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Witness History: Russian ballerina defects to the west

Russian ballerina defects to the west

BBC World Service - Witness History, Russian ballerina defects to the west

The Russian ballerina who defected to the west

The story of Natalia Makarova, the leading Russian ballet star, who defected after a London performance in 1970.

In 1970, Natalia Makarova became the first female ballet star to defect to the West from Russia.

The dancer claimed asylum during a UK tour, nine years after another Russian dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, had defected.

Natalia later joined the American Ballet Theatre in New York. She wouldn’t return to her home country for almost 20 years.

Jane Wilkinson has been looking through the archive to discover the reasons behind her defection.

(Photo: Natalia Makarova in New York, 1980. Credit: Brownie Harris/Corbis via Getty Image

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