Maya Plisetskaya's diet is a weight loss technique. The figure of a ballerina: what is the peculiarity of Maya Plisetskaya's diet? Maya Plisetskaya height weight parameters
Family and childhood of Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya was born in Moscow into a huge Jewish family. After 6 years, her middle brother Alexander was born, who later became a choreographer, and six years later - her younger brother Azariy, a future choreographer.She had 11 uncles and aunts, and all of them were somehow connected with ballet and dance. For example, my mother's uncle Asaf Messerer was a virtuoso dancer and an excellent teacher.
The mother of the future great ballerina Rakhil Mikhailovna Messerer (nee) was the star of the Great Silent Cinema. She attracted the attention of both viewers and directors. Due to her characteristic appearance: dark hair and oriental features, she often got the roles of Uzbek women. True, the career of an actress had to be abandoned because of her husband and children.
But Maya's father, Mikhail Emmanuilovich, held economic and diplomatic positions. At first he worked in the executive committee, then in the commissariats of foreign affairs and foreign trade. The father of the future star also took part in the production of films, where he met his future wife.
In 1932, he was appointed to manage the coal mines in Svalbard, and the whole family had to move. There he simultaneously served as Consul General of the USSR.
It was on the island of Svalbard that little Maya first appeared on the stage. 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 of the stage and public performances. She seemed to be preparing herself for a brilliant future and constantly sang, danced, improvised. In the family, it was decided upon returning to Moscow to give the fidget to the choreographic school. Seven-year-old Maya was sent to the class of the former soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Evgenia Dolinskaya.
In May 1937, Maya's father was taken away by Chekists and a year after his arrest, they were shot, suspecting him of espionage. A few months later, his wife Rachel was also arrested. This happened right at the Bolshoi Theater, at a time when The Sleeping Beauty was on stage and the aunt of the future ballerina Shulamith was performing. Rakhil Plisetskaya-Messerer received 8 years in prison as the wife of an enemy of the people. She, along with her newborn child (youngest son Azariy), was placed in the Akmola camp for the wives of traitors to the Motherland. Only thanks to the efforts of her close relatives, she was first transferred to a free settlement in Shymkent. And only in 1941 was her sentence commuted and allowed to return to Moscow.
The middle son Alexander was sheltered by Uncle Asaf, and 12-year-old Maya was adopted by her aunt Shulamith. A kind relative took in her orphaned niece so that she would not be sent to an orphanage. True, 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 humiliated her.
The beginning of the career of Maya Plisetskaya
The first significant performance at the Bolshoi Theater by Maya Plisetskaya took place on the eve of the fateful day for the Soviet Union. Less than a day before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the graduation concert of the choreographic school took place on the stage of the branch of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater.Maya Plisetskaya - The Swan (ballet film 1975)
But the war made its own adjustments to the further fate of prima. Since September 1941, Maya Plisetskaya's family has been evacuated to Sverdlovsk. Unfortunately, in the city it was impossible to continue studying or practice ballet.
To finish her studies, the 16-year-old girl decided to run away to Moscow, where even during the war, classes continued at the Moscow Choreographic School. She was again enrolled, but this time - immediately in the final class for the course of Elizaveta Gerdt and Maria Leontieva. In 1943, the training was completed, and Maya was immediately accepted into the staff of the Bolshoi Theater.
From the very first steps on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, Maya's individuality, her expressiveness and dynamics of dance, her special passion, manifested itself. Success was not long in coming. Plisetskaya received recognition in the ballet "Chopiniana", where she performed a mazurka. Maya's every jump evoked incessant 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 to climbing the stairs: she gradually climbed to her main roles. For example, in the ballet Sleeping Beauty, she was first the Lilac Fairy, then the Violante Fairy, and then Aurora. In Don Quixote, the ballerina danced almost all the female parts and, finally, got the role of Kitri.
Maya Plisetskaya - Raymond, 1959
In 1948 Maya danced Giselle in the ballet of the same name. And after Galina Ulanova left the theater for a well-deserved rest, Plisetskaya became a prima ballerina and received solo parts. Her unique dance style, flexibility, plasticity and graceful hand movement are recognized all over the world. She created her own unique style of ballet, which earned her worldwide fame.
True, not everything went smoothly in the career of a ballerina. With the chief choreographer of the Bolshoi Theater, Yuri Grigorovich, she could not get along, and over the years this confrontation only intensified.
In 1956, the theater troupe went on a foreign tour to England for the first time, but Maya Plisetskaya did not receive permission to leave the country. They tried to accuse her of espionage and for the next five years she was not allowed to travel abroad. But the ballerina successfully toured the country, winning the love of her compatriots. In 1959, Plisetskaya was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR.
