During New York Fashion Week 2008, Rudy Nureyev Still A Fashion Influence

Nureyev's legacy apparently not only encompasses the world of dance, but of fashion as well. Last week, Stefano Tonchi, The editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, noticed how a New York Fashion Week show channeled Nureyev's style. In his post on T's "The Moment" Blog, (entitled "New York Fashion Week: What Is Wearable") Tonchi says:

At the Z Zegna show it was the nostalgic reference to Rudy Nureyev, the legendary ballet dancer, that made an impact. Those unwearable artistic gestures are what will bring me to the Zegna store on Fifth Avenue . . .

Above is a photo from Life Behind the Metaphor of Nureyev signing autographs backstage—and one of the Z Zegna model "channeling Rudy Nureyev . . ." included with Tonchi's post. Nureyev's fashion sense lives on!

Life Behind the Metaphor Photos Posted on Flickr.com for Review

We're sharing the unique photographs from Life Behind the Metaphor on Flickr.com. The book cover photo has already caught the attention of the Flickr group "Rudolph Nureyev." The group has incorporated some really interesting photos of the ballet great: check them out (including our contribution of "Nureyev: At the Barre") on Flickr. Thanks to "Rudolph Nureyev" Flickr Group Admin Guilia of Rimini, Italy for noticing the Nureyev Legacy Project!

International Theatre and Film Books to Offer Life Behind the Metaphor Exclusively in Amsterdam

We're pleased to announce that International Theatre and Film Books (ITFB) retail store will soon be carrying Life Behind the Metaphor for interested readers in Amsterdam. Life Behind the Metaphor examines Nureyev's collaboration with the Dutch National Ballet's long-time Artistic Director Rudi van Dantzig during the company's U.S. tour in 1978. And the historic book presents a significant photographic reference for admirers of Dutch ballet. Our partnership with ITFB is a wonderful opportunity to bring the book to the Netherlands. Look for Life Behind the Metaphor on the ITFB Web site soon. You can contact our new retail partner at:

International Theatre & Film Books
Leidseplein 26
1017 PT Amsterdam
(tel) 020-6226489
(fax) 020-6272148
(e-mail) info@theatreandfilmbooks.com
(web) www.theatreandfilmbooks.com

UPDATE: Life Behind the Metaphor is now available on the ITFB Web site. Take a look and order a copy!

The Dutch National Ballet's Friends Magazine Reviews Life Behind the Metaphor

More media news: The coordinator of the Friends Circle of the Dutch National Ballet, Wouter Hos, wrote about the book in the January issue of the DNB's Friends Magazine. Dutch readers can check out the article in PDF format here.

Dance Magazine Recommends Life Behind the Metaphor In Its December 2007 Issue

We're pleased to note that Dance Magazine included Life Behind the Metaphor in its article "Gift Ideas for Dance Lovers." Reviewer Kina Poon calls the book "beautifully produced," saying:

While Nureyev inevitably shines with his glorious ballon and charismatic looks, his sound bites are also pungent. Among other gems, there's Nureyev insisting that the photographer never crop out the stage floor from under his soaring jete. His quotations also reveal periods of darkness and his tumultuous relationship with [v]an Dantzig. Equally remarkable is [v]an Dantzig's unaffected prose. His musings on being airborne are framed by shots of dancers soaring off a diving board, arms out-stretched, toes pointed.

It's great to see that the dance community appreciates the quality and uniqueness of Life Behind the Metaphor!

You can read the article in PDF format here.

Life Behind the Metaphor reviewed by Library Journal!

We just saw that, in September, Library Journal reviewed our book of photographs of legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev, Life Behind the Metaphor:

Rudolf Nureyev leaps off the pages in this stunning collection of 80 black-and-white photographs from a 15-year period during which he toured the United States with the Dutch National Ballet (DNB). Drawn from the archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the pictures chronicle the legendary dancer in such ballets as Le Corsaire, Four Schumann Pieces, and Afternoon of a Faun. Van Dantzig (former artistic director, DNB) allowed Urban to photograph Nureyev and company members on and off stage, and because Nureyev's contracts prohibited performance photos, many of these images are not only unique but also rare. In this coffee-table art book, the photographs are printed on archival-quality paper, and the text includes comments from van Dantzig, Nureyev, and Urban. Anyone who saw Nureyev dance will relive the experience with these photographs; those who didn't will wish they had. Highly recommended for dance and performing arts collections. [There will be an exhibit of selected materials from the NYPL collection at Lincoln Center this fall.—Ed.]—Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.

Life Behind the Metaphor featured in Time Out New York's Gift Guide!

Time Out New York has featured our book, Life Behind the Metaphor, in the Dance section of its holiday Gift Guide. Go check out the mention, and see what other great gifts they recommend for the dance enthusiast on your shopping list!

