BALLET : Nureyev Talks May End Holdout

Rudolf Nureyev will meet the head of the Paris Opera Ballet later this month, raising hopes that the dancer-director’s contract dispute with the company might eventually be settled, an opera spokesman said today.

The 51-year-old Soviet defector, who is insisting on new terms, agreed to meet French Opera Chairman Pierre Berge at the end of November.

Nureyev has directed the ballet since 1983. But his relations with the Paris Opera Ballet reached an all-time low last month when the company began its new season with temporary replacements for its temperamental star, who had refused to return from the United States.