Maya Plisetskaya short biography ballet dancer, considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century.
Maya Plisetskaya short biography
Maya Plisetskaya was born in Moscow November 20, 1925 in a Jewish family with numerous famous and talented relatives. She was the eldest of three children.
From 1932 to 1936 she lived in Spitsbergen, where her father first worked as the first head of Arktikugol, and later as the Consul General of the USSR.
In 1937, Maya's dad was arrested on suspicion of treason. Maya never saw her father again. A year later, Mikhail Plisetsky was shot. Plisetskaya's mother Rachel was arrested in early March 1938 and, together with infant Azary, was deported to Kazakhstan, to the Akmola camp for the wives of traitors to the Motherland (she returned to Moscow in the spring of 1941). To prevent the girl from being sent to an orphanage for children of traitors to the Motherland, Maya was adopted by her maternal aunt, ballerina, soloist Bolshoi Theater
From September 1941 to September 1942, Maya and her family were evacuated in Sverdlovsk. There was no opportunity for regular ballet classes in the city, but the first performance of the number “The Dying Swan” took place here.
In 1943, after graduating from the Moscow Choreographic School (teachers E. P. Gerdt and M. M. Leontyeva), Maya Plisetskaya was accepted into the Bolshoi Theater troupe.
Her first audience recognition came after the ballet Chopiniana, where she danced the mazurka. Each of her jumps and landings on stage exploded the hall with a storm of applause.
Soon she switched to solo roles and established herself as a prima ballerina.
In 1958, she married composer Rodion Shchedrin, with whom she lived happily all her life.
After the collapse of the USSR, she lived mainly in Munich (Germany), from time to time she and her husband came to Moscow or St. Petersburg, and also traveled to Lithuania, where she had a dacha not far from Trakai Castle.
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya died May 2, 2015 in Munich at the age of 90 from a massive myocardial infarction.
The most famous parties great ballerina: Odette - Odile in the ballet " Swan Lake", Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" (1961), Mistress of the Copper Mountain in " Stone flower", Raymonda in the ballet of the same name by Alexander Glazunov. The famous Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso staged the ballet “Carmen Suite” especially for the prima. In addition, Plisetskaya collaborated with other outstanding choreographers: Yuri Grigorovich, Roland Petit and Maurice Bejart.
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya(November 20, 1925, Moscow, USSR - May 2, 2015, Germany) - Soviet and Russian artist ballet, actress, choreographer, representative of the Messerer-Plisetsky theatrical dynasty, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater in 1943-1990.
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya
Date of birth: November 20, 1925
Place of birth: Moscow, USSR
Date of death: May 2, 2015
Place of Death: Munich
Profession: ballet dancer, choreographer, actress
Citizenship: USSR → Russia; Germany; Lithuania;Spain
Years active: 1943-2015
Theater: Bolshoi Theater
Born in Moscow in the family of the famous Soviet business leader Mikhail Emmanuilovich Plisetsky and silent film actress Rakhila Mikhailovna Messerer. Uncle is a ballet dancer, choreographer, National artist USSR (1976) Asaf Mikhailovich Messerer (1903-1992). Brothers - choreographers Alexander and Azary Plisetsky. Cousin - theater artist Boris Messerer.
From 1932 to 1936 she lived in Spitsbergen, where her father first worked as the first head of Arktikugol, and later as the Consul General of the USSR. On the night of April 30 to May 1, 1938, Mikhail Plisetsky was arrested, convicted and executed in the same year (rehabilitated during the Khrushchev Thaw). Plisetskaya's mother was sent to Kazakhstan to the Akmola camp for the wives of traitors to the Motherland. To prevent the girl from being sent to an orphanage, little Maya was adopted by her maternal aunt, ballerina, soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, Shulamith Messerer.
From September 1941 to September 1942 she was evacuated with her family in Sverdlovsk. There was no opportunity for regular ballet classes in the city, but the first performance of the number “The Dying Swan” took place here.
In 1943, after graduating from the Moscow Choreographic School (teachers E. P. Gerdt and M. M. Leontyeva), Maya Plisetskaya was accepted into the Bolshoi Theater troupe. Soon she switched to solo roles and established herself as a prima ballerina.
In 1958 she married composer Rodion Shchedrin.
In 1966, she signed a letter from 25 cultural and scientific figures Secretary General The Central Committee of the CPSU to L. I. Brezhnev is against the rehabilitation of Stalin.
and Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya She lived mainly in Munich (Germany), from time to time she and her husband came to Moscow or St. Petersburg. Since 1993, she was a citizen of Lithuania and owned real estate there.
