Great Dancers
With Peggy Reynolds. Rudolf Nureyev was born on the Trans-Siberian
Express as it rattled along close to the Mongolian border. He grew up in the severe regime of Stalin's Russia and moved swiftly through the ranks to become a leading soloist at the Kirov Ballet. Nureyev's sensational defection to the West in 1961 brought him into contact with dancers such as Margot Fonteyn and the choreographers
Frederick Ashton , Kenneth MacMillan and Martha Graham. He became probably the greatest dancer of his generation. Nureyev led a turbulent, exotic and ultimately tragic life, dying from an Aids-related illness in 1993.