2025Centenary Of The Birth Of Maya Plisetskaya - Set

Born in Moscow in 1925, Maya Plisetskaya suffered the same tragic fate as millions of Soviets. Her engineer father was shot under Stalin in 1938, and her mother, a film actress, was sent to a camp in Kazakhstan as a “family member of a traitor to the motherland”. Maya was taken in by her aunt, a ballerina, and her uncle, a dance instructor. In 1943, she was accepted into the Bolshoi Ballet and was quick to make her mark. She would go on to dance with the company with almost fifty years. Maya was one of only a handful of Soviet ballerinas to be awarded the supreme distinction of “Prima ballerina assoluta”. Nicknamed the “Callas of ballet”, she performed many of the most iconic roles in classical dance and excelled in the great Russian ballets such as Raymonda and Swan Lake, in which she appeared nearly 800 times. An undisputed star of ballet, she was known for her remarkable style, extraordinary technique, and exceptional talent for performance.