Rudolf Nureyev Chametovitsj was born on a train near Irkutsk, on March 17, 1938. He was a world-renowned Russian - Austrian ballet dancer and choreographer of Tatar origin and is often mentioned in one breath with Auguste Vestris and Vaslav Nijinsky.

He studied at the school of the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad by Alexander Pushkin, where he began his career in 1958 as a soloist. During his first successful European tour with the Kirov Ballet, he broke the Soviet rules by looking for association with local Parisians, and also after the performance to run riot. The KGB wanted Nureyev returned to the Soviet Union, to tackle him because of his homosexuality.

NoerejevHis Berlin lover had advised him to escape to the West. On June 16 Nureyev touched the minds of the Western world by withdrawing at the Paris Le Bourget airport from the KGB escort. He threw himself into the arms of the French police, shouting: "I want to be free." His move was a tragedy for his family and their career. His friend Teja Kremke remained behind the Iron Curtain...

Nureyev asked for asylum in Austria on June 17, 1961.
Within a week, he signed a contract with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, where he appeared in Sleeping Beauty. His virtuoso dance moves and charismatic stage personality made ​​him along with his flight and political asylum an idol and a world star.
From 1962 to the early seventies Nureyev was attached to the Royal Ballet in London. Here he formed with Margot Fonteyn a world famous dance duo. The greatest British ballerina of the twentieth century would have had a relationship with him.
They danced Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. He also performed regularly as a guest soloist and danced in television movies.

In 1964 he joined the Vienna State Opera, where he remained until 1988 as a dancer and important choreographer, and was artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet (1983-1990).
Rudolf Nureyev died in Paris on January 6, 1993 from the effects of AIDS.