Film career of Maya Plisetskaya
In 1952, Maya Plisetskaya made her first film appearance. It can be seen in the painting "Big Concert" by Vera Stroeva. Well, then roles in ballet films followed: "Swan Lake", "The Tale of the Little Humpbacked Horse" and "Anna Karenina". Prima Bolshoi was invited to the film-opera "Khovanshchina". The ballerina also participated in the film adaptation of the ballets Isadora, Bolero, The Seagull, Lady with a Dog. In 1974, she was invited, together with Bolshoi Theater soloist Bogatyrev, for the telenumber "Nocturne" to the music of Friedrich Chopin from the ballet "In the Night" by choreographer Jerome Robbins.Maya Plisetskaya - Bolero
In 1968, the ballerina played Betsy in the film adaptation of the novel Anna Karenina by Zarhi. Plisetskaya did an excellent job with her work, despite the difference in work on the theater stage and on the set. In some films, she even had roles with text. For example, in Bejart's ballets. Plisetskaya also starred as Desiree in the film "Tchaikovsky" by Talankin. Then Vaitkus called the dancer for the role of Čiurlionis's muse in the film "Zodiac".
In 1976, the actress played a ballet star in the TV movie Fantasia based on Turgenev's novel Spring Waters. She succeeded brilliantly in the role of Polozova. Choreographic duets were staged by choreographer Elizariev.
After feature films, documentaries began to be made. The main role again went to Plisetskaya. Television people became interested in the fate of the artist, the formation of her career, different facets of her personal and creative life. The brightest documentaries about Maya Mikhailovna: “Maya Plisetskaya. Familiar and unfamiliar” and “Maya Plisetskaya”. In addition, the tapes "Maya" directed by Sakagushi for Japanese TV and "Maya Plisetskaya" directed by Delyush for the French are also dedicated to her work. In the film “Maya Plisetskaya assoluta”, he showed a ballerina in a dance and there were invariably “swan” hand movements that glorified Maya to the whole world.
However, Maya herself believes that it is necessary to dance with the whole body. Legs, head, body and, of course, hands should participate. “It is important to dance to the music, not to the music,” says the ballerina. The creative motto of a celebrity can be described as follows: do not imitate anyone, turn movements into music. By the way, Maya Plisetskaya's dance never showed the sketches that her predecessors had made. The ballerina always reacted to the solos of musical instruments and emphasized the accents, sometimes with an eyebrow movement or a look. Maya Mikhailovna's dancing career turned out to be surprisingly long - she left the stage only at the age of 65.
Further career of Maya Plisetskaya
The ballerina not only performed on the stage of the theater, but also took on the role of director. At the Bolshoi Theater, she acted as a choreographer for the performances of Rodion Shchedrin's "Anna Karenina" (1972, together with N. I. Ryzhenko and V. V. Smirnov-Golovanov), "The Seagull" (1980), "Lady with a Dog" (1985 ). And she herself performed the main female parts in them. 
The dance style of the ballerina has become the accepted canon. An unexpected turn in the fate of prima happened in 1983. She was offered to be the artistic director of the ballet of the Rome Opera and Ballet Theatre. Maya was in this post for a year and a half, periodically came to Rome. She staged "Raymonda" for the outdoor stage at the Baths of Caracalla, presented her "Isadora" and organized "Phaedra".
In 1985, Plisetskaya was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. And from 1988 to 1990 she headed the Spanish National Ballet in Madrid. For the Spanish troupe, she resumed the ballet "Vain Precaution" by Peter Gertel (choreographer - Alexander Gorsky) and introduced the "Carmen Suite" into the repertoire. Here she began cooperation with Montserrat Caballe. At the suggestion of the latter, Plisetskaya performed in a production of Giacomo Puccini's opera-ballet Wilisa. The ballerina also danced The Dying Swan to the accompaniment of the live voice of the opera singer.
In 1988, Maya Plisetskaya performed in the title role, staged especially for her by the artistic director of the flamenco troupe Jose Granero, the ballet "Mary Stuart" by Emilio de Diego.
In January 1990, Plisetskaya danced her last performance at the Bolshoi Theater. They became "Lady with a dog." The ballerina had to leave the Bolshoi Theater due to disagreements with the artistic director, which had continued from the very beginning of her career.
But the ballerina did not leave the stage, but continued to participate in concerts and give master classes. In the 1990s, Plisetskaya continued her collaboration with outstanding choreographers of the world: with the Marseille Ballet by Roland Petit and the Ballet of the 20th Century by Maurice Béjart. In 1992, at the Espace Pierre Cardin Theater, Plisetskaya performed the main role at the premiere of the ballet The Mad from Chaillot to music by Shchedrin. And she celebrated her 70th birthday on stage, performing the number "Ave Maya", staged for her by Maurice Bejart.
Despite her venerable age, the ballerina was active in social activities. In 1994, she organized an international ballet competition called "Maya" and was the chairman of the jury for this competition. A year later, she was elected honorary president of the Imperial Russian Ballet troupe.
Personal life of Maya Plisetskaya
As a star of the Bolshoi Theater, Maya was surrounded by many men. She wrote about her romances with ballet soloists Vyacheslav Golubin and Esfendyar Kashani. The ballerina has been married twice. 
Her first husband, Maris Liepa, was also a theater soloist and dancer. They married in 1956 but divorced three months later.
