Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya
9 min read
Maya Plisetskaya (1925-2015) is one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. A Bolshoi prima ballerina for over fifty years, she brought extraordinary virtuosity to her roles in Carmen and Swan Lake, leaving a lasting mark on the history of classical dance worldwide.
Famous Quotes
« I did not dance for the regime, I danced for myself. »
« Talent is the capacity to work. »
Key Facts
- 1925: born in Moscow into a family of artists
- 1943: joins the Bolshoi Theatre ballet company
- 1956: international breakthrough during the Bolshoi's London tour
- 1967: premieres the ballet Carmen Suite, set to music by her husband Rodion Shchedrin
- 2015: dies in Munich at the age of 89
Works & Achievements
Tchaikovsky's iconic ballet, which she performed for the first time at age twenty-two and danced for more than forty years. Her interpretation of the dual role (the white Odette and the black Odile) remains an absolute benchmark in the history of classical dance.
A legendary solo originally created for Anna Pavlova and reinterpreted by Plisetskaya with the uniquely expressive use of her arms. This short ballet, only a few minutes long and filmed many times over, became the defining symbol of her art of bodily transformation.
A ballet created especially for her, set to music by Shchedrin inspired by Bizet. This daring work, which broke the conventions of traditional Soviet ballet, sparked controversy but established itself as one of the great choreographic masterpieces of the twentieth century.
The first ballet for which she herself created the choreography, based on Tolstoy's novel. This work allowed her to assert herself not only as a performer but also as a fully-fledged artistic creator in her own right.
A ballet she created to music by Shchedrin, continuing their artistic and marital collaboration. The work allowed her to explore classic Russian themes with a choreographic freedom that the Brezhnev years were beginning to tolerate.
A ballet in tribute to American dancer Isadora Duncan, pioneer of free dance. Plisetskaya embodies this rebellious figure with evident kinship — both women having fought to assert their artistic freedom on their own terms.
Anecdotes
In 1937, Maya's father, Mikhail Plisetsky, was arrested during the Great Stalinist Purges and executed by firing squad. Her mother was deported to a Gulag camp along with her young brother. Maya, then twelve years old, was taken in by her aunt Sulamith Messerer, herself a dancer at the Bolshoi. This family tragedy left a deep mark on the young girl, who would find in dance both a refuge and a reason to live.
For years, the KGB kept a close watch on Maya Plisetskaya and forbade her from traveling abroad, fearing she might defect as other Soviet artists had done. It was not until 1959, after lengthy negotiations, that she received permission to perform in the United States. Her first American tour caused a genuine sensation: New York audiences gave her a twenty-minute standing ovation.
To create the ballet Carmen Suite in 1967, her husband, composer Rodion Shchedrin, re-orchestrated Bizet's music especially for her. Soviet Culture Minister Ekaterina Furtseva attempted to cancel the premiere, deeming the production too 'Western' and scandalous. It was only thanks to the intervention of Dmitri Shostakovich and other influential artists that the performance could finally take place — and it was a triumph.
Maya Plisetskaya was world-renowned for her extraordinarily expressive arms, which she could bend backward far beyond their normal anatomical limits. Each morning she devoted long hours to specific exercises to maintain this exceptional flexibility. Rudolf Nureyev, himself a dancer of extraordinary gifts, said of her: “Her arms are not arms, they are wings.”
Unlike many stars who hang up their ballet shoes at forty, Maya Plisetskaya continued to perform on stage well into the 1990s. She danced the title role in Isadora at the age of sixty-five and did not stop working until the end of her life. In 2015, just days before her death in Munich at the age of eighty-nine, she was still attending ballet rehearsals.
Primary Sources
My father was shot. My mother was taken to a camp with my little brother. I was left alone with my aunt. Dance was all I had left, the one thing I knew how to do that no one could take from me.
I do not belong to a regime, I belong to dance. When I am on stage, I am neither Soviet nor Russian. I am simply Maya, with my body and my music.
Dance is the most fragile of all arts: it is born and dies with every performance. It is precisely for this reason that it lives on, immortal, in the memory of those who have witnessed it.
Carmen is not a vulgar seductress. She is a free woman. Absolutely free. And freedom, in the Soviet Union, is unsettling.
Key Places
The main stage of her entire career, the Bolshoi is the temple of Soviet classical dance. Plisetskaya joined as a trainee in 1934 and danced as a prima ballerina there for more than fifty years.
The apartment where Maya grew up after being taken in by her aunt, within the artistic yet closely watched world of Stalinist Moscow. It was in these modest rooms that she began preparing herself to become a ballerina.
The venue of her triumphant first American tour in 1959, at the height of the Cold War. The warm reception from American audiences contradicted the official Soviet narrative about the "capitalist enemy."
The Parisian stage where Plisetskaya performed on several occasions and was received with great enthusiasm by French audiences and critics alike. Paris became one of her favorite cities in Western Europe.
It was in this German city that Maya Plisetskaya passed away on 2 May 2015, at the age of eighty-nine, surrounded by her loved ones. She had been spending part of each year there since the fall of the USSR.