page_title: Rudolf Nureyev
section_title: Fonteyn and Nureyev
hierarchical_section_title: Rudolf Nureyev / Career / The Royal Ballet / Fonteyn and Nureyev
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Margot Fonteyn, Fred Astaire and Rudolph Nureyev from a 1965 appearance on the US television show The Hollywood Palace.
context_page_description: Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is regarded by some as the greatest male ballet dancer of his generation.
  Nureyev was born on a Trans-Siberian train near Irkutsk, Siberia, Soviet Union to a Bashkir-Tatar family. He began his early career with the company that in the Soviet era was called the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad. He defected from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961, despite KGB efforts to stop him. This was the first defection of a Soviet artist during the Cold War, and it created an international sensation. He went on to dance with The Royal Ballet in London and from 1983 to 1989 served as director of the Paris Opera Ballet. In addition to his technical prowess, Nureyev was an accomplished choreographer serving as the chief choreographer of the Paris Opera Ballet. He produced his own interpretations of numerous classical works, including Swan Lake, Giselle, and La Bayadère.
context_section_description: Nureyev's first appearance with Prima Ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn was in a ballet matinée organized by The Royal Ballet: Giselle, 21 February 1962.  The event was held in aid of the Royal Academy of Dance, a classical ballet teaching organisation of which she was president.  He danced Poème Tragique, a solo choreographed by Frederick Ashton, and the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake. They were so well received that Fonteyn and Nureyev proceeded to form a partnership which endured for many years. They premiered Romeo and Juliet for the company in 1965. Fans of the duo would tear up their programs to make confetti that'd be joyously thrown at the dancers. Nureyev and Fonteyn might do upwards of 20 curtain calls. On 11 July 1967, Fonteyn and Nureyev, after performing in San Francisco, were arrested on nearby roofs having fled during a police raid on a home in the Haight-Ashbury district. They were bailed out and charges of disturbing the peace and visiting a place where marijuana was used were dropped later that day for lack of sufficient evidence.
caption: Margot Fonteyn, Fred Astaire and Nureyev from a 1965 appearance on the US television show The Hollywood Palace.
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