Nureyev

(Be sure to see, below, the e-mails from an anti-Semite that were triggered by my comments on Nureyev.)

Real artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.—Margot Fonteyn

An odd and embarrassing gap in my cultural background is that I had never really seen Rudolph Nureyev dance, not on stage, not on film. I suppose I must have seen snatches of him on tv over the years, though not enough to leave a strong impresssion. Also, as the great choreographer George Balanchine once said, ballet is about the women dancers, not about the men—that’s not literally a true statement, of course, but it contains a significant measure of truth. Ballet, especially that of Balanchine, is about female beauty and longing, a quivering, a reaching up to the heights. The men assist the women, serve as a counterpoint to the women, engage in great dramatic relationships with the women, provide the pure physicality and powerful leaps that the women cannot provide, but the peak of ballet, where it goes the highest and affects you most deeply, that belongs to the women, not the men. It’s just the way it is.

Recently, however, I saw on television a film of Nureyev and his long-time dancing partner Margot Fonteyn of the Royal Ballet dancing together in a produced-for-tv performance from the late Sixties or early Seventies. It was a two person work, I don’t tremember the name of it. Then I saw Nureyev leap. I’ve seen great male dancers, especially back when I was a fan of the New York City Ballet many years ago, but I had never seen anything like this. Nureyev would go up in the air, but it was not a leap exactly, it was more as though he had left the earth behind, was no longer attached to the earth, and he would turn and rotate in midair, his movement absolutely controlled and perfect, his body, head, and face completely composed, and he seemed to be looking inward, absorbed in himself and his movement, but so composed he seemed motionless, the king of own kingdom. He didn’t just go up and come down, he created the illusion—or was it the reality?—that he was hanging out up there, suspended in space, before he consented—condescended—to return again to earth. Nureyev had a transcendent gift.

- end of initial entry -

Tim O’Connor writes:

You have given yourself away. Rhapsodizing about that Islamic Tartar, Nureyev, is hardly something a true white nationalist would do. Or is it a Freudian slip on your part? After all your own family tree did not diverge all that long ago from that of Mr Nureyev’s tribe. You are an insidious and dangerous troublemaker, but on the odd occassion you do slip up.

LA replies:

Assuming the poster is serious and is not engaging in a parody of anti-Semites (sadly, I think it’s the former), anti-Semites regularly send me e-mails of this sort. They are always “smoking me out,” discovering the damning truth about me that I have inadvertently revealed, that shows how truly dangerous I am to the white race.

Try to conceive of the mentality of a person whose definitive proof that I am the enemy, is the fact that I expressed admiration for the man universally considered the greatest male ballet dancer of modern times. And these are the people who think they are the last and only defenders of Western civilization.

Jeff in England writes:

I suspect it is a “wind-up” or a tongue-in-cheek comment. But it could be legit. Look at some Jews who won’t tolerate other Jews (like me) listening to Wagner (who ironically was probably half-Jewish).

LA replies:

If it’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s very well done.

But who would think of doing such a tongue in cheek? To do it, you would have to be able to conceive of something as far out as what Tim O’Connor said. You’d have to be inside the anti-Semitic mindset, without sharing it, and to have a rather extragavant and mischievous sense of humor about it. How many people would fit those requirements?

LA writes:

A reader highly recommends the 1966 movie of Romeo and Juliet with Rudolph Nureyev. While he says Nureyev is far the greater dancer than Mikhail Baryshnikov, he adds that Baryshnikov’s Don Quixote, also available in DVD, is his favorite Ballet.

Karen writes from England:

I trained as a ballet dancer and as a child I saw Nureyev live on stage dancing with Margot Fonteyn several times. He had this tremendous athletic quality which is often a feature of Russian dancers. He had the huge muscular power of a great sprinter and was able to use that to power his elevation (jumps). That made him different from most classical dancers who have muscular strength and flexibility but little power. He would also have made a great athlete. Surprisingly most classical dancers are not all that fit in terms of power or endurance and most cannot run a marathon or even a mile. Nureyev combined athletic ability with stage presence and grace which made him exceptional.

Tim O’Connor has not retreated from the field. On this dreary November day, he comes along to lift our spirits with a riotous demonstration of the thought processes of the anti-Semitic far whites.

Mr. O’Connor writes:

Obviously your admiration for the Tartar would not be there had he been Palestinian. But you see most Jews are actually for Muslim immigration into the West. Whether it is Australia, France or England, you often find Jews protesting “discrimination” against Muslims. They are united with Muslims against Le Pen in France.

But when the interests of Muslims conflict directly with those of Jews, as in Palestine where the Jews have stolen and are now squatting on Arab lands, you treat Muslims with an extreme brutality that far outweighs anything that you have ever accused Adolf Hitler of against your people.

But Muslims pitted against white folk. That is fine. You will support your Semitic kinsmen against Russian Christians. You have no natural animus towards Tartars. Of course not. They are related to the Chechens. They are Muslims just like those who slaughtered those white Christian school children in Beslan. Nothing warms the cockles in the heart of a Jew more than the slaughter of white Christian children. That is why Jewish commissars starved to death millions of Ukrainian women and children in the 1930s.

Nureyev’s father was a Muslim Communist, the worst possible, most malevolent anti-white manifestation that there can ever be. Yet you express embarrassment because you have not much familiarity with the “art” of this Turk—as if he is part of the Western cultural patrimony that every true son of the West should become acquainted with.

Admit it Mr Auster; you feel empathy for Nureyev because he is close to being a fellow tribesman. Quite obviously so. Otherwise why not a similar article on a great Aryan artist like say, Herbert Von Karajan?

