Maya Plisetskaya
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Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya (Russian: Майя Михайловна Плисецкая; born November 20, 1925) is a retired Russian ballet dancer, frequently cited as the greatest ballerina of modern times. Maya Plisetskaya is a naturalized Spanish citizen.
Life
Maya Plisetskaya was born in Moscow, on November 20, 1925, to a prominent Jewish family. She went to school in Spitsbergen, where her father worked as an engineer and mine director. Maya's family was one well known for art and entertainment. Her mother, Rakhil Messerer, however, was a well known silent film actress. Maya's brother, Azari, also became a dancer. Her aunt, Elizaveta, was an actress in Moscow, and her cousin, Boris, was a distinguished set designer.[1] Rakhil's sister and brother, Sulamith and Mikhail Messerer were both talented ballet dancers and soloists, and later distinguished teachers with the Bolshoi Ballet. They coached and encouraged Maya from her earliest days.
In 1937, Maya's father disappeared. It was fifty years before the family learned that he was executed in 1938, as part of Stalinist purges, possibly because he had hired a friend who had been a secretary to Leon Trotsky. Maya's mother was arrested and sent to a labor camp (or Gulag) in Khazakstan, along with Maya's seven-month old brother[2] They were sent to ALZHIR camp, a Russian acronym for the Akmolinskii Camp for Wives of Traitors of the Motherland, and were labeled "enemies of the people." Thereupon, Maya was adopted by her maternal aunt, the ballerina Sulamith Messerer, until her mother was released in 1941.[3]
When Maya was eight, Sulamith had her enrolled in the Moscow Choreographic School, famous for producing most of the Bolshoi dancers, a year early—because "at home, she just can't help dancing."[1] Maya then began the arduous but dedicated path towards becoming a ballet dancer. She took lessons six days a week, along with her regular school education. Her teacher for six years was the legendary Yelizaveta Gerdt, whose famous father had taught the likes of Anna Pavolva and Tamara Karsavina. Gerdt polished and refined you Maya's talent, referring to the apt student as her "little diamond."[1]
When she was 11, Maya appeared as the Bred Crumb Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty. A year later, she danced the role of the cat in The Little Story, for the children's ballet. In her seventh year, she danced the lead in Paquita, and her interpretation aroused much interest.[1] She demonstrated sharp footwork, a remarkably high and seemingly effortless leap, and expressive movement—which would become one of her trademarks. When she graduated from the school in 1943, she was immediately accepted into the Bolshoi company—not as a member of the corps de ballet, but as a soloist.[1] She would perform there until 1990.
Career
From the beginning, Maya was a different kind of ballerina. Unlike many ballerinas, she did not spend any time in the corps de ballet. She was named principal ballerina immediately after graduation. Her red hair and striking looks made her a glamorous figure on and off the stage. Her long arms had a fluidity that to this day remains unmatched; her interpretation of The Dying Swan, a short showcase piece made famous by Anna Pavlova, became Maya's calling card. Maya was known for the height of her jumps, her extremely flexible back, the technical strength of her dancing, and her charisma.
Despite her acclaim, Maya was not treated well by the Bolshoi management. She was Jewish[4] in an anti-Semitic climate, her family had been purged during the Stalinist era and her personality was defiant, so she was not allowed to tour outside the country for six years after joining the Bolshoi.[2] It wasn't until 1959 that Nikita Khrushchev permitted her to travel abroad,[5] and the world got to see Maya Plisetskaya. She changed the world of ballet forever, setting the bar higher for ballerinas everywhere, both in terms of technical brilliance and dramatic presence.
Maya's most acclaimed roles included Odette-Odile in Swan Lake (1947) and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty (1961). In 1958, she was honoured with the title of the People's Artist of the USSR and married the young composer Rodion Shchedrin, in whose subsequent fame she shared.
After Galina Ulanova left the stage in 1960, Maya Plisetskaya was proclaimed the prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre. In the Soviet screen version of Anna Karenina, she played Princess Tverskaya. In 1971, her husband wrote a ballet on the same subject, where she would play the leading role. Anna Karenina was also her first attempt at choreography.[6] Other choreographers who created ballets for her include Yury Grigorovich, Roland Petit, Alberto Alonso, and Maurice Bejart.
In the 1980s, Plisetskaya and Shchedrin spent much time abroad, where she worked as the artistic director of the Rome Opera Ballet in 1984–5, then the Spanish National Ballet of Madrid from 1987–9. At the age of 65, she finally retired from the Bolshoi as a soloist. On her 70th birthday, she debuted in Bejart's number choreographed for her and entitled "Ave Maya". Since 1994, she has been presiding over the annual international ballet competitions called Maya. In 1996 she was named as President of the Imperial Russian Ballet.[7]
She was forced to be member of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public, threatened to be left without passport for appearances abroad.[citation needed] When she did travel abroad, the Soviet secret police requested that she encourage the interest of Robert Kennedy.[2]
On the date of her 80th birthday, the Financial Times summed up current opinion about Maya in the following words: "She was, and still is, a star, ballet's monstre sacre, the final statement about theatrical glamour, a flaring, flaming beacon in a world of dimly twinkling talents, a beauty in the world of prettiness".[8] The following year, Emperor Akihito presented to her the Premium Imperiale, informally considered a Nobel Prize for Art.
Awards and honors
Maya Plisetskaya has been honored on numerous occasions for her skills:[7]
- First prize, Budapest International Competition, 1949.
- People's Artist of the RSFSR, 1951.
- People's Artist of the USSR, 1959.
- Anna Pavlova Prize, 1962.
- Lenin Prize, 1964.
- Hero of Socialist Labour, 1985.
- Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, 1986.
- Triumph Prize, 2000.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Answers.com, Maya Plisetskaya: Biography. Retrieved August 11, 2008.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Katherine Bliss Eaton, Daily Life in the Soviet Union (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 0313316287).
- ↑ Maya Plisetskaya, I, Maya Plisetskaya (Yale University Press, 2004, ISBN 0300088574).
- ↑ Miller, Jack (1984). Jews in Soviet Culture. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0878554955.
- ↑ Taubman, William and Khrushchev, Sergeĭ; Gleason, Abbott; Gehrenbeck, David; Kane, Eileen; Bashenko, Alla (2000). Nikita Khrushchev. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300076355.
- ↑ Tolstoy, Leo (2003). Anna Karenina, Mandelker, Amy; Garnett, Constance, Spark Educational Publishing. ISBN 1593080271.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sleeman, Elizabeth (2001). The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, Routledge. ISBN 1857431227.
- ↑ Crisp, Clement, "Mayan goddess", Financial Times, 2005-11-18. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
External links
- Official site of the Plisetskaya-Shchedrin Foundation
- The Washington Post's tribute to Maya's 80th birthday
- The Ballerina Gallery - Maya Plisetskaya
- le Gala des étoiles - Maya Plisetskaya
- A national treasure - Maya Plisetskaya
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