Rudolf Nureyev – Part 2

“Sit down on suitcase for a minute. It is old Russian superstition. Will work.”

Defection

Rudolf knew he had betrayed the motherland –a shame for a Soviet man. His family would suffer. He was a traitor and “a lost person” “It’s not something I planned, but I was hoping it would happen like this,” he later confided to a friend.

In 1961 the Kirov Ballet were on tour in Paris, aged 22 Rudolf Nureyev was their star. He behaved recklessly, he was too thrilled with the city, made friends with the French dancers, stayed out all night, went off on his own, discovering. Some of the dancers were delighted that the KGB were following. Rudolf, leaving them free to go shopping and walk the streets of Paris unaccompanied “We even went to a nightclub!”

The Russian dancers were at the airport ready to board the plane for London, the second stage of their tour. Rudolf stayed chatting, saying goodbye to his French friends then joined the company in the queue for departure. He was taken to one side and told that he would not be going with the others to London. Instead he would be boarding a plane for Moscow. “Kruschev wants to see you dance,” his mother was ill.

It was the end of his career, “No foreign travel ever again…I would be consigned to complete obscurity.” Sobbing, almost fainting he said he was going to kill himself. People began rushing up to see what was the matter. “I am a dead man!” he said; he held up four fingers in front of his face like prison bars.