LA replies:

Let’s see. I spent my entire teens intensely listening to von Karajan’s complete recording of the Beethoven symphonies—the ultimate Germanic, heroic, Promethean interpretation of Beethoven. Does that make me a loyal white? Or does watching Nureyev once for 20 minutes cancel out the credits gained from the years listening to Karajan? These are the sorts of deep questions that Mr. O’Connor forces me to ponder.

Alex K. writes:

“I spent my entire teens intensely listening to von Karajan’s complete recording of the Beethoven symphonies—the ultimate Germanic, heroic, Promethean interpretation of Beethoven. Does that make me a loyal white?”

Obviously you were just researching the enemy. Perhaps only subconsciously, but then Freud was Jewish so … you know … say no more!

Jeff in England writes:

Nureyev was a serious anti-Semite, did you know that? It’s mentioned in this article.

Dimitri K. writes:

The only reason why you didn’t yet expose your real anti-Western nature and genuine love for Palestinians is that Palestinians don’t dance ballet.

Larry G. writes:

Dimitri wrote: “The only reason why you didn’t yet expose your real anti-Western nature and genuine love for Palestinians is that Palestinians don’t dance ballet. “

Well, they do, but they like to blow up in the middle of a pas de deux.

James P. writes:

I am surprised that Mr. O’Connor has neglected to mention the important fact that Rudolf Nureyev was gay. So you have expressed admiration for someone who was not merely an Islamic Tartar, not merely the son of a Communist Commissar, but a homosexual to boot!

LA replies:

In addition to which, and perhaps worst of all, Nureyev was a ballet dancer. What could be more … cosmopolitan?

Paul T. writes:

The first message from O’Connor might indeed have been a mild parody; the second was seriously creepy.

Mark Jaws writes:

Among the rational, fair-minded racialists whom I know, there is no one who has done more to fight the anti-white attitudes of the multi-cultural Marxists than yours truly.

When the military community merely complained about Rush Limbaugh not being on the Armed Forces Network, my wife and I successfully lobbied the Armed Forces Network and the Pentagon to have Rush’s show put on the air. Shortly before I retired from military service, I single-handedly organized and orchestrated a pro-white European American Heritage Week at the Norfolk Naval Base which was well received by several hundred people, among whom were many blacks. For the past 20 years I have written numerous letters to the editor and made literally hundreds of calls to talk radio shows standing up for the white race and fair mindedness.

However, just because I consider myself a Zionist and I have a Jewish mother, that somehow in the minds of certain people, who have done perhaps a fraction for our people and our culture than I have, disqualifies me from the ranks of white nationalists. Pretty sad. Let us not forget that the Nazis were responsible for killing as many whites and the Marxists did.

Bruce B. writes:

“And these are the people who think they are the last and only defenders of Western civilization.”—LA

Actually Larry, many of the far whites don’t want to defend Western civilization. They don’t identify with Christendom. This is an important point I think.

“you treat Muslims with an extreme brutality that far outweighs anything that you have ever accused Adolf Hitler of against your people.”—TO

This is a favorite of Paul Craig Roberts and Charlie Reese. The “irony” inherent in the comparison between the Israel and the Nazis is somehow “intellectually” satisfying to them. (yes, both quotes intended in the mocking sense). But your commenter goes a step further. The Israelis aren’t just equivalent. Their actions “far outweigh.”

Where do these people come from ?

LA replies:

Where they come from is indicated by Tim O’Connor’s last e-mail to me, which ends with this:

“As for Nureyev being gay, well yes, the promotion of homosexuality is another item on the agenda that Jews have to destroy white societies everywhere. Mr Auster you and your tribe are the vilest snakes to ever inhabit the universe.”

Conversations with anti-Semities always follow the same pattern. The anti-Semite starts at some particular gripe which may be rational-sounding, and thus something that can be discussed, or clearly irrational (as O’Connor was from the beginning), but still something short of the full-blown thing. But then within three or four rounds they reveal where they’re really coming from. However, O’Connor gets the prize. I’ve read a fair number of anti-Semitic statements, but this beats them all. Just like in the Koran, just like in Nazism, the anti-Semites see the Jews are absolutely evil and disgusting, the absolute enemy of humanity that must be destroyed. How many in today’s world think, more or less, as O’Connor does? The number is not insignificant.

Alan Levine writes:

I must confess that I greatly enjoy the works of composers who were out and out Nazis and Commies, such as Max von Schillings and Dmitri Shostakovich. My character must be even lower than yours!

As somebody who was trained as a specialist in Russian history, I can’t resist pointing out that:

1) Tatars are not “non-whites” but a racially mixed group ranging from people who could be mistaken for East Asians to Nordic Caucasoids.

2) That Russian-Tatar relations, after the Russians conquered the Tatars, but before the Revolution, weren’t that bad. I wish the Tsars had treated my ancestors as well.

3 Islam has generally sat very lightly on Tatars, of whom many were converted to Christianity, if only to preserve their privileges. A large portion of the Russian aristocracy was descended from such people.

4) Tatars were pioneers in developing modern. moderate versions of Islam, and developed higher literacy rates and a bigger middle class than the Russians themselves before 1917.

5) Far from being enthusiastic Communists, they were rather anti-Communist, being treated rather badly by the Soviet regime.

By the way, the nominal White commander in chief in the Russian Civil War, Admiral Kolchak, was a Crimean Tatar.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 07, 2007 04:10 PM | Send