The rule was clear :
"Client acquisition has always been and remains one of the hardest and most frustrating activity of an architect. Somehow taboo as it as to do with ones most secret networks, but also because “direct assignment” is almost politically incorrect.13 architects reveal to us which personality they always wished to convince. Alive or dead, rich or poor,famous or unknown, the only thing we asked for is a name, and a short biography. No explanation of the selection was necessary but the only condition was that the chosen person should exist, or have existed."
Therefore, LAN has chosen his client: Rudolf Nureyev.
The charismatic ballet star, Rudolf Nureyev, was born on the 17thof March 1938, on board of the Trans-Siberian train, nearby the Baikal Lake. As a child and against his parents’ agreement, he decided to become a dancer, after he first saw a show of patriotic ballet. Thus, hetrained hard and was admitted in Vaganova Academy, in Leningrad, in 1955. Three years later, he made his debut at the prestigious Kirov’s Ballet with the Pas de Trois in Swan Lake. While he was in Kirov Ballet tour, he refused to return to USSR and asked for political asylum in France. After he joined the Marquis de Cuevas Ballet, he met Margot Fonteyn at the Royal Opera House of London. Together they became a legendary couple. From 1983 until 1989, he was director at Paris Opera Ballet and remounted many choreographies. Behind his magnificent smile and grace, Rudolf Nureyev was an obstinate, disturbed and solitary soul.In his late days, he purchased Gallo Lungo, one of the Sirenuse Islands, known for its ties with Russian ballet, as Leonide Massine owned them before him, and with the Greek mythology. Rudolf Nureyev planned to open a ballet school on this Island but died of AIDS in 1993,before he could fulfil his dream.