Maya met her second husband Rodion Shchedrin while visiting Lily Brik. The ballerina and the composer did not seem to be very interested in each other. Plisetskaya was seven years older than Shchedrin. Only three years after they met, they began to meet and spent a vacation in Karelia. And in the autumn of 1958 they got married.
“He extended my creative life for at least twenty-five years,” Plisetskaya said about her husband. And her husband supported her in everything and defended her interests before the Soviet government. It was thanks to his efforts that the prima got the opportunity to travel abroad.
True, despite a happy family life, the couple never had children. Shchedrin protested, but Maya did not dare to give birth to a child and leave the stage. Her husband justified her, saying that ballet provides for a wonderful physique, and after childbirth, the figure of any woman inevitably changes. Many ballerinas, he argued, lost their profession due to pregnancy.
The last years of the life of Maya Plisetskaya
In 1993, Maya Plisetskaya became an honorary professor at Moscow State University.A year later, she released an autobiographical book, "I, Maya Plisetskaya." The next book came out only in 2007 in the form of a memoir Thirteen Years Later: Angry Notes in Thirteen Chapters. Three years later, she published the book "Reading my life ...".
And in 2000, as a result of a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation, she was chosen as the person of the year in the field of science, culture and art. This is how universal love manifested itself.
From the beginning of the 90s until the last days of her life, the prima and her husband lived in Munich. They were forced to stay there due to health problems. The doctors who helped Maya Mikhailovna to be in shape were found only in Germany. Also in 1993, the couple received Lithuanian citizenship.
Plisetskaya herself regretted that she rarely had to visit her homeland in recent years. She occasionally attended ballet competitions and appeared at the anniversaries of her colleagues.
Death of Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya died on May 2, 2015 in Munich at the age of 90 from a massive myocardial infarction. Farewell to the ballerina took place in Germany, and according to the will, the ashes of Plisetskaya will be united with the ashes of Rodion Shchedrin, after his death, and scattered over Russia.The death of Maya Plisetskaya was a loss for the whole world
Initially, on November 20, 2015, a creative evening was to be held at the Bolshoi Theater on the occasion of the anniversary of the star, her 90th birthday. Now, on this day, an evening in memory of the great ballerina will be organized.
Maya Plisetskaya Awards
Maya Plisetskaya has an uncountable number of various awards. In 1959 she was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR. She is also Honored Artist and People's Artist of the RSFSR. In 1985 she was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. 
The ballerina is a full cavalier of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France), Commander of the Order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, has the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Legion of Honor (France), the Lenin Prize, the Grand Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit for Lithuania”, Order of the Rising Sun III degree (Japan), Order of Isabella the Catholic.
She has always been against it. Against the regime - the daughter of a "traitor to the motherland" danced in the country's main theater. Against ideology - the star of the Soviet Russian ballet has always been non-partisan. Against age - she continued to appear on stage, when, by ballet standards, she had long been considered old. At the school, she was nicknamed the "red crow", and on stage - the "queen of swans." She herself admitted that she spied the same “wing flap” at the zoo from birds, and not from more experienced artists. Maya Plisetskaya was worshiped, she was hated. November 20 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the great ballerina. Lenta.ru publishes her most striking statements.
“I was born a year after the death of Lenin, and when Stalin died, I was twenty-seven years and three and a half months old. Age for a ballerina is not young. Half of my professional life was behind me. And then there were the eras of Brezhnev and Gorbachev, which brought me many bitter disappointments. Due to the fact that I was born on Russian soil, I count my life in the eras of the "reign" of our leaders. It would never occur to any of my colleagues from Finland or France to measure the stages of their biography by the names of presidents or prime ministers.
“My grandfather was a dentist, we lived on Sretenka. There I was born. I think that my grandmother was not engaged in any professions, because she raised children, of whom she had a lot.
(About mother) “She played Uzbek girls, and there were always continuous tragedies in Asia. Films, as in India, have always been incredibly tragic, just heartbreaking. And so, she played a leper, where she was trampled by horses. Some other movie where she was burned alive in some house. In general, I just burst into tears, although she was sitting next to me in the cinema, holding my hand and saying: “I am here, I am with you,” but still I was angry that she prevented me from crying.
“Am I supposed to say that Stalin was gold? This will never happen. Under no authority will I say that.”
“As soon as we started throwing mud at someone, foreigners immediately pricked up their ears: “How is it that they are oppressing someone? Let's promote him, support him!” And a lot of people played on it - musicians, writers, ballet dancers. Since you are a fugitive, pursued by the authorities, it means that you are artistically significant, at the top of the position. It still exists."
“My father, who was shot in 1938, believed that the system of human relations in the new society under construction would be fairer than in past centuries. But decades go by, and the system of human relations does not change for the better.
“Sometimes it seems to me that envy is born first, and then a person is born.”
“I’m not sure that the highest manifestation of the mind is kindness. Kind people can also be full of fools.
