- Women
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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 the half-mythical, half-historical heroines knew him. The secret of “eternal youth” elevated any woman into the ranks of the divine, unattainable, and made her an object of worship. And how many ladies would give all the treasures of the world, all the lovers, all the blessings for the sake of one thing - never to grow old. And how many ladies “died” on the battlefield with age, how many tragedies this struggle knows, how many ruined destinies, how much drama and comedy 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 all over the world.” 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 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 when it comes to 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 class former soloist Bolshoi Theater 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 yearning, decided to send the girl with the first ice drift to the 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 her successful debut at the school’s graduation concert, accompanied by the Bolshoi Orchestra on the stage of the branch with Tchaikovsky’s “Impromptu.” “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 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” is a touchstone for every ballerina. In this ballet you can never hide, you can’t hide anything. palms... the whole palette of colors and technical tests, the art of transformation, the drama of the finale. The ballet requires the exertion of all mental and physical strength. Every time after this ballet, I felt empty, my strength returned. second, third day."
World fame came to Plisetskaya back in the years when she was considered “not allowed to travel abroad” due to the all-powerful Soviet KGB. 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 Plisetskaya”, already Aragon, the famous French poet, on his next visit to the USSR, he threatens to talk about the ballerina and her misfortunes with Khrushchev himself. 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 it began worldwide fame Russian ballerina.
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 had to difficult choice- 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. Remembering Shostakovich’s words, Shchedrin preserved the music as much as possible French composer, 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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Biography and episodes of life Maya Plisetskaya. When born and died Maya Plisetskaya, memorable places and dates important events her life. Ballerina Quotes, photos and videos.
Years of life of Maya Plisetskaya:
born November 20, 1925, died May 2, 2015
Epitaph
"Harmony and beauty
Her divine movements
Will never happen again.
She is a unique genius!”
From a poem by Lyudmila Leader, dedicated to memory Maya Plisetskaya
Biography
The unsurpassed prima donna of the Bolshoi Theater, ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, spent more than 60 years on stage. Original dance technique and natural grace allowed Maya Mikhailovna to achieve great success in the field theatrical arts. The ballerina is mainly famous as a performer of the roles of Anna Karenina, Carmen, and Juliet, but Plisetskaya’s actual track record is much broader. It is enough to note that in “Swan Lake” alone the ballerina danced more than 800 times.
The desire to become a ballerina haunted Maya Plisetskaya since early childhood. However, tragic reversals of fate, oddly enough, contributed to this. Before the start of World War II, she actually lost her parents: her father was convicted and shot as a political criminal, her mother was exiled to a camp for the wives of traitors to the motherland in Kazakhstan. As a result, the girl remained in the care of her aunt Shulamith Messerer, a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, who later helped Maya take the first timid steps towards her dream.
After graduating from the Moscow Choreographic School, Plisetskaya easily joined the Bolshoi Theater troupe and very soon established herself there as a soloist. The next 50 years in the life of Maya Plisetskaya were inextricably linked with the most prestigious theater in the capital. However, foreign tours were not long in coming either. Moreover, foreign directors were seriously and persistently interested in Plisetskaya’s work. She was no longer invited to play roles - entire performances were staged around her.
After the collapse of the USSR, Maya Plisetskaya spent most of her time abroad. She worked as an artistic director in theaters in Rome and Madrid, acted as a choreographer and stage director, conducted master classes, and collaborated with luminaries of theatrical art in holding festivals and gala concerts. Creative image the great ballerina is recorded in the works of contemporary artists and film directors. Plisetskaya is the author of three collections of memoirs. For her unprecedented contribution to the development of culture and art, the ballerina was awarded dozens of awards, prizes, titles and orders.
The unexpected death of Maya Plisetskaya occurred on May 2, 2015. The artist died in Germany, in Munich, where she lived with her husband Rodion Shchedrin most of the time. The cause of Plisetskaya's death was a heart attack. Farewell to Plisetskaya took place in Germany in the circle of family and friends. According to the diva’s published will, after Shchedrin’s death, their ashes will be mixed together and scattered over Russia.
Life line
November 20, 1925 Date of birth of Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya.
