“I want to stay and to be free !” Nureyev at Bourget airport sixty years ago

It was just sixty years ago today, Rudolf Nureyev decided, at Le Bourget airport, not to follow the Kirov troop then on tour in France towards London. He applied for political asylum and this defection marked the beginning of a new life and made him the most famous ballet dancer in the world. This leap towards freedom, the most publicized of the period of the Cold War, was brought to the screen by Ralph Fiennes, fascinated by the self-determination of this very young man of 23 years that was then Rudolf Nureyev in his film The White Crow.