“I haven’t forgiven my enemies and I don’t intend to. Why? Why should I forgive them, pray tell? People do not change, this is my deep conviction. And let them know that I have not forgotten anything and have not forgiven anything.
“When Shchedrin and I are invited somewhere and placed in some luxurious hotel, it puts pressure on me. Somehow we are not accustomed to luxury.”
“I don’t find joy in being chic. I find concern in this. If you have a house, it must be cleaned and maintained. Guard!"
“In life, I am much simpler and more ordinary than people think.”
“In my youth, I never painted - it was unfashionable. In the famous photo with Kennedy in the White House, I have no makeup at all - it never occurred to me then.
“Here I will give you an example - Pierre Cardin. He is naturally elegant, which is why he dresses his clients elegantly. That's why I've been wearing it for many years now. He has a fantastic sense of style. He does not think: "Now I will get up and be elegant." At the same time, he can walk around in whatever he wants - in his own things, of course, but the coat can be with the collar turned inside, or the button on the stomach is unbuttoned, because he is always in a hurry.
“I love green, yellow, red. And black is very elegant. And all the other colors too.
"Bread and butter is the best thing people have come up with."
Yes, I love beer!
“I have always eaten a lot. And my weight was a little more than necessary. There were periods when I lost weight, but unintentionally - just because of the rehearsals I didn’t have time to eat.
“Ballet dancers don’t have a diet at all, because they work a lot, everything burns out, and there’s just no time to get fat.”
Photo: Henrietta Peryan / Russian Look
“In the beginning there was a word, so it is considered. But I think that in the beginning there was a gesture, because everyone understands the gesture, but not everyone understands the word.
“Once I told Slava Rostropovich that Rodion gave me The Lady with the Dog. He says: statuette? I say: no, ballet!
“Vaganova made ballerinas from almost nothing. Even with useless data, they knew how to do it. Many who were then at the top of the game would be dancing in the corps de ballet today.”
“At one of the first ballet competitions, I was on the jury next to Ulanova. And then one dancer raises her leg almost in a straight split, behind the ear. Ulanova leans towards me and says: "The girl has the wrong address." And the dancer didn't make it to the third round."
“Some things I don't understand. Because they taught at the Moscow ballet school unimportantly - but they dance well in the theater. Although if you analyze it, it’s clear - the world is open, they look at others, they look at themselves on the video, and this is the best teacher.
“Now they dance better. We have the devil knows what form the ballerinas had. Small snags, cuttlefish. And now the girls are like models. Male dance has grown unheard of.”
“We used to say: “Ballet is not rhythmic gymnastics.” Now ballet and gymnastics are equal in complexity. But, following the technique, many forget about emotions. The soul has left the dance.
“Men have always liked beautiful figures. I don't think the ballerinas conquered them with their intelligence."
"(Elizaveta) Gerdt said: you hang on a stick, like laundry on a rope."
“If it was possible to do a combination once, I did it once, not ten. It didn't always turn out to be a fouette, sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't. So what! And even now I think that thanks to my laziness I saved my legs.
"I never aspired to dance infantile roles."
“I have 165 centimeters, average height, normal, depending on how you count, because compared to a small one, this is really a lot. But compared to what they are now, when they reach up to eighty meters, then I am small.
“I danced with Bejart, with Roland Petit. That's interesting: I absolutely recognize Balanchine. But personally I wouldn't want to dance with him. It's not mine, his dance is too abstract. When I danced the "Dying Swan" in India, no one asked what this dance was about - everyone understood. And when she danced the pas de deux from Don Quixote, they asked. And I don't even know what it's about. About thirty-two fouettes. This is a technique, and people like to understand, to empathize.”
"I danced at least ten versions of Swan Lake, and it was written everywhere: Petipa."
“I would not say that I am a very disciplined person. Of course, I didn’t warm up before the performance with a hot shower, like one prima ballerina, but I remember how Elena Mikhailovna Ilyushchenko shouted to me: “My God, it’s already the third call, and she’s just painting her eyelashes.”
“Having a painter's brush is what I would like. But I have never tried it. It's, you know, like in a joke: "Do you play the violin?" - "I have not tried it, but I probably play."
“Lilya Brik was an incredibly controversial person in relation to absolutely everyone. Without exception. I also got into this conflict. She and Elsa, her sister, were two smart witches who took pleasure in constantly ruining each other's lives.
"Insolence - it discourages."
“I have been at odds with untruth since childhood. She jars me more than a red rag. Both in art and in life.
“I am very demanding. And to yourself too. And if they think that this is a bad character, what can I do? It’s harder to change than to lift yourself up by your hair.”
“I am biting myself. Is always".
“When I see naked people now, such and such on the stage, I rejoice and rub my hands: here you are, eat! We weren't allowed anything! After all, it turned out that the communists in fur coats made their children ... "
“In Gorbachev's times, after leaving the Bolshoi, and then completely from the stage, I faced a problem: everything that I earned at the Bolshoi turned into nothing. Rodion and I had to take care of our daily bread. And we accepted proposals coming from different parts of the world, I participated in the work on performances, he wrote music.
