23-year-old Nuriev had a premonition of his fate after returning home, so five minutes before boarding, he left the Soviet guards, ran wildly towards the airport police for asylum, and then entered France.

Written by Ye Kefei

59 years ago today, on June 16, 1961, the Soviet Kirov Ballet was conducting a tour in Europe. On this day, they will leave Paris for London. But Nuriev, the pillar of the ballet troupe, and the most brilliant ballet star in the Soviet Union and even the world, was asked by his superiors to board another plane to Moscow and send it back to his country.

23-year-old Nuriev had a premonition of his fate after returning home, so five minutes before boarding, he left the Soviet guards, ran wildly towards the airport police for asylum, and then entered France. This defection shocked the world and became the headlines of newspapers in Western countries on the second day. The furious Soviet Union blocked the news as soon as possible, and later tried Nuriev in absentia.

1938, Nuriev was born on a train to Siberia , which seemed to indicate a turbulent fate in his life. His hometown is Ufa, a small town on the shore of Lake Baikal, and his ancestors were Tatars. At the age of 7, he was determined to become a ballet dancer. He started learning dance at the age of 11 and entered the Leningrad Ballet School at the age of 17. At the age of 20, he entered the Leningrad Kirov Opera House and won the gold medal in the Moscow International Ballet Competition in the same year. His difficult leap gave him the evaluation of "having a pair of invisible wings".

Although he is very talented in ballet, Nuriev has never been a good child. When he was in school, he refused to join the group and secretly learned English, which was a crime that was irreversible at that time.

1961, the Kirov Troupe went to Europe for the first time. In Paris, Nuriev performed a two-week rotation plus curled leg jump that no one could have done at the time.

At that time, due to ideological differences, the troupe had clear discipline and did not allow members to go out privately, but Nuriev visited around with his French colleagues and was severely criticized by his leaders. But as a ballerina who pursues beauty as the highest pursuit, Nuriev sighed that "who can't love Paris" and intended to stay here. But staying means defecting to the Soviet Union, and failure means death. Of course, he will hesitate and express his hesitation to the priest at the Church of Madeline in Paris. , but at this moment, the troupe will go to London, but Nuriev is asked to be sent back to China. He was unwilling to be doomed, so the scene at the beginning of this article happened.

Nuriev was the first Soviet ballet artist to defect to the West during the Cold War. He opened a path for his fellow Kirov troupes. In 1970, another ballet legend of the Kirov troupe, Natalia Makarova, fled to Britain in 1974. Mikhai Barishinikov, the new pillar of the Kirov troupe, who was once the youngest ballet champion in the Soviet Union, fled to Canada.

Although France did not grant Nuriev the right to residency and did not allow him to perform at the National Opera in Paris, he was soon invited by Margot Fangting, chief ballet master of the Royal Ballet to perform in London, and the most legendary cooperation in ballet history began.

Fangting, who was 41 years old at the time, and Nuriev, 24 years old, achieved the highest tacit understanding among dancers. Their first collaboration shocked London. They also became the greatest pair of partners in ballet history, working together for a full 17 years. In fact, Fangting, as a vassal awarded by the Queen of England, was about to retire, but it was Nuriev's appearance that made her rejuvenate for the second spring, allowing her to break through the limits of the dancer and dance until she was 60 years old. In 1965, Nuriev and Fangting performed "Swan Lake" in Vienna, with a total of 89 curtain calls, creating a curtain call record in the history of dance.

Nuriev is not just a dancer, he is also the best ballet choreographer. During his time in the UK, he adapted many classic works. In 1983, he was hired by Paris Opera , and fully reorganized the dance, which also revived the old Paris Opera.

This dance master who was born in the Siberian wilderness and grew up under the suppression of collectivism has insight into all the light and darkness of human nature in the script. The re-arranged script is also known as the most powerful version. To this day, the ballets of many opera houses around the world still use Nuriev's version.

Nuriev’s fantasy cooperation with Fangting also gave people a lot of emotional speculation about the two people with huge age differences. Even though the two have not developed substantially, some people arbitrarily believe that it is because Nuriev, who has a very playboy temperament, will not fall in love with a woman who is as much older than him.

No one knew at that time that Nuriyev was gay. Even as early as 1977, Nuriev was spotted by British genius director Ken Russell and starred in Rudolph Van Luntero, the protagonist of the gay movie "Van Luntero". The latter is a handsome man from the black and white film era and a homosexual. Russell obviously discovered that the two are highly similar in temperament.

1983, Nuriev announced to the public that he was infected with AIDS . In 1991, Fangting passed away. Nuriev, who was fighting with the disease, failed to attend the funeral, but he told his friends: "She is the only woman in my life."

Although he was infected with AIDS, Nuriev, who had performed 200 times a year, has never stopped dancing, and ballet has long been his life.

In October 1992, the premiere of " dancer " directed by Nuriev was held at the Paris Opera House. After the performance, he was pushed onto the stage in a wheelchair and was awarded the French Knight of Arts and Literature. On January 6, 1993, Nuriev passed away in France.

Someone commented on Nuriev's greatness in the ballet world like this: "He broke through the actress's monopoly on the toes, and his hanging jumping and rapid rotation made people re-experience the male charm of classical ballet."

2019, the movie "White Crow", adapted from the biographical novel "Rudolph Nuriev: A Lifetime", was released in the UK, focusing on his experience of defecting to the West.

As Nuriev himself said: That day is the real beginning of his life.