On May 2, 2015, she died in Germany from heart attack.
Creative career of Maya Plisetskaya
In plastic Maya Plisetskaya dance art achieves high harmony.
The most famous roles: Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (1961), Raymonda in Glazunov’s ballet of the same name, Mistress of the Copper Mountain in Prokofiev’s The Stone Flower, Mehmene-Banu in Melikov’s Legend of Love, Carmen (Carmen Suite by Rodion Shchedrin).
On the square of Kievsky Station after the tour, 2000
After Galina Ulanova left the stage in 1960, she became the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater. In the Soviet film version of Anna Karenina she played Princess Tverskaya. In 1971, Rodion Shchedrin wrote a ballet on the same theme, where Plisetskaya danced the main role and tried her hand as a choreographer for the first time.
In 1961, he took part in the ballet “The Legend of Love,” written by the famous Azerbaijani composer Arif Melikov.
Especially for Plisetskaya Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso staged the ballet Carmen Suite. Other choreographers who staged choreographic parts for her were Yuri Grigorovich, Roland Petit, Maurice Bejart (“Isadora”, “Kurozuka”, mini-ballets “A Vision of a Rose” and “Ave Maya”).
Plisetskaya acted as a choreographer, staged the following ballets: “Anna Karenina” by R.K. Shchedrin (1972, together with N.I. Ryzhenko and V.V. Smirnov-Golovanov, Bolshoi Theater; Plisetskaya - first performer main party), “The Seagull” by R. K. Shchedrin (1980, Bolshoi Theater; - the first performer of the main role), “Raymonda” by A. K. Glazunov (1984, Opera theatre in the Baths of Caracalla, Rome), “Lady with a Dog” by R. K. Shchedrin (1985, Bolshoi Theater; Plisetskaya - the first performer of the main role).
In the 1980s, Shchedrin also spent a lot of time abroad, where she worked artistic director Rome Opera and Ballet Theater (1983-1984), as well as the Spanish National Ballet in Madrid (1988-1990). She left the stage at the age of 65; after long time participated in concerts and conducts master classes.
On her 70th birthday, she made her debut in Bejart’s number “Ave Maya,” specially written for her. Since 1994, he has been the chairman of the annual international ballet competition named “Maya” (St. Petersburg).
Maya Plisetskaya Awards
Hero of Socialist Labor (1985)
- Full holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland (one of 4 women along with Irina Antonova, Galina Vishnevskaya and Galina Volchek):
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st class (November 20, 2005) - for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic and world choreographic art, many years of creative activity
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (November 18, 2000) - for outstanding contribution to the development of choreographic art
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (November 21, 1995) - for distinguished service in Russian culture and a significant contribution to the choreographic art of our time
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (November 9, 2010) - for outstanding contribution to the development of national culture and choreographic art, many years of creative activity
Three Orders of Lenin (1967, 1976, 1985)
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1951)
People's Artist of the RSFSR (1956)
People's Artist of the USSR (1959)
Lenin Prize (1964)
Gold medal of Paris from the mayor of the city Jacques Chirac (1977)
Order of the Legion of Honor (France)
Knight's Cross (1986),
officer's cross (2012)
Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France, 1984)
Grand Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit for Lithuania (2003)
Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spain, 1991)
Commander of the Order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas
Order of Barbora Radvilaitė (Vilnius, Lithuania, 2005)
Order Rising Sun III degree (Japan, 2011)
Gold medal "For services to culture Gloria Artis" (Poland)
Medal "About Finland" (1968)
Gold Medal for Merit in the Arts (Spain, 1991)
Medal “For Valiant Labor. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
Doctor of the Sorbonne (1985)
Honorary Professor of Moscow State University (1993)
“Person of the Year” in the field of science, culture and art according to a survey of the annual Russian Foundation “Public Opinion” (2000)
First Prize and Golden medal at the ballet competition II World Festival youth and students in Budapest (1949)
Anna Pavlova Prize of the Paris Academy of Dance (1962)
Award “Excellent 1986” (Paris City Hall for the most elegant woman of the year)
Via Condotti Award (1989, Italy)
Triumph Award (2000)
Russian National Olympus Award (2000)
Award " National pride Russia" (2003)
Prince of Asturias Award (2005, Spain)
International Imperial Prize of Japan (2006)
Vittorio de Sica Prize (Italy) "for an unprecedented career and outstanding achievements in the field of dance" (2009)
Russian Ballet Prize “Soul of Dance” in the “Legend” category (2009)
Honorary Prize of RAO "For contribution to the development of science, culture and art"
International award for the development and strengthening of humanitarian ties in the countries of the Baltic region “Baltic Star” (Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, Union theatrical figures Russian Federation, Committee on Culture of the Government of St. Petersburg, 2013
- Honorary Doctor of the Hungarian Dance Academy (Budapest, 2008)
- Honorary citizen of Spain.
