A Russian ballet dancer. In 1961, Nureyev was chosen to go to London and Paris with the Kirov Ballet. He decided to stay in the West and in 1961 he made his first appearance with a Western company in the ballet: The Sleeping Beauty. Margot Fonteyn the famous ballerina noticed him and became his dancing partner. Over the next decade he made regular appearances with the Royal Ballet in London and went to USA, Germany, Italy and other countries and performed in well known ballets such as Gisella, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, The Nut Cracker, Swan Lake and others. He became an international star and his most noble features in dancing were his big leaps and speed. He had reached his peak in 1964 when he danced with Margot Fonteyn and on one night took more than 50 curtain calls. Despite a triumphant return to Russia in 1989, Rudolf Nureyev never forgave the country of his birth for regarding him as a traitor because of his self-exile to the West. Rudolf Nureyev was born in a Muslim Tartar family, and he dominated the ballet scene of the West for more than three decades.