Nureyev

Dave Q.T. Betts about Nureyev and the drawing: I have always been a lover of the ballet,being raised on it having an elder sister who was a professional dancer. After the death of Rudolph Nureyev from aids,I wrote a song dedicated to him called "Dancing Man". Any way, I was staying with Ann Marie and Tony at the Lage Weg and asked Tony to listen to this new song. Tony was sitting on the sofa and behind me was a part started picture he was working on. So I started to sing "Dancing Man" it was going well,when Tony suddenly jumped up !! picked up the picture from the easel and turned it upside down and started to work frantically on it,saying "can't you see it,can't you see it ????" He finished the picture and presented it to me as a gift. Don't know if you can make it out,but in the center is a dancer pirouetting on a stage withe audience in the foreground and the stage lights and drapes framing him. The inscription reads "David Betts Nureyev dances and death - Tony Mafia 94. Here's a little after story about the song. I was staying with a friend Kurt Uhler near San Diego and he had heard the song and asked would I go with him to sing it for a friend ?? I said sure. We went down some back alleys and reached a house belonging to his landlady. Kurt knocked on the door and a little face peered out at us from behind the metal security gate."Yes what do you want"asked the old lady ? Would you please listen to this song my friend from England has written,asked Kurt. I didn't know what was happening so I start to sing to this strange lady on her back porch. Bye the time I finish,she is sobbing with tears pouring down her face ??? She was a Russian ballet teacher,had worked with many visiting ballets in San Diego and had been a personal friend of Nureyev !!!!