“There are more traffic jams. How many promises have already been made in my memory to remove them, but not a single one has been fulfilled. I'm not used to being late. And all over the world I am not late, but in Moscow it doesn’t work out.”
“I will tell you without boasting: I have nothing to envy. The Lord gave me abilities and good data, at the Bolshoi Theater I danced a lot of ballets, I seem to have world fame. And most importantly - I have a wonderful husband, what more could I want?
When writing the text, materials from the following publications were used: Izvestia, Ekho Moskvy, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Teatral, Domashny, Pozner Online.
The main rule that the famous ballerina has always followed is to lose weight, you need to eat less! Also, the prima has always focused on the fact that after eating in the stomach there should not be a feeling of heaviness, so food portions should be small, and in addition to the usual breakfast, lunch and dinner, there should be several snacks throughout the day.
The Plisetskaya diet is designed for 14 days, and you can resort to it again only after two months. During the diet, it is forbidden to eat:
- dairy products, meat and eggs;
- coffee, chocolate and cocoa;
- fruits, dried fruits;
- nuts;
- fried and fatty;
- potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants;
- salt and spices.
Your diet should consist of boiled or steamed lean fish, low-calorie green vegetables and cereals that can be boiled, stewed or baked. The diet of ballerina Maya Plisetskaya allows the use of broccoli, lettuce, cucumbers, spinach, cabbage, lentils, brown rice, barley and oatmeal. Once a day, you can add a tablespoon of olive oil to your food.
Another important point is that before each meal you need to drink a glass of water, and in general, throughout the day your volume of liquid should be one and a half to two liters. While you are on a diet, do not resort to heavy physical activity, but Pilates, yoga or callanetics is even useful to practice.
Maya Plisetskaya bequeathed to scatter her ashes over Russia. She lived a long and fulfilling life. Prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR and a world-famous ballerina, she became a symbol of her era, a standard and an example to follow.
Family and childhood of Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya was born in Moscow into a huge Jewish family. After 6 years, her middle brother Alexander was born, who later became a choreographer, and six years later - her younger brother Azariy, a future choreographer.She had 11 uncles and aunts, and all of them were somehow connected with ballet and dance. For example, my mother's uncle Asaf Messerer was a virtuoso dancer and an excellent teacher.
The mother of the future great ballerina Rakhil Mikhailovna Messerer (nee) was the star of the Great Silent Cinema. She attracted the attention of both viewers and directors. Due to her characteristic appearance: dark hair and oriental features, she often got the roles of Uzbek women. True, the career of an actress had to be abandoned because of her husband and children.
Family of Maya Plisetskaya: with mother and brother
But Maya's father, Mikhail Emmanuilovich, held economic and diplomatic positions. At first he worked in the executive committee, then in the commissariats of foreign affairs and foreign trade. The father of the future star also took part in the production of films, where he met his future wife.
In 1932, he was appointed to manage the coal mines in Svalbard, and the whole family had to move. There he simultaneously served as Consul General of the USSR.
It was on the island of Svalbard that little Maya first appeared on the stage. 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 of the stage and public performances. She seemed to be preparing herself for a brilliant future and constantly sang, danced, improvised. In the family, it was decided upon returning to Moscow to give the fidget to the choreographic school. Seven-year-old Maya was sent to the class of the former soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Evgenia Dolinskaya.
In May 1937, Maya's father was taken away by Chekists and a year after his arrest, they were shot, suspecting him of espionage. A few months later, his wife Rachel was also arrested. This happened right at the Bolshoi Theater, at a time when The Sleeping Beauty was on stage and the aunt of the future ballerina Shulamith was performing. Rakhil Plisetskaya-Messerer received 8 years in prison as the wife of an enemy of the people. She, along with her newborn child (youngest son Azariy), was placed in the Akmola camp for the wives of traitors to the Motherland. Only thanks to the efforts of her close relatives, she was first transferred to a free settlement in Shymkent. And only in 1941 was her sentence commuted and allowed to return to Moscow.
The middle son Alexander was sheltered by Uncle Asaf, and 12-year-old Maya was adopted by her aunt Shulamith. A kind relative took in her orphaned niece so that she would not be sent to an orphanage. True, 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 humiliated her.
The beginning of the career of Maya Plisetskaya
The first significant performance at the Bolshoi Theater by Maya Plisetskaya took place on the eve of the fateful day for the Soviet Union. Less than a day before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the graduation concert of the choreographic school took place on the stage of the branch of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater.Maya Plisetskaya - The Swan (ballet film 1975)
But the war made its own adjustments to the further fate of prima. Since September 1941, Maya Plisetskaya's family has been evacuated to Sverdlovsk. Unfortunately, in the city it was impossible to continue studying or practice ballet.
To finish her studies, the 16-year-old girl decided to run away to Moscow, where even during the war, classes continued at the Moscow Choreographic School. She was again enrolled, but this time - immediately in the final class for the course of Elizaveta Gerdt and Maria Leontieva. In 1943, the training was completed, and Maya was immediately accepted into the staff of the Bolshoi Theater.