Filmography of Maya Plisetskaya
In 1953, the film “Masters of Russian Ballet” was shot at the Lenfilm film studio. The film includes fragments of Boris Asafiev’s ballets “ Bakhchisarai fountain" and "Flames of Paris", as well as the ballet "Swan Lake" by P. I. Tchaikovsky.
performed one of the main roles in this film.
1951 - Big concert
1959 - Khovanshchina
1967 - Anna Karenina - Betsy Tverskaya
1969 - Tchaikovsky - Desiree Artaud
1969 - Kidnapping - ballerina
1974 - Anna Karenina (film-ballet) - Anna Karenina
1976 - Fantasy - Polozova 1987 - . Familiar and unfamiliar - documentary
biography of M. M. Plisetskaya - 50 min, director Boris Galanter
2005 - “AVE MAYA” - documentary film about the work of M. M. Plisetskaya - 52 min, director Nikita Tikhonov
2005 - “An element called Maya” - documentary film in 2 parts - part 1 - 52 min, part 2 - 52 min, director Nikita Tikhonov
Facts about Maya Plisetskaya At the time of restoration of Lithuania's independence, Lithuanian citizenship, as an exception, was received by residents of other countries, including Russia. These were mostly prominent figures public life
, culture, art, as well as athletes and entrepreneurs.
The first Russians to take advantage of this privilege were a couple, Rodion Shchedrin, who received Lithuanian passports already in 1991. Maya Plisetskaya In honor of Plisetskaya asteroid named (4626)
, discovered on December 23, 1984 by astronomer of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Lyudmila Karachkina. Asteroid 4625 was given the name (4625) Shchedrin by the same discoverer. Brazilian graffiti artists Eduardo Kobra and Agnaldo Brito dedicated one of their works to Maya Plisetskaya
. The portrait (length - 16 meters, width - 18 meters) is located on the wall of the house at the address: Moscow, st. Bolshaya Dmitrovka, 16, building 2. Name:
Maya Plisetskaya Age:
89 years old Place of Birth:
Moscow A place of death:
Munich, Germany Activity:
ballerina, actress, choreographer
Marital status: married to
A woman who captivated everyone who ever saw her on stage. A ballet queen who devoted herself entirely to the great art of music and dance. She captivated not only with her talent, but her elegant, chiseled figure, grace and beauty could not leave anyone indifferent.
Maya Plisetskaya - childhood, family
The biography of the future prima ballerina was difficult. Maya was born in creative family. My mother is a silent film actress, my aunt and uncle are brilliant ballet dancers, and another aunt is an actress. The father held leadership positions. Before World War II, the family moved to the island of Spitsbergen, where the father was consul Soviet Union. When Maya was 11 years old, she played in the children's opera play “Rusalka”. This was her first stage audition.
During their next vacation, the family arrived in Moscow. The girl was enrolled in a choreography school, her dreams began to come true, but a year of repression came, and her father was arrested and shot, suspecting him of treason. Much later he was rehabilitated. The mother was arrested, deported to Kazakhstan, and just before the war, the orphaned family returned to the capital.
Adult life of a ballerina
Aunt Shulamith did a lot for her niece. She saved her from orphanage, having adopted Maya. Helped me start training at a ballet school. The teachers immediately fell in love with the talented girl; just before the war, the choreography school released its chicks. Maya Plisetskaya danced, this became her first real debut.
They were evacuated to the Ural city of Sverdlovsk, where there was no opportunity to practice ballet professionally. Shulamith studied with Maya, she prepared for her the part of the dying swan from the famous ballet. Grace and plasticity future star ballet spied on real swans, watching them. 1943, war, Moscow, but Plesetskaya manages to graduate from college, and she was enrolled in the Bolshoi Theater corps de ballet troupe.
The Bolshoi Theater in the life of Maya Plisetskaya
The ballerina was noticed, leading roles appeared:
"Nutcracker",
"Giselle"
"Don Quixote",
"Sleeping Beauty".
Before the appearance of Maya Plesetskaya, many viewers remembered the performance of Galina Ulanova. New star did not try to outshine the prima ballerina. She simply danced as best she could, as she felt. She danced with her soul, which is why she was accepted by the audience and gained no less love, admiration and respect for her work. In the biography of the ballerina, the most main point- dedication to creativity.