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Free preview chapter of Life Behind the Metaphor

For those of you who would like to know more about our new book of Nureyev photographs, Life Behind the Metaphor, you can now download a sample PDF of an entire book chapter.


The chapter, "The Barre," details the ritual and work of professional dancers. Choreographer Rudi van Dantzig writes:

In America, in China, in Holland, In Russia, in Australia; about ten o’clock in the morning all over the world, dancers take their positions at the barre, ready for another dancing day.

From there, hard and strenuous working hours begin. First, there is half an hour barre, then an hour center exercises: adagio movements, turns, balances, small jumps, beats, big jumps, and pointe-work.

When class is finished the dancers usually have a fifteen minute break for coffee, a giggle, or for using the empty studio space to go over some steps for themselves.

People who don’t know anything of a dancer’s profession usually are exhausted from just watching a class, and are astonished to learn that this is just the preparation for the real work, which, if there is no performance, will go on until five or six o’clock. The real work means rehearsing and “cleaning” of old ballets in the repertoire, and the constructing, the searching and the experimenting with a choreographer on a new piece, the next ballet-to-be.

But at the barre it all begins...

Download the sample chapter here. And stay tuned: New, exclusive online chapters—ones available not even in the print edition of the book—will appear soon!

Nureyev book, Life Behind the Metaphor, now on sale!

Roger Urban's book of rare photographs of ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev, Life Behind the Metaphor, is officially on sale, beginning this week! Visit www.nureyevlegacy.com to order your copy today.

The vital information from the web site:

Featuring more than 80 exquisite duotone photographs, and printed using a stochastic process and inks developed for Ansel Adams, this unique limited-edition collector’s item may be the finest book of Nureyev photography ever created. These previously unpublished photos of Nureyev in performance and behind the scenes reveal the majesty of this master dancer as never before.

With text on the creative process of ballet written by Dutch National Ballet Artistic Director and Choreographer Rudi Van Dantzig; a preface by Madeleine Nichols, Curator Emerita of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; and a concluding essay on photography and dance by Richard Benson, Dean of Yale University School of Art, Life Behind the Metaphor is the perfect gift for any ballet enthusiast.

As a special bonus, the first printing of Life Behind the Metaphor includes a deluxe lithograph, signed by the photographer and suitable for framing.

For your part in supporting our donation of rare photographic materials to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, $30 of the purchase price of this book is tax-deductible.

(By the way—it makes a great gift for dance teachers and ballet students.)

Roger Urban visits the NYPL ... and brings copies of Life Behind the Metaphor

Last week, Roger Urban made a trip from Boston to New York City to visit the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. With him, he brought several advance copies of Life Behind the Metaphor. Acme Bookbinding was kind enough to speedily and expertly hand-bind these copies (ahead of the main batch) just for this occasion.

The books were extremely well-received. Visiting supporters of the Jerome Robbins Dance Collection stopped by to view the copies—as well as a few large-format prints of the photographs of Nureyev in action—and oohed and aahed over them. Roger later reflected, "I realize that I don't have the words to explain to people just how good the quality of this book is. If they've never seen a book of this quality, they don't understand what I'm talking about—until they hold a copy in their hands."

Soon! Life Behind the Metaphor is set to be released on October 1. You can pre-order now at www.nureyevlegacy.com.

Life Behind the Metaphor: PUBLISHING UPDATE

News on the production of our deluxe book of never-before-seen photographs of Rudolf Nureyev:

Life Behind the Metaphor has been printed!

The pages have come off the presses at Dual Graphics and have been shipped from California to Massachusetts by FedEx Freight, who generously donated the freight shipping costs for this important project.

Next stop is Acme Bookbinding, where the raw sheets will be trimmed, folded and gathered, and then bound, and the dust jackets folded and slipped on. Books almost ready ...!

David Gardner workshop August 25 and 26

This may already be sold out, but if not, folks in California may want to check out Life Behind the Metaphor contributor David Gardner (he's overseeing the press run and high-quality duotone stochastic process for the book) at the Center for Photographic Art this weekend, August 25 and 26. He's running a workshop with Chris Pichler entitled, “Publishing a Book: from Concept to Production."

The workshop will focus on photography book publishing and printing. Chris Pichler, founder and publisher of Nazraeli Press, will discuss methods of putting together book dummies, submitting proposals to publishers, the relationship of images and words, and various types of books and bindings. David Gardner will discuss technical aspects of papers, printing and binding. Both Chris and David will be happy to meet with participants one-on-one to look at their work in the context of book publishing, and answer any questions about publishing and printing the participants may have.

Thanks to Mary Virginia Swanson for her tip-off about the event—and about the YouTube video of David Gardner discussing what it was like to print books for Ansel Adams.

2007 Is “The Year Of Nureyev” in the Publishing World

Three new books on Rudolf Nureyev will make 2007 a special year for commemorating the ballet great: Nureyev: The Life, a biography by Julie Kavanagh; an English translation of Trail of a Comet, choreographer Rudi van Dantzig’s book of reminiscences about Nureyev; and Life Behind the Metaphor, a book of rare photographs of Nureyev.

