Rudolf Nureyev In Chicago, Illinois Editorial Image

Renowned ballet dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev acknowledges thunderous applause from a packed audience at the the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on May 14, 1983. Nurevev, a Russian of Tatar descent, became a cause celebre when he became the first prominent artist to defect from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961. Nureyev had a rapier wit and is remembered for holding his own with skilled television interviewers such as Dick Cavett. Nureyev died in France from complications od AIDS on January 6, 1993 at the age of 54.