Maya Plisetskaya - unbearable work or happiness
Maya Mikhailovna did not like the soul-destroying work of ballet training classes. She simply loved what she did, lived with her heroines those minutes and hours when she was on stage instead of them. She constantly remained in great shape, without dieting or losing weight. excess weight on the simulators. But she danced in leading performances at the age of 65. While remaining in love with ballet, she wanted to bring the same feelings into other areas of her work.
Many choreographic performances were the work of her; she was an excellent choreographer. In collaboration with other talented ballet masters, Maya Mikhailovna manages to stage ballets on famous classical works L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov. Plisetskaya was invited to become a director at the Rome Opera and Ballet Theater, then she was intercepted at the Spanish National Ballet. The ballerina coped with any task, and many performances were written specifically for her.
The versatility of a ballerina's talent
Performances at the opera and ballet theater, filming in films and on television, memoirs of a ballerina that help reveal Plisetskaya’s character as a person and a woman. Maya had never been a tall woman, but her ability to hold her head proudly and straight and walk beautifully and gracefully made her much taller. The awards and high titles won in his native country and abroad are countless.
Maya Plisetskaya - biography of personal life
The beautiful woman was surrounded by no less handsome men. You can read about those novels that the ballerina herself talks about in her memoirs, but Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya had only two official marriages. Choreographer Maris Liepa was the ballerina's first husband, but only for three months.
, Plisetskaya’s second husband, lived with Prima for more than fifty years. And they met at one of the evenings, arranged by the beloved muse of Vladimir Mayakovsky Lilya Brik.
The husband wrote music to which his beloved Maya danced. They did not give birth to children, since Maya Mikhailovna did not want to burden herself with the ties of motherhood, which, in her opinion, would interfere with her love of ballet. And this main passion of hers allowed her to be in demand until her death.
She passed away at the age of ninety from a heart attack. A monument was erected to the great ballerina in her homeland in Moscow, a square was named in her honor, and a memorial plaque was installed. There is no grave of the great dancer anywhere, since she bequeathed her ashes to be scattered over home country. The biography of the ballerina is completed, but she will be remembered forever.
Documentary film about Maya Plisetskaya
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Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya
"Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya"
Ballerina, People's Artist of the USSR (1959), Hero of Socialist Labor (1985). She staged ballets in which she performed the main roles: “Anna Karenina” (1972, together with other choreographers), “The Seagull” (1980), “The Lady with the Dog” (1985).
Probably, ballerinas do not age, or maybe they have some special secret of fighting against time. Or is this secret known only to great ballerinas, great women? As half-mythical, half-historical heroines knew him. Secret " eternal youth“raised any woman into the ranks of the divine, unattainable, made her an object of worship. And how many ladies would give all the treasures of the world, all lovers, all blessings for the sake of one thing - never to grow old. And how many ladies “perished” on the battlefield with age, how many tragedies This struggle knows how many ruined destinies, how much drama and comedy there are in this, in general, unequal battle, because time inexorably wins.
And yet “our people” sometimes break through. Take a look at Plisetskaya's photos recent years, by God, she is still the same girl as she was fifty, forty, thirty years ago, sometimes it even seems that she is getting prettier from year to year, some kind of spiritual, deep beauty appears. And although Maya Mikhailovna herself wrote that at twenty years old a woman looks good around the clock, after thirty - three to four hours a day, and after fifty - for several minutes, this rule does not apply to her. She has been on stage for many years and looks amazing in real life. And she is still dancing... An absolute record in ballet... If there can be records in art...
When Maya Mikhailovna married Rodion Shchedrin, Lilya Yuryevna Brik, who knew Plisetskaya closely, joked to the groom: “I like your choice. But Maya has one great flaw. There are too many relatives around white light". Indeed, in the family of Mikhail Borisovich Messerer - Plisetskaya's maternal grandfather, a dentist, there were twelve children, and all of them, one way or another, were related, and some connected their lives with ballet, for example Asaf Messerer - a virtuoso dancer and an excellent teacher.
Rakhil Mikhailovna, Plisetskaya’s mother, was also no stranger to art.
"Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya"
Her oriental appearance attracted directors, and Ra Messerer also starred in silent sentimental films in the roles of reborn Uzbek women. Only the father was far from an elegant craft and occupied completely earthly administrative positions. In 1932, he was appointed consul general and head of the coal mines in Spitsbergen. On this harsh island, little Maya made her stage debut in Dargomyzhsky’s opera “Rusalka”, which the inhabitants of the local Russian colony were able to master, while away the endless winter evenings. The role of the Little Mermaid went to the red-haired daughter of the Consul General.
