Rudolf Noureev and Margot Fonteyn in the Lac des Cygnes, in 1963. Rudolf Noureev (1938-1993) is certainly the most famous dancer of the last thirty years. As a Russian dancer, he participated in a tour with the Kirov, in Paris, in 1961, when he jumped over the customs barrier at the airport and escaped from the Soviet guards. Since then, his successes in Paris were more and more numerous and he ranked among the first personalities of the dance's world, as a dancer as well as a choreographer. From 1983 though, as he took the supervision of the Ballet of the Parisian Opera, he had to face critics from his colleagues and sometimes from the public, due to his character, too independant, relentless and authoritarian. Until his death however, he remained a star, adulated by the masses, thanks to his talent of a genius dancer, and to his personality out of the ordinary.