Perpetual Motion: The Public and Private Lives of Rudolf Nureyev

In this first biography since Nureyev's death from AIDS in 1993, dance critic Stuart casts an insider's eye on the public and private lives of this icon of ballet artistry and Cold War intrigue. Born in 1938 on board Russia's transcontinental railway near Irkutsk, Nureyev experienced a childhood of poverty that fueled his voracious adult appetites for dance, sex and money. According to the author, the young Kirov Ballet star's 1961 escape from Soviet agents in Paris and his defection to the West had more to do with ego than politics. Stuart chronicles Nureyev's tenacious ability to sustain a lucrative performing career well into middle age despite being HIV infected for a decade. Coupled with his phenomenal work ethic was Nureyev's temper: he sent two colleagues to the hospital with kicks to the rear. Against the backdrop of Nureyev's legendary partnership with Margot Fonteyn, Stuart provides a brutally frank portrait of his very active homosexual conduct--never publicly acknowledged--in the era before AIDS. Among a wealth of anecdotes, we learn how, during a Melbourne performance with the Australian Ballet, Nureyev was detained during intermission by the vice squad in a public lavatory, where he had stopped for ``a quickie'' with ``a young, tall bloke.'' The company held the curtain; Fonteyn was enraged. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)