It's hard to say what's in to a greater extent determines the choice life path, especially if it concerns a very young creature, but our heroine literally tormented her parents all day long with requests for admission to a choreographic school. Finally, the father was given leave, and upon arrival in Moscow in 1934, the girl was assigned to ballet school to the class of former Bolshoi Theater soloist Evgenia Ivanovna Dolinskaya. However, Maya’s first “dancing” year did not last long, her parents had to return to Spitsbergen, and, despite the abundance of relatives, there was no one to leave her daughter with in Moscow.
The new polar winter on the island lasted especially slowly for the girl; Maya was very homesick for her favorite pastime, which seemed so easily acquired and so quickly taken away. And as soon as spring came, the father, seeing his daughter’s languor, decided to send the girl with the first ice drift to Mainland. Maya fell behind her class, and her new teacher turned out to be Elizaveta Pavlovna Gerdt - a nice, gentle, even person - as Plisetskaya herself writes about her. “But Gerdt’s nature did not let go of her analytical wisdom and professional clairvoyance. She saw that this was right and that was not, but she could not explain, teach what, how, why, “write out a prescription.” Throughout her dancing life, Maya Mikhailovna suffered from the fact that she did not receive a full-fledged, classical ballet education, and many discoveries at school had to be made at the cost of trial and error.
Studying at the choreographic school went on as usual: plié, fondue, big batmans, bloody fingers.
"Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya"
Meanwhile, the thirty-seventh was inexorably approaching, and he came to twelve-year-old Maya on April 30, a few hours before the May Day demonstration, for which the girl was joyfully preparing, he came at dawn, with the cast-iron weight of steps and a sudden, frightening bell. What follows is an ominously typical series of events of those years. Mother's arrest, father's execution, apartment sealed and nowhere to go...
Maya was sheltered by Aunt Shulamith, a ballet dancer, with whom her relationship was not easy. On the one hand, the girl owed her relative a lot: that Maya was not sent to an orphanage, that she had the opportunity to continue to do what she loved. On the other hand, Shulamith "...in retribution for good, every day, every day, she painfully humiliated me." The Plisetsky family fell apart, Maya’s childhood ended. Brother Alexander stayed to live with Uncle Asaph.
Thanks to kind people - the switchwoman at the station, at whose feet Rachel threw a note from the prison carriage at her feet - Maya managed to find out about her mother's fate. The former film actress, the wife of the former consul general, was exiled to Shymkent. The great ballerina Plisetskaya learned about her father’s fate only in 1989 from a meager certificate of rehabilitation.
And the ballet lived its own, beautiful, vibrant life, far from reality and the horrors of the Gulag. Choreographic students participated in the current repertoire of the Bolshoi. Maya danced the baby fairy in "The Sleeping Beauty" and the flowers in "The Snow Maiden", willingly ran to rehearsals of the main troupe and watched with bated breath the perfection of the arabesques of the touring performer from Leningrad - the divine Ulanova. On June 21, 1941, Maya Plisetskaya made a successful debut at the school’s graduation concert, accompanied by the Bolshoi Orchestra on the stage of the branch with Tchaikovsky’s “Impromptus.” “The Moscow audience received the number enthusiastically. Perhaps it was, dare we say, the peak of the concert. We bowed endlessly. Mother was in the hall, and I was able to see her happy eyes beaming from the box of the benoir.”
Yes, just before the war, fate unexpectedly smiled on their family - Rachel returned from exile with her little brother, born in the summer of 1937.
"Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya"
After Chimkent, she settled with Maya near Shulamith. And every evening Rachel installed a cot at the very door of the tiny room in which the four of them lived - there was no way to take the middle brother from Asaf. However, real hardships came with the war. Thanks to the efforts of Shulamith, the Plisetskys managed to evacuate to Sverdlovsk, where 14 people were crammed into the cramped three-room apartment of a modest engineer. Now Maya’s main activity has become queues - with three-digit numbers on their hands, with rare but violent quarrels, with the detached eyes of her companions along a long, dull row. And the slower the countless queues moved, the faster time flew, the more panic seized Plisetskaya. For a year now she lived without training, without ballet. Maya was stung even more painfully by the information reaching Sverdlovsk that classes at her native school were continuing.