1932 Moving to Spitsbergen due to a change in his father’s occupation.
1941 Evacuation to Sverdlovsk with Aunt Shulamith Messerer.
1943 Graduated from the Moscow Choreographic School and entered the Bolshoi Theater troupe.
1958 Marriage to composer Rodion Shchedrin.
1960 Confirmation of the status of prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater.
1983 Appointment to the position of artistic director of the Rome Opera.
1988 Appointment to the position of artistic director of the Spanish National Ballet.
1990 Dismissal from the Bolshoi Theater.
1994 Establishment of the annual ballet competition "Maya".
May 2, 2015 Date of death of Maya Plisetskaya.
Memorable places
1. Moscow Choreographic School, where Maya Plisetskaya studied.
2. Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, where Plisetskaya worked.
3. The city of Trakai in Lithuania, where Plisetskaya’s country house is located.
4. Rome Opera, where the ballerina worked.
5. Street portrait of Maya Plisetskaya (on the wall of house No. 16, building 2 on Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street), created by Brazilian artists Eduardo Cobra and Agnaldo Brito.
6. Spitsbergen Archipelago in Norway, where Plisetskaya lived with her family in the 30s.
7. The city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), where Plisetskaya lived in the 40s.
8. The city of Munich, where the artist lived since the 90s. and where she died.
9. Museum-workshop of Zurab Tsereteli in Moscow, where a monument to Plisetskaya is erected.
Episodes of life
Maya Plisetskaya was married to famous composer Rodion Shchedrin, but the couple had no children. In the early 2000s. the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper tried to refute this fact, publishing a sensational article “Hello, I am the daughter of Maya Plisetskaya.” However, the Moscow City Court refuted the false information: according to the court, Plisetskaya really had no heirs left.
When Plisetskaya became the leading soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, a split occurred in the troupe: the ballerina gradually entered into opposition to the main choreographer of the theater, and the artists, in turn, dispersed into “support groups.” So, under the unspoken auspices of confrontation, the work in the team took place until Maya was finally fired. True, the public did not approve of the dismissal of the legendary ballerina, and Maya did not have to “stand idle”: a lot of interesting offers awaited her abroad.
Covenant
“I never liked training or rehearsing. However, in lately I began to think that this was what ultimately extended my stage career: I danced two or even three times longer than I should have. Maybe because my legs weren’t worn out.”
Legendary performances of Maya Plisetskaya
Condolences
“It’s hard to talk about it, I can’t wrap my head around it yet. Just the other day we met with Maya Mikhailovna in Moscow, discussed the celebration of her anniversary on November 20, and planned to hold a grand gala concert in her honor. Maya Mikhailovna was in perfect health, and there was no sign of trouble.”
Vladimir Urin, general manager Bolshoi Theater of Moscow
“Maya Plisetskaya is no longer with us. But the legendary Carmen, Odette-Odile, and Raymonda remained. Her Dance remains. Deep condolences to Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin and all Maya Mikhailovna’s loved ones.”
Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Russia
Dear friends! Today's post is about Maya Plisetskaya - an outstanding international famous example 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 at best scenes the whole 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 age 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 her 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 Bolshoi Theater soloist 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 couldn't just 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 an 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. Maya knew nothing about her father for a long time, and only in 1989, with a certificate of rehabilitation, the great ballerina 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 a rich life, painting it with multi-colored colors. 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 she worked and studied in once again interrupted because there was nowhere to study in the city and there was no ballet. Desperate from 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 her final exam with an A, this opened the way for her to work in Bolshoi Theater.
Maya always strived for the perfect dance and therefore constantly worked on herself. 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 world fame came. 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 on a tour of America with the troupe. 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 in the world, and Pierre Cardin personally sewed suits for her. On her 80th birthday, the Financial Times wrote 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
With respect and love to you Tatyana
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Biography, life story of Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya is a Russian ballerina, choreographer, and film actress.Vocation
Maya Plisetskaya was born on November 20, 1925 in Moscow, into an artistic and ballet family. Mom Ra Messerer was a silent film actress, and aunt and uncle Shulamith and Asaf Messerer were a virtuoso dancer and an excellent teacher, then stars of the Bolshoi Ballet, a favorite ballet couple. But Plisetskaya did not want to imitate her star relatives at all. She liked drama better. Her other aunt Elizabeth was a dramatic actress, often took her to the theater, and she absolutely loved it. Plisetskaya had a vocation for the stage: since childhood, she was interested in doing a role. Most likely, artistry is something that comes from nature. You can develop a step, you can develop a technique... But artistry cannot be developed in any form of art.
