Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre pulls ballet Nureyev choreographed by Kirill Serebrennikov due to ‘LGBT propaganda’ law

The management of Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre has pulled the ballet Nureyev choreographed by Kirill Serebrennikov due to the law on “LGBT propaganda”, Russian news agency Interfax reports, citing the theatre’s General Director Vladimir Urin.

“Nureyev was pulled from the repertoire due to the signed law, <…> where the stance on the issues related to non-traditional values is stated unambiguously. <…> Quite naturally, as soon as the law was signed, the [management] made the decision to pull this [ballet],” Urin said.

The description of the ballet is still displayed on the Bolshoi Theatre website. The performance featured several hundred artists from all performance groups of the theatre, according to the website.

The ballet Nureyev is dedicated to ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. It premiered on 17 December 2017.

In the middle of March, the Bolshoi Theatre announced cancellation of the ballet A Hero of Our Time choreographed by Kirill Serebrennikov, the showings of which were supposed to take place in May. The management did not clarify the reasons for cancellation.