Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was born on 17 March 1938 aboard a Trans-Siberian train near Lake Baikal, Siberia, while his mother Farida was traveling to Vladivostok, where his father Khamet, a Red Army political commissar, was stationed. He grew up as the only son among three older sisters in a Tatar Muslim family. His father's family originated from Asanovo in the Ufa District, and his mother was born in the Kazan Governorate. Nureyev died on 6 January 1993.

His introduction to dance came when his mother brought him and his sisters to a performance of the ballet Song of the Cranes. As a child he participated in Bashkir folk performances, and teachers who recognized his talent encouraged him to pursue training in Leningrad. He auditioned for the Bolshoi Ballet during a Moscow tour stop and was accepted, but believing the Mariinsky Ballet school to be superior, he purchased a ticket to Leningrad instead. Because World War II had disrupted Soviet cultural institutions, Nureyev was not admitted to a major ballet school until 1955, when he enrolled at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet at age 17. There, ballet master Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin took a professional interest in him and allowed Nureyev to live in his home.

Following his graduation in 1958, Nureyev joined the Kirov Ballet, where he was assigned principal roles immediately rather than beginning in the corps. He partnered regularly with Natalia Dudinskaya, the company's senior ballerina and wife of its director Konstantin Sergeyev, who first selected him as her partner for the ballet Laurencia. Over his three years with the Kirov, from 1958 to 1961, he danced 15 roles, frequently alongside Ninel Kurgapkina. He and Kurgapkina were invited to perform at a gathering at Khrushchev's dacha and in 1959 traveled to Vienna to dance at the International Youth Festival. The Ministry of Culture subsequently informed him he would not be permitted to travel abroad again.

Tensions between Nureyev and artistic director Sergeyev grew, yet when French tour organizers urged Soviet authorities to include Nureyev in a Paris engagement after seeing him perform in Leningrad in 1960, he was permitted to go. His Paris performances drew intense audience and critical response, but his socializing with foreigners and reported visits to gay bars alarmed Kirov management and KGB observers. On 16 June 1961, as the company assembled at Le Bourget Airport to fly to London, Sergeyev told Nureyev he was being sent back to Moscow for a Kremlin performance. Nureyev refused, and when told his mother was gravely ill and he must return home, he refused again, fearing imprisonment. With assistance from French police and Parisian socialite Clara Saint, he evaded his KGB minders and requested asylum. Soviet authorities had his parents and his teacher Pushkin write letters urging his return, but Nureyev remained in Paris. His defection was the first by a Soviet artist during the Cold War. Within a week he signed with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas and performed The Sleeping Beauty with Nina Vyroubova. On a subsequent tour of Denmark he met Erik Bruhn, a soloist with the Royal Danish Ballet, who became his lover.

In October 1961 Nureyev made his London debut at the annual gala organized by Dame Margot Fonteyn for the Royal Academy of Dance, performing Poème Tragique, a solo choreographed by Frederick Ashton, and the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake with Rosella Hightower. Dame Ninette de Valois, director of The Royal Ballet, invited him to dance with Fonteyn the following season. He first appeared with Fonteyn as a guest performer of The Royal Ballet on 21 February 1962, and the reception he received led to a contract as a principal dancer. London critics referred to him as the "Russian version of James Dean." He went on to become a global star through his association with The Royal Ballet and his partnership with Fonteyn.

From 1983 to 1989, Nureyev served as director of the Paris Opera Ballet and its chief choreographer. He also created his own productions of classical works including Swan Lake, Giselle, and La Bayadère. His Broadway career extended from 1974 to 1989, during which he appeared in productions including Nureyev, Aureole, Boston Ballet Company, Fonteyn & Nureyev on Broadway, and The King and I, among others. Nureyev was originally from Irkutsk, Soviet Union.