The colorful appearance of black-haired Rakhila Mikhailovna, Plisetskaya’s mother, during the times of the great silent era could not help but attract directors, and she was several times cast in the roles of... Uzbek women. The father of the future ballerina Plisetsky, Mikhail Emmanuilovich, far from the world of art, held quite earthly administrative positions: consul general on Spitsbergen, senior employee of Arktikugol.
Choreographic school
On the amateur stage on the harsh island of Spitsbergen, little Maya made her debut in the opera “Rusalka”. The tiny role was performed brilliantly and peace left the house forever. The young ballerina did not sit still for a minute, improvised, sang, danced, performing all the roles at the same time. And at the family council it was decided: upon returning to the capital, send the little fidget to a choreographic school. In 1934, the Plisetsky family came to Moscow on vacation and Maya was assigned to school in the class of former Bolshoi Theater soloist Evgenia Dolinskaya.
Maya was eleven when on the morning of May 1, 1937, security officers burst into the house and took Mikhail Plisetsky with them. He was shot a year after his arrest. And the mother was arrested right at the Bolshoi Theater during the performance of “The Sleeping Beauty,” in which Shulamith Messerer, little Maya’s aunt, danced. It was she who took her orphaned niece into her home, and Asaf Messerer sheltered her brother Sasha.
CONTINUED BELOW
Bolshoi Theater
On June 21, 1941, on the eve of the war, Maya successfully debuted at the school’s graduation concert, accompanied by the Bolshoi Theater orchestra on the stage of its branch. The Plisetsky family managed to evacuate to Sverdlovsk. She lived without a ballet barre for a whole year. And then she decided on a desperate act: without her mother’s consent and without a pass, she made her way to Moscow and was accepted into the graduating class of the school. The reward for his dedication to ballet was an “A” on the exam in the spring of 1943 and admission to the Bolshoi Theater troupe. In order not to lose shape, young ballerina began to participate in all imaginable and inconceivable concerts. Plisetskaya walked around almost all the concert and club stages, letting her soul out in solo parts.
From her first steps on the Bolshoi stage, the ballerina’s bright individuality manifested itself - extraordinary expressiveness, passion, and dynamics of dance. Success first came to her in Chopiniana, where she danced the mazurka. Each jump by Plisetskaya, in which she hung in the air for a moment, caused thunderous applause.
The actress only loved to dance, but did not want to work at all. And only later did she begin to understand how exciting, interesting, and creative the hard daily work of a ballerina can be. Step by step Plisetskaya rose to her main roles. In the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" she was the fairy Lilac, the fairy Violante and, finally, Aurora. In Don Quixote, she danced almost all the female parts, but the brilliantly performed role of Kitri became a discovery in the performing arts.
Movie
For the first time famous ballerina starred in a movie in early age. As a child, she played the role of Jane in Goodbye Mary Poppins. And then, of course, there were filmings in the ballet films “Swan Lake” and “The Tale of the Little Humpbacked Horse”, “Anna Karenina”. The prima of the Bolshoi Theater was invited to the film-opera “Khovanshchina”. The ballerina took an active part in the television adaptation of the ballets “Bolero” and “Isadora”, “The Seagull” and “The Lady with the Dog”. In 1974, Maya Plisetskaya and the Bolshoi Theater soloist Bogatyrev starred for television in the number “Nocturne” to music from the ballet “In the Night” by the outstanding American choreographer Jerome Robbins.
