Russia's Bolshoi Calls Off Premiere Of Nureyev Ballet Days Before Premiere

The Bolshoi Theater has called off the world premiere of Nureyev, a ballet about a famous Russian dancer, just days before it was to take place.

The premiere of the biographical show about Rudolf Nureyev, one of the first Soviet artists to defect to the West, was due to be held on July 11.

The theater gave no reason for the delay, but said it would hold a briefing about the move at noon in Moscow on July 10. It added that a production of Don Quixote would be performed on the dates Nureyev was to run.

The Guardian newspaper said that the theater's general director, Vladimir Urin, said that the ballet was pulled because it was "not ready.”

The postponement of the ballet comes just after director Kirill Serebrennikov was questioned as a witness in a fraud investigation.

Serebrennikov said the move was the theater's decision, but declined to comment on the reasons for the delay, according to the business daily Vedomosti.

In 1958-1961 Nureyev was a principal dancer of the Kirov Ballet in Saint Petersburg. He asked for political asylum in France while on tour in Paris in 1961.

Nureyev died in 1993 of an AIDS-related illness at the age of 54.

With reporting by Reuters and The Guardian