Dream Duo

After the curtain had fallen last week on the Royal Ballet's production of Giselle at London's Covent Garden, Dame Margot Fonteyn plucked a single long-stemmed red rose from one of her many bouquets and with a deep curtsy presented it to her young partner--ex-Kirov Ballet Danseur Rudolf Nureev. The young Russian lowered his eyes, sank to his knees and kissed the assoluta's hand. The audience exploded in an ovation that lasted through 23 curtain calls.

Ever since Nureev defected while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet (TIME, June 23, 1961) and began to be hailed there as a major star in his performances with the Marquis de Cuevas Ballet, balletomanes have dreamed of a Nureev-Fonteyn partnership. Nureev, 24, comes from a Ural peasant family, had danced with the Kirov company for ten years at the time of his defection. Ballet fans who have watched him in Paris call him the outstanding male dancer in the West--and probably in the world--and compare him favorably with Nijinsky. A gifted soloist, he is also known as a superbly good partner of the kind that 42-year-old Margot Fonteyn has too frequently lacked.

During the first act of last week's performance, the audience was sparing with its applause, although Nureev, impressed with his quiet authority, and Fonteyn danced radiantly, even if her hand positions seemed awkward at times. It was in the second act that Nureev-Fonteyn captured their audience. Nureev put on a breath-catching display of classic male dancing, lifted Fonteyn effortlessly aloft, spurred her on to a performance full of fluency and lyric ardor. At the ballet's climax, when Fonteyn cradled Nureev's head in her arms as he lay on the point of death, there was a quick intake of breath audible through the entire house.

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