In the film adaptation of the novel “Anna Karenina” directed by Zarkha in 1968, Maya Plisetskaya played the role of Betsy. Plisetskaya-Betsy is a society lady who lives in big gulps. She already knows everything in advance, she knows the answers to all questions, she is bored. And yet she needs to continue to lead the way of life to which she is accustomed, because only on it does her only role in society rest, and only in this way can she realize herself as an individual. Plisetskaya coped brilliantly with the role, although she has little experience, and the specifics of cinema are very different from theater. True, the ballerina used to have text fragments in Bejart’s ballets. But all this is not the same. Betsy is the ballerina's debut in an academic film role. Then Maya Plisetskaya starred as singer Desiree in the film “” directed by Talankin. And director Vaitkus invited her to his film “Zodiac”, where she played Čiurlionis’ muse.
In 1976, director Efros invited the ballet star to the television film “Fantasy” based on the story “Spring Waters”. Maya Plisetskaya brilliantly played the role of Polozova. The action of the film was “commented” by choreographic duets staged by choreographer Elizariev.
Documentary films
Filmed about the great ballerina documentaries. The brightest of them: “Maya Plisetskaya” by Katanyan, “Maya Plisetskaya. Familiar and Unfamiliar" Galantera. The films “Maya” by Sakagushi for Japanese television and “Maya Plisetskaya” by Deluch for French television are also dedicated to Plisetskaya’s work.
“Maya Plisetskaya assoluta” by Kapnist for French television, in which the director showed the great ballerina in dance, in the ceremonial dance of the great Plisetskaya! And only the swan movements of her hands, which made her famous throughout the world, remained unchanged...
Actually, the ballerina thought that she had to dance with her whole body. Everything is involved in the dance - legs, body, head, and, of course, arms. Each ballerina searches for these wings in her own way. Yes, yes, every ballerina should have her own... “It’s important to dance to the music, not to the music”,” said Maya Plisetskaya. You can sum up Plisetskaya’s creative motto: don’t imitate anyone and turn music into movement. And indeed, the sketches made by her predecessors were not visible in her dance. As for music, she knew how to “react” to the solo of any musical instrument in the orchestra, emphasizing musical accents not only by turning her body or waving her hand, but even by looking at her or moving her eyebrow.
Personal life
In 1956, fate brought Maya Plisetskaya together with the Latvian ballet dancer Maris Liepa. Passionate about a common cause, they fell passionately in love with each other and quickly got married. However, very soon they realized that they had made a terrible mistake, and divorced three months after the wedding.
The second husband of the brilliant Maya is a composer. Having met while visiting, the composer and ballerina did not seem to be too interested in each other. Maybe the age difference scared you away? IN in this case Plisetskaya turned out to be seven years older, but three years later they began dating and spent a vacation together in Karelia. And in October 1958 they got married. "He extended my creative life for at least twenty-five years", - Plisetskaya said about her husband. They were never bored with each other. Despite the protests, Maya Mikhailovna at one time did not dare to give birth to a child and quit the stage. Maya became pregnant at the very beginning of their family life, but she categorically refused to give birth and had an abortion. Ballet won again...
“Ballet requires, among other things, a wonderful physique and excellent physical condition, - justified her. – After childbirth, revolutionary changes occur to any woman. Many ballerinas have lost their profession...".
80-90s
Maya Plisetskaya's performance style has become a generally accepted canon... In 1983, there was an unexpected turn in the prima's fate: she was offered to become the artistic director of the Rome Opera ballet. While visiting Rome on short visits, Maya Plisetskaya held this post for a year and a half. During this time, she staged “Raymonda” for the open stage in the Baths of Caracalla, showed her “Isadora” on the stage of the Roman Opera, and organized the revival of “Phaedra”.
On January 4, 1990, Maya Plisetskaya danced her last performance at the Bolshoi Theater - “The Lady with the Dog.” Long-standing disagreements with artistic direction ballet troupe led to the ballerina leaving the Bolshoi Theater.
Plisetskaya lived in three houses
Home for Maya Mikhailovna is, first of all, Moscow, her apartment. When she went there, she always thought: “Here I go home”. She and her husband also lived in Munich, where they rented an apartment. Besides, it’s time to admit that there’s no escape – there are excellent doctors there. And in Germany there is the best publishing house in the world, “Schott,” which has copyrights for the works of , and other composers, and which publishes the works of . Everywhere is good. And Lithuania is her mother’s homeland: she was born in Vilnius. They lived in Trakai, in a small village, in their house for many, many years. And they loved this wonderful country, they loved its people. And, probably, they reciprocated. Work in Trakai is perfect, I wrote so much there...
