MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The Bolshoi Theater will suffer reputation losses by postponing the premiere of the Nureyev ballet staged by Kirill Serebrennikov from July 11 to next May, the theater director, Vladimir Urin, said on Monday.

The premiere of the ballet dedicated to famed Soviet dancer Rudolf Nureyev will take place on May 4-5, 2018, as the performance is not ready yet, Urin told a news briefing.

"There are reputation losses," he warned, adding that any postponement of this kind has negative consequences.

"But the performance quality is more important for us," Urin said. "We suffer no financial losses. The ballet funded by the government will be shown in May."

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky told TASS that he supported the decision to postpone the premiere but dismissed earlier reports that it was done by his order.

"I fully support this decision," the minister said. "It is balanced and correct."

The ballet’s composer is Ilya Demutsky, author of Libretto, the director and set designer is Kirill Serebrennikov, the choreographer is Yuri Posokhov. In 2015, this team staged A Hero of Our Time (after Mikhail Lermontov’s novel) at the Bolshoi. The performance received the Golden Mask prize for that season.

Rudolf Nureyev (1939-1993), one of ballet's most gifted male dancers, worked at the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater (now Mariinsky Theater) in St. Petersburg. He defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961.