From the very first steps on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, Maya's individuality, her expressiveness and dynamics of dance, her special passion, manifested itself. Success was not long in coming. Plisetskaya received recognition in the ballet "Chopiniana", where she performed a mazurka. Maya's every jump evoked incessant 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 to climbing the stairs: she gradually climbed to her main roles. For example, in the ballet Sleeping Beauty, she was first the Lilac Fairy, then the Violante Fairy, and then Aurora. In Don Quixote, the ballerina danced almost all the female parts and, finally, got the role of Kitri.
Maya Plisetskaya - Raymond, 1959
In 1948 Maya danced Giselle in the ballet of the same name. And after Galina Ulanova left the theater for a well-deserved rest, Plisetskaya became a prima ballerina and received solo parts. Her unique dance style, flexibility, plasticity and graceful hand movement are recognized all over the world. She created her own unique style of ballet, which earned her worldwide fame.
True, not everything went smoothly in the career of a ballerina. With the chief choreographer of the Bolshoi Theater, Yuri Grigorovich, she could not get along, and over the years this confrontation only intensified.
In 1956, the theater troupe went on a foreign tour to England for the first time, but Maya Plisetskaya did not receive permission to leave the country. They tried to accuse her of espionage and for the next five years she was not allowed to travel abroad. But the ballerina successfully toured the country, winning the love of her compatriots. In 1959, Plisetskaya was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR.
Film career of Maya Plisetskaya
In 1952, Maya Plisetskaya made her first film appearance. It can be seen in the painting "Big Concert" by Vera Stroeva. Well, then roles in ballet films followed: "Swan Lake", "The Tale of the Little Humpbacked Horse" and "Anna Karenina". Prima Bolshoi was invited to the film-opera "Khovanshchina". The ballerina also participated in the film adaptation of the ballets Isadora, Bolero, The Seagull, Lady with a Dog. In 1974, she was invited, together with Bolshoi Theater soloist Bogatyrev, for the telenumber "Nocturne" to the music of Friedrich Chopin from the ballet "In the Night" by choreographer Jerome Robbins.Maya Plisetskaya - Bolero
In 1968, the ballerina played Betsy in the film adaptation of the novel Anna Karenina by Zarhi. Plisetskaya did an excellent job with her work, despite the difference in work on the theater stage and on the set. In some films, she even had roles with text. For example, in Bejart's ballets. Plisetskaya also starred as Desiree in the film "Tchaikovsky" by Talankin. Then Vaitkus called the dancer for the role of Čiurlionis's muse in the film "Zodiac".
In 1976, the actress played a ballet star in the TV movie Fantasia based on Turgenev's novel Spring Waters. She succeeded brilliantly in the role of Polozova. Choreographic duets were staged by choreographer Elizariev.
Maya Plisetskaya's diet is simple - do not eat
After feature films, documentaries began to be made. The main role again went to Plisetskaya. Television people became interested in the fate of the artist, the formation of her career, different facets of her personal and creative life. The brightest documentaries about Maya Mikhailovna: “Maya Plisetskaya. Familiar and unfamiliar” and “Maya Plisetskaya”. In addition, the tapes "Maya" directed by Sakagushi for Japanese TV and "Maya Plisetskaya" directed by Delyush for the French are also dedicated to her work. In the film “Maya Plisetskaya assoluta”, he showed a ballerina in a dance and there were invariably “swan” hand movements that glorified Maya to the whole world.
However, Maya herself believes that it is necessary to dance with the whole body. Legs, head, body and, of course, hands should participate. “It is important to dance to the music, not to the music,” says the ballerina. The creative motto of a celebrity can be described as follows: do not imitate anyone, turn movements into music. By the way, Maya Plisetskaya's dance never showed the sketches that her predecessors had made. The ballerina always reacted to the solos of musical instruments and emphasized the accents, sometimes with an eyebrow movement or a look. Maya Mikhailovna's dancing career turned out to be surprisingly long - she left the stage only at the age of 65.
Further career of Maya Plisetskaya
The ballerina not only performed on the stage of the theater, but also took on the role of director. At the Bolshoi Theater, she acted as a choreographer for the performances of Rodion Shchedrin's "Anna Karenina" (1972, together with N. I. Ryzhenko and V. V. Smirnov-Golovanov), "The Seagull" (1980), "Lady with a Dog" (1985 ). And she herself performed the main female parts in them.
The dance style of the ballerina has become the accepted canon. An unexpected turn in the fate of prima happened in 1983. She was offered to be the artistic director of the ballet of the Rome Opera and Ballet Theatre. Maya was in this post for a year and a half, periodically came to Rome. She staged "Raymonda" for the outdoor stage at the Baths of Caracalla, presented her "Isadora" and organized "Phaedra".