One year shy of his 70th birthday, the late ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev is set to be celebrated with a serendipitous occurrence: The publication of three major, complementary books on his life and art. Julie Kavanagh puts forth a comprehensive, 750-plus-page biography of the dancer in Nureyev: The Life. Famed choreographer and dance director Rudi van Dantzig shares personal reminiscences of his friend in Trail of a Comet, the first English translation of his book Het Spoor van Een Komeet. And photographer Roger Urban presents to the public for the first time his collection of photographs of Nureyev in performance and behind the scenes with Life Behind the Metaphor, a book of 80 black-and-white photographs taken during Nureyev’s 1978 tour of the United States. While Nureyev: The Life and Trail of a Comet tell the story of Nureyev’s legacy, Life Behind the Metaphor shows the great dancer in all his glory, in photographs that ballet lovers have never seen before.

The fortunate timing of these three very different titles should give ballet aficionados plenty to chew on. From Kavanagh, devotees will find a broad and deep look at Nureyev’s life and art, and from van Dantzig, an intimate look at the man who was his friend and artistic collaborator. But fans of Rudolf Nureyev will be particularly delighted with Life Behind the Metaphor, a previously unseen glimpse of his fantastic physical feats while in performance and his intensity, dedication, and humor backstage, preserved in a collection of 80 rare black-and-white photographs.

Life Behind the Metaphor will be available in October 2007 online at www.nureyevlegacy.org, and at select museum shops and art booksellers.

Nureyev, in His Own Words

The new book, Life Behind the Metaphor, presents a side of Rudolf Nureyev that ballet enthusiasts have never seen or read before: The ballet great in his own words and in his own selection of rare, in-performance photographs.

During the summer of 1978, Rudolf Nureyev toured America with the Dutch National Ballet. Remembering that time, Nureyev recalled, “I was still delectable; the public was quite for me; I felt I could present anything.” Nureyev performed Four Schumann Pieces and the pas de deux from Le Corsaire along with two ballets newly created especially for him: About a Dark House and a modern adaptation of Afternoon of a Faun. During this tour, Rudi van Dantzig, Artistic Director of the Dutch National Ballet, created many unique photo opportunities for this book’s creator, Roger Urban. He was given access to performances, rehearsals, classes, warm-ups and other behind-the-scenes situations.

As they toured the United States, Roger Urban had many relaxed and candid conversations with Rudolf Nureyev. From these interviews came the rare, introspective statements that are recorded in Life Behind the Metaphor. Robert Greskovic, the Wall Street Journal ballet expert, stated, “You’ve amassed the biggest concentration of Nureyev quotes I have so far seen in one place.” Nureyev himself also personally reviewed and selected the photographs that he felt best represented his art, his technique, and his behind-the-scenes work process.

NYPL Given Treasure Trove of Ballet Photos and Artifacts

Photographer Roger Urban, who documented Rudolf Nureyev’s 1978 US tour with the Dutch National Ballet, donated the complete collection of his photographs, along with original set and costume sketches from the tour, to the Library’s Dance Division. These never-before-seen photographs, which will also be released to the public in a new book, Life Behind the Metaphor, include the only personally authorized in-performance images of Nureyev during a 15-year period.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Jerome Robbins Dance Division has acquired a collection of never-before-seen, in-performance and behind-the-scenes photographs of ballet great Rudolf Nureyev. “I first saw these photographs just weeks before my retirement as curator of the New York Public Library Dance Division and immediately knew I wanted them for our collection,” says Curator Emerita Madeleine Nichols. “You can imagine my excitement, as I felt the movement behind the pictures, and relived the moment of first seeing Nureyev dance.” The Dance Division will display, from the donated collection, a set of limited-edition, museum-size platinum prints at New York City’s Lincoln Center in the fall of 2007. And a new book containing select photographs, Life Behind the Metaphor, will be published in October.

Rare, Unseen Photos of Nureyev

A new coffee-table book from the archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts offers readers a fresh look at 20th-century ballet icon Rudolf Nureyev. When Rudolf Nureyev danced, “He commanded vast admiration,” wrote Clement Crisp. “He warmed the stage, the audience, his fellow dancers, the art of ballet itself, and this was his genius.” But for a man who was such a celebrated dancer, relatively few photographs and personal recollections of Nureyev and his art exist. “Most people think that there are many photographs of Rudolf Nureyev in performance,” says Roger Urban, the photographer of the new book, Life Behind the Metaphor. “But because his contracts prohibited photography, such photographs are in fact quite rare.” Life Behind the Metaphor contains the only personally authorized in-performance photos of Rudolf Nureyev during a 15-year period. Several of these ballets with Rudolf Nureyev are not recorded anywhere else.