Madame Furtseva's latest smash hit abroad is Leningrad's Kirov Opera Ballet Company, which last week wound up a ten-day stand in Paris. A star of the show was Rudolf Nureev, 23, whom Paris critics hailed for his spectacular leaps in the famous Bluebird pas de deux in Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. But word had spread through the dance company that Nureev intended to defect, and when the dancers arrived at Le Bourget Airport for departure to London, Nureev, sullen and tense, was accompanied by two Russian strong-arm men, euphemistically described later as "unofficial" members of the company. "I won't go!" he screamed....
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