In 1985, Plisetskaya was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. And from 1988 to 1990 she headed the Spanish National Ballet in Madrid. For the Spanish troupe, she resumed the ballet "Vain Precaution" by Peter Gertel (choreographer - Alexander Gorsky) and introduced the "Carmen Suite" into the repertoire. Here she began cooperation with Montserrat Caballe. At the suggestion of the latter, Plisetskaya performed in a production of Giacomo Puccini's opera-ballet Wilisa. The ballerina also danced The Dying Swan to the accompaniment of the live voice of the opera singer.
In 1988, Maya Plisetskaya performed in the title role, staged especially for her by the artistic director of the flamenco troupe Jose Granero, the ballet "Mary Stuart" by Emilio de Diego.
In January 1990, Plisetskaya danced her last performance at the Bolshoi Theater. They became "Lady with a dog." The ballerina had to leave the Bolshoi Theater due to disagreements with the artistic director, which had continued from the very beginning of her career.
But the ballerina did not leave the stage, but continued to participate in concerts and give master classes. In the 1990s, Plisetskaya continued her collaboration with outstanding choreographers of the world: with the Marseille Ballet by Roland Petit and the Ballet of the 20th Century by Maurice Béjart. In 1992, at the Espace Pierre Cardin Theater, Plisetskaya performed the main role at the premiere of the ballet The Mad from Chaillot to music by Shchedrin. And she celebrated her 70th birthday on stage, performing the number "Ave Maya", staged for her by Maurice Bejart.
Despite her respectful age, the ballerina was active in social activities. In 1994, she organized an international ballet competition called "Maya" and was the chairman of the jury for this competition. A year later, she was elected honorary president of the Imperial Russian Ballet troupe.
Personal life of Maya Plisetskaya
As a star of the Bolshoi Theater, Maya was surrounded by many men. She wrote about her romances with ballet soloists Vyacheslav Golubin and Esfendyar Kashani. The ballerina has been married twice.
Her first husband, Maris Liepa, was also a theater soloist and dancer. They married in 1956 but divorced three months later.
Maya met her second husband Rodion Shchedrin while visiting Lily Brik. The ballerina and the composer did not seem to be very interested in each other. Plisetskaya was seven years older than Shchedrin. Only three years after they met, they began to meet and spent a vacation in Karelia. And in the autumn of 1958 they got married.
“He extended my creative life for at least twenty-five years,” Plisetskaya said about her husband. And her husband supported her in everything and defended her interests before the Soviet government. It was thanks to his efforts that the prima got the opportunity to travel abroad.
True, despite a happy family life, the couple never had children. Shchedrin protested, but Maya did not dare to give birth to a child and leave the stage. Her husband justified her, saying that ballet provides for a wonderful physique, and after childbirth, the figure of any woman inevitably changes. Many ballerinas, he argued, lost their profession due to pregnancy.
The last years of the life of Maya Plisetskaya
In 1993, Maya Plisetskaya became an honorary professor at Moscow State University.A year later, she released an autobiographical book, "I, Maya Plisetskaya." The next book came out only in 2007 in the form of a memoir Thirteen Years Later: Angry Notes in Thirteen Chapters. Three years later, she published the book "Reading my life ...".
And in 2000, as a result of a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation, she was chosen as the person of the year in the field of science, culture and art. This is how universal love manifested itself.
From the beginning of the 90s until the last days of her life, the prima and her husband lived in Munich. They were forced to stay there due to health problems. The doctors who helped Maya Mikhailovna to be in shape were found only in Germany. Also in 1993, the couple received Lithuanian citizenship.
Plisetskaya herself regretted that she rarely had to visit her homeland in recent years. She occasionally attended ballet competitions and appeared at the anniversaries of her colleagues.
Death of Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya died on May 2, 2015 in Munich at the age of 90 from a massive myocardial infarction. Farewell to the ballerina took place in Germany, and according to the will, the ashes of Plisetskaya will be united with the ashes of Rodion Shchedrin, after his death, and scattered over Russia.The death of Maya Plisetskaya was a loss for the whole world
Initially, on November 20, 2015, a creative evening was to be held at the Bolshoi Theater on the occasion of the anniversary of the star, her 90th birthday. Now, on this day, an evening in memory of the great ballerina will be organized.
Maya Plisetskaya's awards Maya Plisetskaya has countless different awards. In 1959 she was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR. She is also Honored Artist and People's Artist of the RSFSR. In 1985 she was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
The ballerina is a full cavalier of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France), Commander of the Order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, has the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Legion of Honor (France), the Lenin Prize, the Grand Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit for Lithuania”, Order of the Rising Sun III degree (Japan), Order of Isabella the Catholic.
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya is a great ballerina, a talented, unusual woman who conquered the whole world with her creativity. The biography of Maya Plisetskaya is full of ups and downs, the prima's career was a real climb up the steep stairs, and her personal life is full of love affairs.
During her long life, the prima not only danced ballet parts, but also starred with famous film directors, participated in productions dedicated to flamenco, was a choreographer, choreographer in several theaters around the world.
