Maya Plisetskaya

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Plisetskaya was born on 20 November 1925 in Moscow into a prominent family of Lithuanian Jewish descent, most of whom were involved in theater or film. Her father, Mikhail Plisetski, a Soviet official, was arrested in 1937 and executed in 1938 during the Great Purge. Her mother, theater and silent film actress Rachel Messerer, was arrested in 1938 and imprisoned for a few years, then held in a concentration camp together with her infant son, Azari. Maya was adopted by their aunt Sulamith Messerer. She studied ballet at the Bolshoi Ballet School from age nine, first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre when she was eleven, and graduated in 1943 at age eighteen, joining the Bolshoi Ballet company and quickly rising to become their leading soloist. She created a number of leading roles, including Juliet in Lavrovsky's Romeo and Juliet; Phrygia in Yakobson's Spartacus (1958); Mistress of the Copper Mountain in Grigorovich's The Stone Flower (1959); Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (1963); Mahmene Banu in The Legend of Love (1965); Alberto Alonso's Carmen Suite (1967), choreographed especially for her; and Maurice Béjart's Isadora (1976). Her husband, composer Rodion Shchedrin, wrote the scores to a number of her ballets. In 1959, during the Thaw Time, she started to tour outside the country with the Bolshoi, then on her own. Premier Nikita Khrushchev considered her to be 'not only the best ballerina in the Soviet Union, but the best in the world.' Despite her acclaim, she was not allowed to tour outside the country for sixteen years after she had become a member of the Bolshoi, due to her Jewish background and family history of political repression.

Reader's Guide

Plisetskaya's significance lies in her transformation of ballet through technical brilliance and dramatic presence, setting a higher standard for ballerinas. She had an inexhaustible interest in new roles and dance styles, and she liked to experiment on stage. As a member of the Bolshoi until 1990, she had international exposure and her skills as a dancer changed the world of ballet. She was treated by the Soviet Union as a favored cultural emissary during the Cold War, yet she always refused to defect, unlike other prominent dancers including Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, Alexander Godunov and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Her portrayal of Carmen, reportedly her favorite role, 'helped confirm her as a legend, and the ballet soon took its place as a landmark in the Bolshoi repertoire.' Her legacy includes her autobiography, I, Maya Plisetskaya, published in 1991.

Did You Know?

• Plisetskaya's father was a Soviet official arrested in 1937 and executed in 1938 during the Great Purge; her mother was arrested in 1938 and sent to a concentration camp with her infant son.
• She first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre when she was eleven years old.
• Premier Nikita Khrushchev called her 'not only the best ballerina in the Soviet Union, but the best in the world.'
• She was not allowed to tour outside the Soviet Union for sixteen years after joining the Bolshoi due to her Jewish background and family history.
• Her husband, composer Rodion Shchedrin, wrote the scores to a number of her ballets.