About the work
Nurejew (Nureyev) is a full-length ballet by the choreographer Yuri Possokhov with music by Ilya Demutsky, staged and with a libretto by the director Kirill Serebrennikov. It premiered in December 2017 — after a sensational postponement — at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. In 2026 the Staatsballett Berlin brought the production to the stage as the first company outside Russia. Ballet, opera and drama merge into a homage to the dancer Rudolf Nureyev.
Plot
The action unfolds as a lavishly staged auction at which Nureyev's personal belongings are sold. From this arise images from his life: his extraordinary career in the Soviet Union, his dramatic defection to the West in 1961, his formative influence on Western ballet, as well as his relationships and his openly lived homosexuality. Possokhov's choreography combines classical and modern aesthetics and presents the myth of Nureyev not as an untouchable icon but as a contradictory, courageous and vulnerable human being.
Cultural significance
Nureyev received many awards after its celebrated premiere but also provoked intense debate: in 2022 the Bolshoi Theatre removed the work from its repertoire amid tightened anti-LGBTQ laws, citing the ban on "propaganda of non-traditional values". The ballet thus became a symbol of artistic freedom; the Berlin premiere outside Russia carried special significance for this reason too.