Plisetskaya left Russia after the collapse of the USSR in order to return here for competitions named after her and anniversaries. Maya Plisetskaya knew her worth no less than the world knows her worth. An absolute woman and an absolute talent, proud and daring, brilliant and unfading, she saw no point in coquetry.
The simple philosophy of a great ballerina
Probably, someday a feature film will be made about the outstanding ballerina Maya Plisetskaya: her biography is rich in stories that cannot simply be made up. The ballerina herself made no secret of her life, having written her first book of memoirs, “I, Maya Plisetskaya,” stunning in revelation and brilliant in style. What are these lines worth: “What else are you interested in knowing about me, reader? That I'm left-handed and do everything with my left hand? That I've suffered from insomnia all my life? That I've always been conflicted? Did you get into trouble in vain? That two poles were combined in me - I could be wasteful and greedy, brave and cowardly, a queen and a modest one? That I preferred nourishing face creams and loved to smear them thickly and play solitaire in the kitchen? What was an ardent football fan? That she loved herring, affectionately calling it “herring”? That I never smoked and didn’t favor smokers, that a glass of wine gave me a headache? Throughout my life, I have learned a simple philosophy. Simple, like a mug of water, like a breath of air. People are not divided into classes, races, government systems. People are divided into good and bad. The very good and the very bad. And that’s the only way.”.
...As if personal enemy, Maya Plisetskaya hated the Soviet regime, which, on the one hand, honored her, and on the other, tyrannized her, did not let her go abroad for years, spied and tried to stop her from dancing what she wanted. And it would be nice to be born in Canada or Luxembourg. But she was born in Moscow. To the kingdom
Maya Plisetskaya died at the age of 89 - biography of the great ballerina, Rodion Shchedrin, Plisetskaya’s family and children. The famous diet of the Russian ballet legend.
Maya Mikhailovna was born on November 20, 1925 in Moscow, in the family of the famous businessman Mikhail Plisetsky and his wife, silent film actress Rachel Messerer. It is known that in 1932-1936 she lived on the Spitsbergen archipelago, where her father worked as the head of Artikugol, after which he was appointed to the post of Consul General of the USSR. On the night of May 1, 1938, Maya Plisetskaya’s father was arrested and shot that same year (however, during Khrushchev's thaw he was rehabilitated). Maya’s mother, Rachel Messerer, was arrested a year after her husband and, together with the ballerina’s younger brother, was sent to Butyrka prison in Moscow. Later she was deported to Kazakhstan, and the Akmola camp was for the wives of traitors.
Maya and her two brothers were not sent to orphanage– they were taken in by their maternal aunt, Shulamith Messerer. Plisetskaya's mother was able to return to Moscow just a few months before the start of the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. In September 1941, the family evacuated to Sverdlovsk, where they stayed for a year. it was there that Plisetskaya played for the first time in The Dying Swan, although there were no great opportunities for ballet classes in Sverdlovsk. In 1943, she graduated from the Moscow Choreographic School and was immediately accepted into the Bolshoi Theater troupe, where she had the status of prima ballerina.
In 1944, Maya received main role Masha in the play “The Nutcracker”, in 1945 she performed the part as the Autumn Fairy in Prokofiev’s “Cinderella”.
1947 - for the first time she danced Odette and Odile in Tchaikovsky's production of Swan Lake, and in 1948 she made her debut in The Bakhchisarai Fountain, Maya performed the role of Zarema. 
Plisetskaya took part in such productions as “Giselle” (Adolphe Charles Adam), “Don Quixote” (Ludwig Minkus), “The Little Humpbacked Horse” (Rodion Shchedrin), “The Sleeping Beauty” (Tchaikovsky), “Raymond” (Alexander Glazunov) . In addition, she participated in three productions of the ballet “Spartacus” by Aram Khachaturian (1958 and 1971 as Aegina, 1962 as Phrygia). In 1961, Maya Mikhailovna’s repertoire included the ballet Romeo and Juliet, staged by Sergei Prokofiev. And in 1965, Plisetskaya played the first role in the ballet “The Legend of Love” (Arif Melikov). 
