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West,” &e—szy$. “We have graewn onart Wa have nath. Browa apart. Wwe Maye Ton _ing really to talk about. Be- use I am not involved |i litics, You cannot bela cer and care about it and devote myself to my art.” Nureyev admits to having less training and to starting later than most dancers. But, without modesty, he will admit that he has some- thing ‘special. that ‘nature gave me.” “I had a talent, a gift. was talented, I knew I woul be a dancer from the begin- ni gf. ih] ‘It is terrible to be a suc- cess,” he acknowledges, “I mean that. Because once you become a success you have to maintain your excel- lence. You don’t compete with anybody else any more. You compete with yourseil. It is. exhausting. You are tired ail the time because the hardest thing is mainte- nanice. “And there are always yeople coming up behind fou. People who are good and who want to be as good as you. So you must be as good as you were.” areey knew, too, that on, a wardrobe designed r him by Saint Laurent, and the comnany of neonle colmpany of peonle like Jackie Onassis and Lee Radziwite=-sssum Nureyev seems shocked at i a distinction between art and entertainment. He does not consider what he is or his personality or his mass popularity as anything like “show biz.” “I don’t bring ballet to their level or tastes, they ome to mine. If it is he- cause I have the personality ov the character to attract people then that is good. IfI made billet popular then that is good for other danc- ers, too, because they will come and see them. If it’s me, that is good for me, but if it hadn’t been me, it would have been somebody else.” He is on his third giass of wine and he is. Deginning to _ giggle and get a little silly. “T want to be sdber when you drop the bomb question, when you do a Hiroshima on e,” he giggles again. |. - Well, then, Mr: Nureye. how’s your sex life? “I knew it, you see, there it is, and he clasps his hands and throws his, head back and laysglsauiih Slavic glee. “Sporadic,” heannouuces. Well, tell us more. The Ia- dies will be disappointdd with that little morsel ae nothing else. “The ladies will just have fs remain tense,” he says adistically. He. leans back mugly, ponders his own vords, then leans forward and asks with real earnest- ness: “How am I doing in this interview? Am Las good as the politicians?’ " When told he has revealed absolutely nothing of hin- self, that he is still a com- plete mystery, that he is im- penetrable as an interview- ee, he beams like a Boy Scout receiving a medal. “Now we must go,”’ he says, his success complete. “We will pay the bill, then you will fell guilty and your conscience will make ygu write nice things,” And he gets up from table and stalks triumphantly out of the restaurant, as though he is taking bows for a magnificent perternrante. - omt?