1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects in Paris

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Credit: Photograph by Boris Carmi, taken in Israel in 1963. From the National Library of Israel, currently in the Meitar Collection of the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection

Following his defection from the Soviet Union in Paris earlier that year, Rudolf Nureyev gives his first performance in the Britain in 1961 in Poème tragique at the Royal Academy of Dancing’s Gala Matinée at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The solo was choreographed by Frederick Ashton to music Alexander Scriabin, and the costume was by William Chappell

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