The great ballerina Maya Plisetskaya devoted her whole life and gave all her energy to ballet without a trace. Prima believed that this greatest art has no boundaries and national identity, and the viewer understands it on the verge of sensory perception.
The childhood of the great ballerina
The first person you think of when you hear the name of the ballet "Swan Lake" is Maya Plisetskaya, tender, light as a cloud. The short biography of the ballerina, set out on Wikipedia, contains quite Interesting Facts from the life of a prima, let's dwell on some of them.
The prima donna's father also had Jewish roots, he held high positions in economic positions, participated in the production of films, where he met his future wife. After the birth of children, Rachel was forced to leave her career and devote herself to organizing family life.
Numerous aunts and uncles admired the unusually nimble and graceful baby, predicting a bright future for her. Maya Plisetskaya said that nationality never prevented her from building a career, but then the Jews in the USSR were treated with coolness.
The year 1932 was marked for the family by moving to Cape Svalbard, where the father of young Maya was appointed to manage the mines. Upon returning to the mainland, it was decided to give the young playful fidget to study ballet without fail, and before that, her mother attracted her to participate in theatrical productions.
Maya's fate was decided, the girl began to dream of the stage and dancing, spent whole days in front of the mirror, imagining herself as an actress in front of the audience. And some time later, Maya became one of the students in the group of the legendary Dolinskaya, who left the Bolshoi Theater after the end of her dancing career.
Maya was saved from the orphanage by Aunt Shulamith, who adopted the girl right after the Chekists seized her mother. As the prima later admitted, the aunt was a real tyrant and demanded unquestioning obedience from the girl, humiliated and often scolded her. However, this forced the girl to practice with fury and even greater dedication, since during the dance Maya left all negative emotions.
Prima's ballet career
As Maya Plisetskaya herself recalled, her biography was filled with events. It is noteworthy that the first performance on stage coincided with the day the Nazis began military operations against the USSR. The ballerina briefly recalled during her interview on Channel One that she was overcome by a feeling of anxiety and anxiety, but Maya danced despite the empty hall. The Plisetskys were evacuated from Moscow to Sverdlovsk, but Maya returned and continued her studies.
The audience immediately noticed the novice ballerina, and met her passionate pas with unchanging applause. However, the unique grace of movements did not immediately bring her leading roles: for example, in the play "Sleeping Beauty" she had to dance two minor parts before the prima got the main one.
Later, Plisetskaya receives almost all the main roles, and she is assigned the status of prima after Ulanova leaves for a well-deserved rest. Almost immediately, a long-term confrontation between Plisetskaya and the chief choreographer begins, which will end with the departure of the ballerina from the theater.
1956 brought the grand ballerina new troubles: she was forbidden to go on a foreign tour with the theater, and the secret services accused her of espionage. During her long career, Plisetskaya danced almost all the leading roles, toured the entire former USSR with tours, and participated in productions by Italian, French and Spanish masters.
Film actress and choreographer
But in the film adaptation of Anna Karenina, she was entrusted with the role of Betsy, and Plisetskaya coped with her task perfectly. This was followed by the main roles in the films of Soviet and foreign directors, among which were such well-known works as:
- In "Zodiac" Plisetskaya played the muse of Chiurlionis.
- The painting "Tchaikovsky" for the ballerina became a landmark, and her Desire delighted critics.
- "Fantasy" became one of Plisetskaya's most famous works: as Maya herself later admitted, the character of the ballerina fully corresponded to herself.
Documentaries dedicated to the work of Plisetskaya began to be filmed after the prima danced the famous part of the dying swan in the ballet Swan Lake. The ballerina became a truly famous person, and journalists from many countries of the world interviewed her.
Plisetskaya was a multifaceted nature. It should be noted that the prima showed herself as a talented choreographer. Her productions at the Bolshoi Theater, the Roman Theater turned the classical interpretation of "Phaedra", "Raymonda" and "Isadora" upside down. Plisetskaya, during her foreign tour, became friends with the famous opera singer, and both of them participated in the innovative production of the ballet-opera Wilis.
Personal life
Plisetskaya was always surrounded by men, the ballerina took their attention and love for granted. Among her fans were famous dancers, directors, musicians and composers.
The first love story in Plisetskaya's life happened when the prima met Maris Liepa, they soon got married, but broke up three months later. The second husband of Maya Plisetskaya - Rodion Shchedrin - became her faithful companion until the end of his life, he supported the ballerina in everything and never demanded that she give up ballet.
They met by chance, at a party organized by Lilya Brik, but then they did not show interest in each other. A few years later, Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin spent a vacation together in one of the picturesque corners of Karelia, and later got married.
The couple lived happily together for many years, and the death of his wife for Shchedrin was a serious test. According to the will of the ballerina, her funeral should be special: her ashes and the ashes of her husband should be combined, and then scattered over Russia. Maya Plisetskaya is one of the most titled ballerinas, she was awarded orders and honorary titles from six countries of the world, which recognized the unique scale of her talent, and the ballet performances of the prima became one of the best in the history of dance art. Author: Natalia Ivanova
