Ballet dancer Maya Plisetskaya dies in Germany

Ballet dancer Maya Plisetskaya died on May 2 in Germany from a heart attack. This was reported TASS CEO of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Urin.

“The ballerina’s husband Rodion Shchedrin called me. She died of a severe heart attack. The doctors fought, but couldn’t do anything,” Urin said.

Maya Plisetskaya was born in a huge Jewish family. She had 11 uncles and aunts and they were all in any way associated with ballet. For example, Asaf Messerer's uncle was a virtuoso dancer and an excellent teacher.

The mother of the future great ballerina, Rakhiliya Mikhailovna, shone even during the time of “The Great Mute”. She attracted the attention of both spectators and directors. Due to her characteristic appearance: dark hair and facial features, she often got the roles of Uzbek women.

But Maya’s father, Mikhail Emmanuilovich, was not associated with art. He held administrative positions. In 1932, he was appointed to head the coal mines in Svalbard and the whole family had to move. It was on Spitsbergen Island that little Maya first appeared on the scene. She played her first role in the opera “Mermaid” by Dargomyzhsky.

From that moment on, the baby could not sit still and began to simply dream the stage and performances in public. She seemed to be preparing herself for a brilliant future and constantly sang, danced, improvised. The family decided to return to Moscow to go to a choreographic school after returning to Moscow.

In 1934, the Plisetskys arrived in Moscow, but on vacation. And then seven-year-old Maya was given to the class of the former soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Yevgeniya Dolinskaya. In May 1937, Maya’s father was taken away by Maya’s father and was shot dead a year after his arrest. Almost immediately arrested and mom. It happened right at the Bolshoi Theater, at the time when Sleeping Beauty was on stage and the aunt of the future ballerina Sulamith performed.

It was Aunt Sulamith who found shelter for 12-year-old Maya. A kind relative adopted her orphaned niece so that she would not be sent to an orphanage. However, as Maya Mikhailovna later admitted, the aunt did not just do good to her niece. She demanded that the girl be grateful to her and often humiliate her.

The Bolshoi Theatre

The first significant performance at the Bolshoi Theater at Maya Plitsekoy was held on the eve of the fateful day for the Soviet Union. Less than a day before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a graduation concert of the ballet school was held on the scene of the Bolshoi Theater branch.

But after that there was a long break. To continue her studies, the 16-year-old girl decided to run away to Moscow, where classes at the choreographic school continued even during the war. She was enrolled again, but this time straight into her senior year.

In the 1943 year, the training was completed and Maya was immediately accepted into the state of the Bolshosh Theater. From the very first steps on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, Maya's individuality, its expressiveness and the dynamics of dance, and particular passion showed up. Success was not long in coming. Plisetskaya received recognition in the ballet "Chopiniane", where she performed a mazurka. Each jump Maya caused unceasing applause.

The girl loved to dance, but she did not want to work. Much later, she began to understand how interesting and creative the daily work of a ballerina can be. The path to the top of Plisetskaya’s career can still be compared with climbing stairs: it rose gradually to its main parties. For example, in the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" she was first the Lilac fairy, then the fairy Violant, and then Aurora.

In Don Quixote, the dancer danced almost all the women's parties and finally opened the role of Kitri. In 1948, Maya danced Giselle in the ballet of the same name. Since then, she has become a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Theater.

Personal life

Maya met her spouse Rodion Shchedrin in visiting Lily Brik. The ballerina and the composer did not seem very interested in each other. Plisetskaya was seven years older than Shchedrin. Only three years after they met, they began to meet and spent holidays in Karelia.

And in the fall, 1958 got married. “He extended my creative life by at least twenty-five years,” said Plisetskaya about her husband. They never got bored together. Shchedrin protested, but Maya did not dare to give birth to a child and leave the stage. Her husband justified her, saying that the ballet provides a wonderful physique, and after giving birth the figure of any woman inevitably changes. Many ballerinas, he argued, lost their profession because of pregnancy.