Image – Sign – Symbol
The project “Nureyev’s Method” by the painter Alexander Chalovsky and the animatic artist Pierre-Emmanuel Chatilier connected Russia, the country where Nureyev was born, and France, the country where he ended his glorious days …
The return or, more precisely, the appeal to the image of Rudolf Nureyev turned out to be not easy – after all, the Soviet year 1961 is quite far from modern Russian reality (the discrepancy of the surname immediately strikes the eye: the soloist of the S.M. Kirov Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater – now the Mariinsky – was Nureyev, and he received world fame as Nureyev). With a few gratifying exceptions, for several generations the name “Nureyev” does not mean anything and does not evoke any associations … All the more significant and significant is the international project of two artists inspired by the image of the “dance genius” Rudolf Nureyev: “genius” – genius – in the original sense of the word, because genius is a spirit inherent in every person, literally genius is “giving birth”, “creating” …
Although the image of Nureyev is so far away (or, on the scale of art history, so close) from us, it is difficult to deny the emotional charge associated with him, which tends to last for more than one decade …
It is the emotional impact of the personality and fate of the great artist that explains the desire of the participants in the Nureyev Method project to get in touch with the image of the great magician and dance magician, with his mobile substance, in which the spiritual and the physical are inextricably linked. It seems that it was about Rudolph Nureyev that Maximilian Voloshin wrote in his essay “On the Meaning of Dance”: “Dance is the same sacred ecstasy of the body, as prayer is the ecstasy of the soul. Therefore, dance is in its essence the highest and most ancient of all arts. It is higher than music, it is higher than poetry, because in a dance outside the medium of the word and outside the medium of the instrument, a person himself becomes an instrument, a song and a creator, and his whole body sounds like the timbre of a voice. “
Rudolf Nureyev is a symbol of a person who creates the immortal art of Dance. Professional ballet is part of the ancient world element of rhythmic movement. So, the same Maximilian Voloshin said that “ballet exists only for the eyes. In ballet, the dancer is conscious of himself … only in gesture, only on the surface of the body. ” Rudolf Nureyev is great in that he made his body an infinitely obedient instrument and brought Dance as nature into ballet, as the only way (for him, of course, that is why he has no equal!) Of creative looseness and freedom …
Nureyev found a new way of expressing artistic truth, he expanded the framework of classical ballet not by rejecting the strict centuries-old gestures and steps, but by the fact that the movements are the essence of a learned movement pattern – he performed as if from within himself, and it was so natural that the audience, into which once watching, say, “Giselle”, she perceived what was happening not as déjà vu, but as something completely new in emotional terms. Nureyev “whipped” the audience, as they whip, not sparing horses, lashed until the audience reached the highest aesthetic ecstasy … (The fact is, there was a case when Margot Fontaine and he was called 89 times!) With Vatslav Nijinsky, Nureyev proved that passion and beauty have no limits.
The project “Nureyev’s Method” (curated by Olga Leonova) is based on the IMAGE of Nureyev, and the project itself is a balancing from sign to symbol and back. In order for a SYMBOL to be born, a SIGN is needed, and in order to become a symbol, a person must perform a certain symbolic Act, something that can be considered as a significant event in his destiny … and then a person must devote his whole life to what the Act was done for. Nureyev managed to fully realize his creative power and use the freedom gained “in a leap to the West” … He became “great N.” by right – in one year he gave as many performances as in his entire career another “great N.” – Vaclav Nijinsky!
Rudolf Nureyev has become a symbol of the 20th century ballet. You can add: Russian ballet; for the whole world he became Rudi, and the whole world fell ill with Rudimania! Rudy – truly great N. – buried all of Paris and all of France …
The act, a symbolic event that turned the creative life of Rudolf Nureyev, is convincingly recreated by Pierre-Emmanuelle Chatilier. Alexander Chalovsky talentedly embodies the “sacred ecstasy” of the gestures that have become canonical for the genius dancer in his canvases.
Both artists perceived this project as a challenge, both found in themselves that measure of talent and skill that allowed them to adequately and convincingly not only recreate the image of Rudolf Nureyev, but also convey to the audience all the attractive power of the magical and daring genius of the Dance.

Natella Voiskunskaya
Art director of the ASTI gallery