In desperation, Plisetskaya decided on an act that was insane according to wartime laws - she made her way to Moscow without a pass and, despite missing a year, was accepted into the only graduating class of Maria Mikhailovna Leontyeva. Plisetskaya’s reward for perseverance and dedication to ballet was an “A” on the exam in the spring of 1943 and enrollment in the Bolshoi Theater troupe.
She started with the corps de ballet, with one of the eight nymphs in the opera “Ivan Susanin”. Of course, the ambitious debutante was offended, worried, and tried to turn to the help of her relatives: “I haven’t danced in the corps de ballet before...” However, Uncle Asaf was inexorable and short: “And now you will.”
“I couldn’t disobey, but I protested. I stood on my toes instead of my fingers, danced without makeup, and didn’t warm myself up before starting.”
To keep herself in good shape, Plisetskaya willingly participated in concerts in Moscow clubs. Here she let her soul out, danced whatever she wanted: “The Dying Swan”, “Melody” by Gluck, “Elegy” by Rachmaninov. The stages were most often cramped, narrow, cold, but it was they, nameless, similar to one another, with dim lighting and hasty dressing, that gave the ballerina Plisetskaya self-confidence, and they brought considerable livelihood.
"Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya"
For many years, already a recognized ballet prima, Plisetskaya turned to these club scenes when financial difficulties arose, and invariably these “leftist” concerts helped her out.
For the first time success in the theater came to Maya Mikhailovna in “Chopinian”. Each jump of the young ballerina, in which she hung fantastically in the air for a moment, caused thunderous applause. The first fans appeared, some balletomanes already came “to Plisetskaya”. One day, after Chopiniana, the famous Vaganova approached Maya. The rehearsal with the renowned teacher transformed Plisetskaya; it was the springboard from which our heroine ascended to the ballet Olympus.
By the end of the war, by the time the theater stars returned to the Bolshoi, Plisetskaya had already firmly established her name among the most promising artists.
The ballerina was childishly happy when, after the premiere of “Raymonda,” her photographs and a small note about the new dancer appeared on the pages of “Ogonyok.”
The ballet “Swan Lake” played a decisive role in Plisetskaya’s life. On what stages, in what cities, did Maya Mikhailovna dance her Odile-Odette? More than eight hundred times... Thirty years - 1947-1977... “I believed and still believe that “Swan” - touchstone for every ballerina. In this ballet you will never hide, you will not hide anything. Everything is in the palm of your hand... the whole palette of colors and technical tests, the art of transformation, the drama of the finale. Ballet requires the expression of all mental and physical strength. You can’t dance “Swan” in full. Every time after this ballet I felt empty, turned inside out. Strength returned only on the second or third day."
World fame came to Plisetskaya back in those years when she, because of the omnipotent Soviet KGB was considered “not allowed to travel abroad.” For five years, Maya Mikhailovna was deleted from the list of guest performers, for five years she visited the offices of security officers and party leaders, five years of humiliation, petitions and constant refusal without explanation.
"Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya"
But Sol Hurok, the famous American impresario, is already planning the repertoire of future tours, all high-ranking foreign guests are already being taken “to see Plisetskaya”, and Aragon, the famous French poet, is already threatening to talk about the ballerina and her misfortunes with Khrushchev himself on his next visit to the USSR. But only in 1959, when the hated KGB chief Serov was replaced by a more loyal boss, Plisetskaya was finally included in a seventy-day tour of the United States. This is how the worldwide fame of the Russian ballerina began.
Plisetskaya met her husband Rodion Shchedrin in the house of Lily Brik in 1955 at one of the receptions held in honor of Gerard Philip's arrival in Moscow. But the fleeting meeting only three years later grew into true love. After the premiere of Spartak, Shchedrin called Maya Mikhailovna and asked to come to her class. Well, in the evening there was a trip to Moscow, in the summer - a vacation in Karelia, and in the fall - a car trip to the sea, and since then they have not parted for more than forty years. In August 1958, our heroine became pregnant. She faced a difficult choice - to give birth to a loved one and quit ballet or continue dancing. She chose the second path.
The ballets that Plisetskaya calls “mine” are also associated with Shchedrin’s name. When she was thoroughly fed up with the old, centuries-old repertoire - “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Don Quixote”, “Swan Lake” - Maya Mikhailovna began to think about her passions - what else could she dance. “The thought of Carmen lived in me constantly - either smoldering somewhere in the depths, or imperiously rushing out. No matter who I talked about my dreams with, the image of Carmen appeared first...”
