Soutar, Carolyn

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Soutar, Carolyn

PERSONAL: Female. Education: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

ADDRESSES: Home—Suffolk, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Redhammer, 186 Bickenhalls Mansions, Bickenhall St., London W1U 6BX, England.

CAREER: Biographer and stage manager. Worked in various parts of the entertainment industry, including the English National Opera and the Nureyev Festivals at the London Coliseum, 1980s; created and staged events for the National Trust, British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), Rolls Royce, Land Rover, and others; produced Philip Treacy's shows for London Fashion Week.

WRITINGS:

The Real Nureyev: An Intimate Memoir of Ballet's Greatest Hero, Mainstream (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2004, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2006.

David Allen: The Biography, Orion (London, England), 2005.

Staging Events, a Practical Guide, Crowood (Rams-bury, Wiltshire, England), 2005.

The Real Nureyev was published in French as Nouriev Intime.

SIDELIGHTS: Carolyn Soutar, who has worked in many areas of the entertainment industry, is also the author of biography/memoirs of the performer and monologist David Allen and ballet great Rudolf Nureyev. The Real Nureyev: An Intimate Memoir of Ballet's Greatest Hero includes Soutar's memories of Nureyev from the time she worked with him at the London Coliseum in the 1980s. For example, she describes her first opening night with the dancer, who was purposefully late so he could test Soutar. When she finally came to his dressing room, he was sitting there naked waiting for her reaction. The book also includes the recollections of several of Nureyev's closest friends and colleagues, some of whom have never spoken publicly about the dancer before. Among those who speak openly of Nureyev in the book are Robert Tracy, a longtime lover and then friend of the dancer, and the ballerina Yoko Morishita, who was Nureyev's protégé and dancing partner. Others who recall the dancer include workers at the Australian Ballet, where Nureyev often performed and also staged ballets. Mindy Aloff, writing in the Russian St. Petersburg Times, commented, "Interspersed throughout are examples of the star's vulnerability, peppered with humor and encrusted with the author's own sentimental memories." A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that the author "gives a nice sense of backstage life," adding that "Nureyev fanatics will find lots of good anecdotes." Although Nureyev was well known for his moody, outrageous, and sometimes angry behavior, a reviewer writing in Publishers Weekly commented that in The Real Nureyev the dancer's "generosity and occasional good humor emerge."