Biography of Maya Plisetskaya - the great Russian ballerina

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya is a great ballerina and an amazing woman. Whatever epithets she was awarded: divine, unsurpassed, ballerina-element, “genius, courage and avant-garde” (an expression of the French ballet critic A. F. Ersen). And it's all about her.

The future ballerina Maya Plisetskaya was born in Moscow on November 20, 1925. Her parents were silent film actress Rachel Messeser-Plisetskaya and diplomat Mikhail Plisetsky. The father was repressed and shot in 1937, and in 1938 the mother and her little son also ended up in prison on Butyrka. Maya was taken in by her aunt, Shulamith Messeser, and her younger brother was taken in by her uncle, Asaf Messeser. Both of them were outstanding ballet dancers.

Maya Plisetskaya's biography began as a ballerina at the age of 9, when the girl became a student of the Moscow School of Choreography. She immediately attracted the attention of teachers with her natural physical data, musicality and temperament, ideal for ballet. She was entrusted with leading roles in educational productions.

During the war, she graduated from college and April 1, 1943 became a ballerina of the Bolshoitheater. The biography of Maya Plisetskaya at the Bolshoi did not always go smoothly. At first, she was enrolled in the corps de ballet, despite the fact that, as a student, she danced solo parts on the stage of a branch of the country's main theater. Then the young graduate began to participate in national concerts. At this moment, her "Dying Swan" (Saint-Saens) was born, the ballerina's signature number throughout her stage life. About her performance of this dance, Plisetskaya said: “It is important to dance to music, and not to music.”

For the first time in the main role on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, Maya Plisetskaya appeared as Masha in The Nutcracker (music by Tchaikovsky) in 1942. True, it was a replacement for sick performers, but thanks to this role, she was noticed. Soon, the debutante began to be given roles in ballet performances: Giselle (first one of the jeeps, and then Mirtha, 1944), the autumn fairy in Prokofiev's Cinderella (1945), the main role in Glazunov's Raymonda (1945), Odette-Odile in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. The biography of Maya Plisetskaya is marked by a mention that this role has become central not only in her career, but in the entire repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater. All heads of foreign governments, presidents and kings were brought to Swan Lake with Plisetskaya in the title role. This performance was known all over the world, and the audience instantly sold out tickets as soon as they read the inscription on the posters: “Maya Plisetskaya.”

Her biography as a ballerina further developed rapidly: Zarema in the Fountain of Bakhchisarai (music Asafiev), the Tsar Maiden in The Little Humpbacked Horse (music Puni), several roles in Don Quixote (music. Minkus).

She was given the title of first Honored, and then People's Artist of the USSR.

Unfortunately, the biography of Maya Plisetskaya (the fact that she came from a family of enemies of the people) for a long time became an obstacle to her trips abroad. And the Bolshoi Theater toured without its prima. This continued until 1959, when, thanks to the efforts of her husband, composer Rodion Shchedrin (they got married in 1958 and continue to be a happy family to this day), she managed to take part in the US tour for the first time.

Another "life role" of Maya Plisetskaya can be called Carmen from the revolutionary ballet "Carmen Suite" (1967). The music was written by Shchedrin (a transcription of the famous opera by Bizet), the production was carried out by the Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso. For the first time, Moscow viewers saw a ballerina dancing not on her toes, but on her full foot. The performance, like everything new, was not accepted immediately. At first, Plisetskaya was accused of "betraying classical ballet", but over time, the performance gained success not only with ours, but also with the Spanish public, which was especially important for the inspirer and performer of the main role.

In the late eighties and early nineties, when much had changed in the country, Maya Plisetskaya began to work actively in Italy and Spain. In Moscow, she became president of the Imperial Russian Ballet. She toured a lot and worked at the invitation of theaters around the world.

Now Maya Mikhailovna mostly lives abroad, in Germany. She has received many foreign and Russian awards. Films have been made about her, books have been written, performances are being released in which she puts on dance numbers. She is 88, but she is still slim, fit and beautiful.