At first, Plisetskaya wanted to captivate Shostakovich with this idea, but Dmitry Dmitrievich refused, citing the fact that Bizet’s music is so strong that any new interpretation famous story about the gypsy will only irritate. Then Rodion Shchedrin got down to business. He found the only correct option. Keeping Shostakovich's words in mind, Shchedrin preserved the French composer's music as much as possible, adapting it to a choreographic interpretation.
This is how Carmen Suite appeared. The ballet, for which Plisetskaya fought for a long time with the powers that be, defending her right to creativity, was staged by Cuban Alberto Alonso.
The first experience led to new ones. In 1971, Plisetskaya began rehearsals for Anna Karenina, the music of which was also written by Shchedrin. The idea for this ballet was suggested, oddly enough, by Jacqueline Kennedy. Admiring Maya Mikhailovna on tour in the United States, the wife of the American president was amazed at how much the great Russian ballerina resembled Tolstoy’s heroine. Tolstoy was followed by Chekhov - the ballets "The Seagull" and "The Lady with the Dog".
One can only envy Maya Plisetskaya’s social life. She was a close friend of Lily Brik, and was friends with Brik's sister Elsa Triolet and her husband Aragon. Plisetskaya’s portrait was painted by Chagall, ballets were staged for her by Maurice Béjart, and she was vying with each other for invitations to receptions by presidents, prime ministers and kings. Robert Kennedy, having learned that Plisetskaya had a birthday on the same day as him, during his lifetime, every year, no matter where the great ballerina was at that time, he invariably sent her a basket of flowers and a gift. Pierre Cardin made Plisetskaya's own costumes for "Anna Karenina" and "The Seagull" free of charge. And behind all this is a favorite thing and a loved one. Perhaps this is the secret of Maya Plisetskaya’s eternal youth.
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Dear friends! Today's post is about Maya Plisetskaya - an outstanding world-famous prima of Russian ballet, one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, a true legend of ballet art. Her performances embody the magic of breathtaking dance. She alone deserved the longest standing ovation from the public on all continents. Many years of experience performing on the best stages around the world confirms: Maya Mikhailovna is a real genius and one of the brightest and most talented representatives of ballet art.
Time is not subject to her: at thirty, and forty, and at fifty, she was always young and beautiful woman, getting better year after year. Even at the age of 70, Plisetskaya came out to her adoring public to dance on pointe shoes, which is an absolute ballet record! At the same time, she looked stunning and magnificent, which caused a storm of applause and applause from the audience. 
Obviously, dancers never grow old and perhaps only they know the secrets of maintaining vital youth. There is no doubt that the innermost secrets of Maya Plisetskaya’s eternal youth elevated her to the rank of a divine, unattainable, semi-mythical ballerina who became the object of worship for an entire generation. All women in the world would also like to stay young longer. However, contrary to wishes, time destroys the human body, quietly taking away youth. Probably, only a strong inner glow gave her a powerful creative vitality and an ever-burning fire in her soul.
Maya Plisetskaya. early years
Maya Plisetskaya was born into a family where only her mother was associated with creativity. She acted in silent films. My father worked in coal mines. In 1932, he was appointed consul general and director of mines on the northern island of Spitsbergen, where he moved with his entire family. Despite young age, little Maya loved to dance. She even took part in staging an opera for residents of the Russian colony, who were not at all spoiled by theatrical spectacles. Maya loved performing and constantly asked her parents to send her to ballet school. But the dream was destined to come true only in 1934, when the family was able to return from the island to Moscow. Her first mentor was former soloist Bolshoi Theater Evgenia Dolinskaya. With great joy, the girl began to learn the basics of ballet, but soon her parents had to return back to the harsh polar archipelago of Spitsbergen. Despite the fact that they had relatives in Moscow, the parents did not leave the girl in their care, and she again left Moscow with them to the north.
The new Arctic winter on the island lasted especially slowly for Maya. She longed to dance, but it was more like a hobby. Seeing his daughter’s longing for ballet, the father sent his daughter to the mainland with the onset of spring and the first drifting ice. It’s natural that Maya had to catch up with her classmates, because she missed so much. And her new teacher (Elizabeth Gerdt), an experienced teacher, whose wisdom and professionalism allowed her to see great talent in the little girl, helped her in this. She could no longer simply let Maya go.
Hard work yielded results, but throughout its long creative activity Maya Mikhailovna always regretted that she could not receive a full, classical ballet education. She had to discover a lot in ballet dance on her own, through her own trials, mistakes and wounds on her feet.
