"Battu" Rudolf Nureyev / Рудольф Нуриев

Battu, pronounced "ba-TEW" a classical ballet term meaning "beaten." A ballet step is made more technically difficult and visually spectacular by adding the beating together of the legs during the step. Then, the word "battu" is added to the name of the step. For example, "jeté" becomes "jeté battu." Music: "Prestige" by Howard Harper-Barnes Rudolf Nureyev, in full Rudolf Hametovich Nureyev, was born on March 17, 1938, Irkutsk, Russia, U.S.S.R. He died January 6, 1993 in Paris, France. He is buried in the Cimetière de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, France. Nureyev was a Soviet-born ballet dancer whose suspended leaps and lightning quick turns were often compared to Vaslav Nijinsky’s legendary feats. He was a flamboyant performer and a charismatic celebrity who revived the prominence of male ballet roles and significantly widened the audience for ballet. Nureyev, who was of Tatar descent, spent his youth in Ufa, the capital of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now Bashkortostan republic, Russia). He began his ballet studies at age 11, left school at 15, and supported himself by dancing. At 17 he entered the Leningrad Ballet School, where he was taught by Aleksandr Pushkin. He was an outstanding but rebellious student, refusing to join the Komsomol (Communist youth organization), disobeying curfew regulations, and learning English privately. After graduating in 1958, he became soloist with the Leningrad (St. Petersburg...