nureyev: the life by Julie Kavanagh.

Fans of traditional Thai dance may be interested to learn about other types of world dance.

Among the most difficult art forms is Western classical ballet. The Thammasat University Libraries have just acquired a biography of one of the most famous modern ballet dancers, the Russian-born Rudolf Nureyev. Our libraries already own a few DVDs of classical ballets, some of them including dances arranged by Nureyev himself:

there is also a performance in which Nureyev appears as a young dancer.

To add extra background, we have a number of books about the art and training of Western classical dancers, showing that their lives are difficult, perhaps in some ways even more difficult than the lives of Thai traditional dancers:

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=293137

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=459451

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=596438

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=215198

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=146691

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=147591

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=146847

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=146843

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=146879

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=207431

While some dancers lead long and happy lives, many do not. Nureyev was one of the more unhappy ones despite his success. He died of AIDs at age 54 in 1993. Three decades before that, he became a superstar by escaping from the Soviet Union and starting a career in Europe. Although most choreographers – people who design dances – feel that female dancers are the most important performers in classical ballet, Nureyev certainly felt he was the most important. He would drop ballerinas instead of holding them up, if he decided he did not like them. If a younger dancer was moving faster than he could, he would kick the other person. Nureyev’s personality was unpleasant, but he could be a very skilled dancer when he felt like it. Ballet dancers often have good reasons to be in a bad mood. They work so hard that their feet hurt all the time and many have problems with their bones at a relatively young age. Even so, at their best they can be impressive artists. Nureyev was one of the most significant of these. Despite the difficulty of Western classical ballet, there are a couple of dance classes in Bangkok which offer instruction for children and adults.

While it might make more sense to study Tai chi or some other form of exercise in Bangkok, it is nice that the possible alternative of Western dance exists.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).