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He even suspects Fonteyn of dark plots. "Maybe," he grimly ponders, "it's that Margot has gained very much from this dancing with me, and me much, much less, until now I am sitting alone on the floor, tired and exhausted. Maybe it's that she has taken from me because she wishes to be the one to survive." Lest she forget, every year Nureyev reminds Margot that she has one less year to dance. Says Margot: "Rudolf is very mature artistically, although immature emotionally."
Wobbly Ways. That this noble couple is given to such human emotions would shock many of their fans. Indeed, though many of their followers like to think otherwise, the rumors that the flames of romance that Rudi and Margot kindle onstage also rage offstage are false. Margot is married to Dr. Roberto ("Tito") Arias, 46, former Panamanian Ambassador to Britain. Arias, who was shot by a political enemy in Panama last June, is paralyzed from the neck down, and Margot spends three hours on the train every day in order to visit him in the hospital in Buckingham shire, where he is being treated.
Nureyev would surprise most of his friends if he ever married anybody. He is loath to get involved with anything that interferes with his dancing. "Women are silly, every one of them," he exclaims, "but stronger than sailors. They just want to drink you dry and leave you to die of weakness." Marriage? "Why?" he says. "To ruin my life? To ruin some girl's life?"
But for all his wobbly ways offstage, when it comes to his dancing, he is a man of steely dedication. He is a perfectionist, and has the arrogance of a perfectionist. Once, at a Kirov performance in France of Swan Lake, he slipped and fell in his first variation as the prince. Most dancers would have sheepishly carried on. Not Rudi. He stopped the orchestra, stalked offstage, rubbed rosin on his shoes and started all over again. He attends class every day without fail, will spend hours working on a step that is merely a preparation. Unlike some male virtuosos, who are notoriously bad partners and seem to be waiting only for the moment when they can show off their own wares, Nureyev is acclaimed by every ballerina he has ever danced with as a totally sympathetic partner, showing off his ballerina in their pas de deux with dedicated deference. Moreover, he has exercised a strong and significant hand in enriching the Royal Ballet's repertory. His La Bayadere is the most recent Russian ballet of any substance to be adopted by a Western company. And he has made basic alterations in several other works, including Giselle and the Nutcracker adagio. If this is always aimed at enhancing the male role, a reasonable response is why not? Nearly all classical ballets are a pastiche of showpieces designed to display the talents of individual dancers. Nureyev can do more than most dancers, and he wants choreography that will allow him to prove it.
Still, all is not happy with the Royal Ballet. With all the brouhaha for Nureyev, some dancers feel ignored. Says one star dancer: "If Rudi doesn't push off eventually, I've got half a mind to take my candle out from under this bushel."