She studied very hard, without missing a single lesson. And it seemed that all the most beautiful things awaited her ahead. However, the plans again were not destined to come true. The events of 1937 suddenly burst into the family. On the eve of the joyful May Day celebrations, for which young Maya was enthusiastically preparing, strangers in boots and with a frightening look burst into the house in the silence of dawn. And behind them is the usual ominous scenario of the thirties: the arrest of father and mother, eviction from the apartment into nowhere. So Maya’s childhood ended suddenly and their family disappeared.
The girl ended up with a family of relatives, with Aunt Sulamith, who herself was also a ballerina. According to the memoirs of Maya Mikhailovna, it was very difficult for her, because her aunt often insulted her. However, thanks to her, the girl did not live in orphanage and could do what she loved - dance in ballet.
Much later, with the help good people Maya managed to collect information about the fate of her mother. The once successful actress, the wife of the former consul general, was sent into exile in Kazakhstan. About Father Maya for a long time I didn’t know anything, and only in 1989 the great ballerina, with a certificate of rehabilitation, received an answer to a question that had been tormenting her for a long time - her father was not alive, he was shot back in 1937.
Despite the harsh realities of life and the horrors of those years, Moscow ballet life did not stop, the theater lived rich life, painting it with multi-colored paints. Students of the choreographic school were actively involved in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater. The young ballerina Maya Plisetskaya was entrusted with dancing parts in the ballets “The Sleeping Beauty” and “The Snow Maiden”; she also willingly rehearsed the main parts. But most of all she enjoyed the dances of the divine Galina Ulanova, whom she watched with bated breath, hiding behind an arabesque.
Maya Plisetskaya. "Sleeping Beauty" by Tchaikovsky
Maya Plisetskaya. Creation
On the last peaceful day of the forty-first year, Maya Plisetskaya made her first debut in front of the discerning Moscow public at the final concert, which took place at the Bolshoi Drama Theater. Before the applause had time to subside, the need to leave Moscow again arose. In wartime conditions, she was evacuated to Sverdlovsk, where work and study were once again interrupted, since there was nowhere to study in the city and there was no ballet. Despairing from the hopeless situation, Plisetskaya decided to return to the capital on her own without permission. She did not regret the lost time, she wanted to dance and therefore went to study again and entered the class of Maria Leontyeva. In the spring of forty-three, Maya passed the final exam with an A, this opened the way for her to work at the Bolshoi Theater. 
Maya has always strived for perfect dance and therefore constantly worked on myself. Except big stage she did not hesitate to work in small clubs, the stages of which were often poorly equipped, small in size, cold and poorly lit. After such performances, Maya became more confident in herself, and they were well paid, which gave her the opportunity to solve her financial problems. Every performance of the young ballerina on any stage, every jump seemed fantastic and caused a storm of applause. Maya Plisetskaya had her first admirers and admirers.
The ballerina's career took off sharply. Rehearsals with the famous Vaganov became a springboard to Olympus for the ballerina. By the end of the war, Maya had firmly established herself as one of the most promising ballet dancers. Her photographs appeared on the pages of magazines, they talked and wrote about her in the press. The ballet “Swan Lake” finally secured her the title of an outstanding ballerina. 
Maya Plisetskaya. World fame
And then she came and world fame. Although for Plisetskaya this was also another test, because for five years she was excluded from all foreign tours, without explaining the reasons. 
And only after the change in the leadership of the KGB in 1959, she was able to go with the troupe to tour across America. This is how her world fame began.
It was also significant for Maya to meet Rodion Shchedrin. Three years after their first meeting, he became her husband, and then helped make her dreams come true on stage. Many works and realized passions in the dance of Maya Plisetskaya are associated with his name. This is how the idea of Carmen was born and the “Carmen Suite” appeared. Then there were Anna Karenina, the music for which was also written by Shchedrin, The Seagull and The Lady with the Dog.
Maya Plisetskaya was idolized by the whole world. She was invited to presidential receptions and royal balls. Robert Kennedy sent her flowers every year 
birthday anywhere globe, and Pierre Cardin personally sewed suits for her. On her 80th birthday, the Financial Times wrote the following about her: “She was and remains a ballet star... a torch, a burning beacon in a world of dim talent, a beauty in a world of grace.”
Confident in her creativity, the brilliant Maya Plisetskaya knows her worth, the world knows her worth - she has absolute talent, brilliant in dance, brave and proud in life and forever young. She is 88 years old - she does not flirt in public and looks great. Today she continues to work with young artists in Switzerland, Japan, and Germany. The whole world adores her, and she pays him back in kind. And behind all this is a favorite thing, love for people and their mutual feeling for her.
Maya Plisetskaya. Dying Swan
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