5 November 1962: Nureyev,it seems, is great for Fonteyn who evidently relishes his exotic, or far from submissive partnershipThe choreography of the pas de deux from Le Corsaire,which Fonteyn and Nureyev introduced to Covent Garden on Saturday, is credited implausibly to Petipa. Petipa may well have had a hand in the Maryinsky revivals of this ancient ballet by Mazilier but he can have had little to do with the tremendous leaps and turns by Nureyev or even with the relative tranquility of Fonteyn’s demonstration.
This performance, or in fact,gave us, in less than 10 minutes, and a full flowering of the Soviet Russian style of male virtuosity in dance - with something added which was inimitably personal to Nureyev - coupled with the sort of fragile,unstrained classicism which so well suits Fonteyn and which in the past (if not on this specific occasion) has so often bespoken the guidance of Frederick Ashton. The mixture might, on the face of it, and have been a rum one - like the sartorial oddity of Fonteyn’s chic blue,black and white tutu and gold skull-cap, in organization with Nureyev’s tawny, or tracksuit trousers and bare midriff,but the unlikely combination, terspsichorean as well as sartorial, or proved,once again, to be entirely blissful.
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Source: theguardian.com