Rudi, my honored guest, and dancer, once champion leaper, and still, at 21 not too damn bad.

Had a Russian dancer come into my life, as mine, I probably wouldn't have named him after Nureyev. but rather Nijinsky. Because my idears of leaping Russians predated Nureyev's blaze.

As a student, I was fascinated by Nijinsky. The web fails me now, or I'd link, but I remember clearly reading a book that speculated on his feet. He, and his sister, both dancers, came from a long line of dancers. Someone noticed how "odd" their feet were, and took X-rays of them. And commented that they resembled birds' feet more than humans. (That, combined with the massive thigh muscles. . . .)

Which seems to have accounted for the ability to leap straight up from a stand. I looked for pictures to back-up the eye-witness descriptions of his dancing, leaping, but he seems to have come too soon for the camera's ability to capture it. This was the best I could do. But in no way matches the descriptions of the awe it inspired by those present.