In 1960, Maya Plisetskaya replaced the departed Galina Ulanova at the Bolshoi Theater as the first ballerina. She expressed a desire to dance not only classical productions, but also modern ballet performances.
1967, April 20 - the first production of “Carmen Suite” (Bizet - Shchedrin), staged especially for Plisetskaya, took place on the Bolshoi stage. The ballet was a stunning success, becoming one of the world's ballet performers and was even filmed in 1969 and 1978.
In 1972, Plisetskaya danced Anna Karenina in the production of the same name by her husband, Rodion Shchedrin. In addition, in Anna Karenina she tries herself as a choreographer for the first time. In 1980, Plisetskaya independently staged Rodion Shchedrin’s ballet “The Seagull” on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. 
In 1983, Maya Mikhailovna received a very tempting offer to become artistic director of the Rome Opera Ballet. She worked on that stage for only a year and a half, but managed to stage “Isadora,” updated “Phaedra” and staged “Raymonda” for the open stage (1984).
1987 - 1990, Plisetskaya worked most of the time in Spain, where she was the director of the Teatro Lirico Nacional ballet troupe. She staged and renewed “ A futile precaution"(Peter Hertel, choreographer Alexander Gorsky), "Carmen Suite". 
Plisetskaya worked very closely with Montserrat Caballe for some time. On her initiative, she took an active part in the production of the ballet-opera “Willis” (Giacomo Puccini), the performance was first shown during the art festival in Perelada (Catalonia, Spain).
In 1988, the great ballerina danced in the ballet “Mary Stuart” (Emilio de Diego), staged especially for her. She performed her last role in 1990 – “Lady with a Dog”. That same year, she left the Bolshoi due to strong disagreements with management.
However, her career did not end there. She continues to work closely with many world choreographers, including the Marseille Ballet from Roland Petit and the 20th Century Ballet from Maurice Béjart. In 1992, Plisetskaya performed the main role. In "The Madwoman of Chaillot" on the stage of "Espace Pierre Cardin". In 1994, on the stage of the Alexander Theater in St. Petersburg, Maya Plisetskaya became a member of the jury at the First International ballet competition"Mayan". She herself formed the composition of the competition.
In 1995, Maya Mikhailovna became honorary president of the Imperial Russian Ballet troupe.
Plisetskaya was the author of several autobiographical books, including “I, Maya Plisetskaya,” published in 1994, “Thirteen Years Later: Angry Notes in Thirteen Chapters” (2007), and “Reading My Life” (2010). “I, Maya Plisetskaya” has been translated into 11 world languages and has gone through several reprints. Natalya Roslavleva dedicated a book to her work in the book of the same name.
She was awarded a great many awards, including People's Artist of the USSR (1959), holder of three Orders of Lenin (1067, 1976, 1985), Order of the Legion of Honor (France, 1986), "Order of Isabella the Catholic" (1991, award received from King of Spain), " Gold medal Arts" (1991, Spain) and many others.
In 1994, the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy assigned the name of Maya Plisetskaya to minor planet No. 4626.
Plisetskaya’s life ended on May 2, 2015 in Munich, where she and her husband Rodion Shchedrin left in 1991. Official reason death was declared as a heart attack.
Maya Plisetskaya - personal life, Rodion Shchedrin, family and children. In her own memoirs, Plisetskaya mentioned relationships with Esfendyar Kashani and Vyacheslav Golubin. In 1956, she was the wife of Maris Liepa for three months, but the hasty marriage also quickly fell apart. In 1958 she married Rodion Shchedrin, with whom she lived until her death. They were not only loving spouses, but also colleagues. Shchedrin staged numerous productions, where the main roles were performed by Maya Plisetskaya. The couple had no children. At the very beginning of their marriage, Plisetskaya became pregnant by Shchedrin, but had an abortion.
Maya Plisetskaya - famous diet. As she really didn’t exist, Plisetskaya stuck to the basics proper nutrition. Once, when asked by journalists about her magnificent appearance and the secret of her beauty, Plisetskaya replied: “I’m sitting on a meal!” 
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