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Dancing Star

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 2024
Original album - Nonetheless
Producer - James Ford
Subsequent albums - none
Other releases - single

Neil stated in the "Letters" section of Annually 2021 that he and Chris had written a song about Rudolf Nureyev during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. "Dancing Star" turns out to be that song, having been inspired by a television documentary Neil had watched about the expatriate Russian ballet dancer. Described by The Guardian journalist Laura Snapes as "an ecstatic hymn" set in London's "swinging 'sixties," it was released as the second single from Nonetheless in April 2024.

Chris has revealed that this track, however, did not originate as a song about Nureyev but rather as a demo he wrote about being at the beach with the words, "I love it here. Let's stay forever." That, in fact, is why it opens and closes with the sounds of waves and seagulls. But once Neil got his hands on it the song took a very different turn. They nonetheless decided to retain the beach sound effects, which may be thematically significant. For one thing, they fit and probably even inspired the opening reference to the Italian resort town of Amalfi. (See the annotation about Amalfi below.) Yet, if you recall, their much earlier classic "Go West" also opens with waves and seagulls. And "Dancing Star" concerns a man who indeed "went West" from the Soviet Union. The "Go West" connection becomes meaningful not only by virtue of those sound effects and Nureyev's defection from the Soviet Union but also on account of the Boys having originally recorded that old Village People song as a "disco dirge" for victims of AIDS, the disease that would also claim Nureyev's life.

Widely regarded as the greatest male ballet star of his generation, Nureyev was born in 1938 in the Soviet Union and gained stardom there, but he famously defected to the West in 1961, during the height of the Cold War. He settled first in London, becoming Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet, and then later in Paris, where he became director and chief choreographer of the Paris Opera Ballet. In 1977 he made an attempt at film stardom, taking on the title role in the biographical film Valentino. It was not a major success, but Nureyev generally got reasonably good reviews for his performance. Also during the late 1970s he became something of a fixture in celebrity nightlife circles (including occasional visits to Studio 54 in New York City), but he began to eschew the social limelight in the 1980s. He tested positive for HIV in 1984 but kept the fact secret for several years, with a decline in his health and his dancing becoming apparent only toward the end of the decade. By 1991 he was living with full-blown AIDS. He passed away at the age of 54 from complications of the disease on January 6, 1993.

Getting back to the song itself, "Dancing Star" is an uptempo track with prominent percussion effects, harkening back in some ways to the "classic PSB sound" of the 1980s. (Neil has said that he felt Chris's original demo sounded "like early Madonna," which helps explain its decided 'eighties flavor.) It's therefore perhaps not too surprising that Neil should start out speaking his lyrics, a more common practice for him early in their career than later on. The lyrics take the form of an interior monologue in Nureyev's mind—in the second person, addressing himself as "you," an intriguing narrative device—as he relaxes on the beach at the Italian resort town of Amalfi, "a long way from Siberia." He wonders, "How did you get here?"

The story takes off from there. It tells of how he defected at Paris's Orly Airport, taking "all the KGB boys by surprise." This, Neil suggests, is typical for Nureyev, who "broke the rules over and over again," both artistically and otherwise. He's "a trouble-maker among sombre men." The narrative then moves to "the streets of London" during the 1960s, a time when that city was essentially the cultural capital of the pop world. Nureyev had become "the brightest star in town / Always a scandal and a real heart-breaker" with males and females alike.

Neil lists a string of cities in Europe and North America where the jet-setting dancing star would appear. But a note of "outside retrospection" creeps in toward the end as Neil steps out from Nureyev's interior monologue and offers a final personal comment about him: "How bright you shone and still shine now, although you've gone." The track closes with those crashing waves and seagulls again, a final note of continuity—things that go on after our own lives have passed.

Annotations

Designer Mark Farrow has confirmed that the dancer whose image graces the single's sleeve is indeed Nureyev. Farrow noted that, in light of the Pet Shop Boys' scheduled July 2024 performance at the Royal Opera House, there's a "lovely symmetry" in the fact that this photo was taken at the same venue in 1962, shortly after Nureyev's defection.
Amalfi – The first word of the song, spoken by Neil, is the name of a small Mediterranean resort town on the southwestern coast of Italy. Nureyev owned a home on a nearby island and spent a good deal of time there. The wider stretches of beach near Amalfi are sometimes also referred to by the town's name.
"It's a long way from Siberia" – Nureyev was born on a train in the Irkutsk region of Siberia. Infamous for its isolation, extremely harsh winter weather, and use as a place of exile and punishment for Russian dissidents, Siberia is indeed both geographically and "culturally" distant from Amalfi, Italy.
"Jumped the barrier at Orly Airport" – There are conflicting reports as to whether Nureyev's defection occurred at Orly Airport, just south of Paris, or at Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris. Le Bourget is the "favored" site, and a 1961 news report from the day after Nureyev defected would seem to confirm this. Still, on account of those conflicting reports, Neil's citation of Orly Airport is understandable. (He did in fact concede the "factual error" in an interview in the May issue of Electronic Sound.) Incidentally, Neil's choice of the verb "jumped" to describe Nureyev's act of defection is most appropriate considering that he was famed for his spectacular leaps while dancing. (The single's sleeve art, after all, depicts him mid-leap.) And the song's repeated orchestral synth "hits" or "stabs" are also highly suggestive of those jumps.
Speaking of those "orchestra hits"—a sound all but ubiquitous in synthpop music of the 1980s—one of my site visitors has pointed out that the "original" orchestra hit, called "orch2" on the Fairlight sampler, was taken from Igor Stravinsky's music for his 1910 ballet The Firebird, which Nureyev performed in London to great acclaim in 1962, the year after his defection. It's distinctly possible that the Boys chose to use this sound (assuming it even is the same sample) in "Dancing Star" specifically for this reason. If they didn't, it's a fortuitous coincidence.
The KGB, mentioned in this song, was from its founding in 1954 until its formal dissolution in 1991 the primary internal security and foreign intelligence/espionage agency in the Soviet Union. It essentially paralleled and combined the functions of the U.S. FBI (internal security) and CIA (foreign intelligence/espionage). During the 1961 tour during which Nureyev defected, the KGB had been concerned about how Nureyev was breaking the rules (alluded to in the song) about mingling with "westerners" and even visiting gay bars in Paris. The KGB was apparently on the verge of escorting him back to the Soviet Union, where Nureyev feared that he would be incarcerated. With the help of friends and the French police, Nureyev managed to escape his KGB handlers and sought asylum, which was immediately granted.
"A fiery talent" – Neil's choice of the adjective "fiery" may have been inspired by Nureyev's association with The Firebird, as described above.
"More power than a tsar" – Well, that's a bit of hyperbole—certainly forgivable hyperbole, but hyperbole nonetheless. "Tsar" (a word derived from "Caesar") was, after all, the title of the Emperor of Russia back in pre-Soviet days, and it would be a stretch to suggest that Nureyev—or any ballet dancer or pop-culture star, for that matter—ever had more power than the absolute ruler of the Russian Empire. Then again, I suppose that depends on the type of "power" you're referring to.
St. Petersburg – Known as Leningrad during the Soviet era, Nureyev was the star of the Kirov Ballet there at the time of his defection. The city reverted back to its older name of St. Petersburg after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nureyev returned there for a visit after the Soviet collapse, thereby making its inclusion in the song's list of cities associated with Nureyev all the more apt.

Mixes/versions

Officially released

Mixers: James Ford, Jas Shaw
- Album/single version (3:02)
Mixer: Mladen Solomun

Solomun remix (3:32)
Solomun extended remix (5:20)
Solomun dub (5:05)

List cross-references

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