В начале января Рэю Барре исполнилось 90 лет! И примерно в то же время вышла его биография, написанная Виктором Хьюгом. Я ее купила, читаю пока что отрывками, выбирая - разумеется! - все про Эрика, потом прочту целиком нормально, про Рэя самого по себе тоже интересно. Но вот вам выразительный отрывочек, вызывающий желание взяться за голову и сказать: "Ну Эрик!". А потом попросить весь списочек целиком, интересно же. Это к вопросу о декларируемой кое-кем (Мейнерц, привет!) асексуальности Эрика. Хохо.

After Ray and Erik Bruhn parted company in August 1958, the two friends kept in contact. Bruhn continued dancing both in the States and Europe, mainly in Copenhagen, from where it was easy for him, whenever he was free, to visit Ray. He did so with some regularity. However, with time, there was a natural easing in the intensity of their relationship and, in fact, Ray had fallen in love with an actor engaged in Stuttgart. With some remorse he confessed this to Bruhn. Bruhn, much more sophisticated and experienced in amatory matters, told Ray that he should just go ahead and indulge in his passion, after all, he himself had had many an adventure since their parting. Then he proceeded to list people he had been intimate with. The list included many of Ray’s best friends from Ballet Theatre and brought about the amazed, incredulous reaction, ‘How could you?’ This was greatly naïve of Ray.

Ай, не могу, вот вам еще кусочек. История вокруг "Дафниса и Хлои" и побега Эрика из Штутгарта. Все прекрасны, особенно Макмиллан. Крэнко тоже хорош. Ну а Эрик так вообще лучше всех.

But Bruhn was disturbed by the fact that, at the very moment he had notched up this prestigious success and needing calm and concentration for the performances, the limelight he was enjoying had shifted. Rudolf Nureyev had arrived in Stuttgart. He was curious to see Cranko’s new creation for Bruhn, a dancer whom he idolised and whose cultivated technique he emulated. In Stuttgart, the publicity hype was such that one couldn’t get enough of it; here were the two most prominent and famous ballet dancers of that period together for the festival, and the rumour was that Bruhn and Nureyev were intimate friends. The brouhaha surrounding their taking class together, being seen together and what Bruhn sensed as a bad atmosphere of sniggering intrigue, got to him. He took to his bed, declaring that he was too sick to dance the third Daphnis and Chloe performance. As it was generally mooted that Bruhn was not really sick, Cranko prevailed upon Ray to go and see him in his sickroom and to try to persuade him to dance: ‘After all, you were his lover.’ MacMillan, who had come to Stuttgart for the Ballet Week, as he was considering doing a ballet for the company, accompanied Ray. Ray’s initial plea, ‘Please don’t do this to us!’ was ignored, but it was MacMillan’s tut–tutting, ‘Now don’t be a naughty boy!’ that made Bruhn even more resistant to being cajoled into appearing in the ballet again. As soon as MacMillan and Ray had left, he got out of bed, into his car and left Germany.

И вот еще - это уже воспоминание о том времени, когда Рэй ассистировал Ноймайеру в постановке "Ромео и Джульетты" в КДБ:

"Working with the Danes on that occasion was a wonderful experience, almost like a love affair. I knew most of the dancers from the time I had accompanied Erik [Bruhn] when he danced there. When we were together Erik took me everywhere with him and didn’t give a damn about what one thought or knew about the nature of our relationship – something quite daring for the time. The Danes joked about knowing my butt better than my front. Apparently I was continually bent over – with my back to them – peering into my notebook as I taught them the choreography".

Ну разве не мимими?