The Soviet ballet legend who fled to the West during the Cold War era, Natalia Makarova, has been named a Kennedy Center Honoree, together with famous Hollywood actor Dustin Hoffman and the rock band Led Zeppelin.

      71-year-old Makarova was the prima-ballerina of the Kirov Ballet (now The Mariinsky) in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) from the mid 1950s to 1970. Then Makarova fled to the West and began performing with New York's American Ballet Theatre and London's Royal Ballet.

      She was a dancing partner of such Russian-born ballet stars as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Aleksander Godunov and Rudolph Nureyev, all of whom had left Soviet Union for America.

      In 1989 Makarova returned to Russia and the Kirov Ballet, reuniting with her family. Some time later she retired from dancing.

      At the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, Natalia Makarova was awarded as "one of the finest ballerinas of her generation", whose "extraordinary talent, creativity and tenacity" has made a great contribution to the world's cultural life.