MAYA PLISETSKAYA.1962.

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Майя Плисецкая.

“Maya Plisetskaya was the Soviet ballet’s most famous star of the past half-century, a fiery redhead who tore across the stage in phenomenal leaps and was greatly celebrated. She was considered a maverick by the Soviet Union, a severe defection risk, and was constantly monitored by the KGB, who even put a microphone in her bed. To global incredulity, she was refused permission to appear at Covent Garden on the Bolshoi Ballet’s Western debut tour in 1956. However, Khrushchev soon realised that the charismatic dancer would be better used in Soviet service. Maya Plisetskaya, he said, was not just the Soviet Union’s best ballerina, but also the best ballerina in the world. On her Western debut, in New York in 1959, audiences “moaned with delight,” a leading critic reported” (obituary in the Telegraph).

1976

Maya Plisetskaya. 1962. Photo by Vasily Malyshev.

Maya Plisetskaya and Maris Liepa in “Legend of Love”, 1965. Music by Arif Melikov.

Yuri Grigorovich, Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya during a rehearsal at the Bolshoi.