Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Nureyev, star of the Kirov Ballet, defected at Paris airport in 1961 while on tour, leaving his family behind in the Soviet Union. In London his partnership with Margot Fonteyn at the Royal Ballet made both of them international celebrities, and he later directed the Paris Opera Ballet from 1983 to 1989. Fonteyn's willingness to dance with him gave the newcomer a ready-made Western stage.