“What did I endure for my life, which philosophy? The simplest. Simple - like a mug of water, like a breath of air ...” - Maya Plisetskaya.
Her talent is recognized by everyone who understands ballet. The prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater of 1948-1990, a laureate of all kinds of awards, a star of world significance, recognized at the highest level, a full-fledged successor to Galina Ulanova.
Who wrote the biography of Plisetskaya?
Plisetskaya wrote the biography herself. There were attempts to attract writers, but the result did not suit her. And she herself admits that the character is eccentric, sharp, albeit not malicious. I decided to write with my own hand. It turned out not bad, one can even say that the ballerina has literary talent. She wanted to express her feelings as they are, without filters of pretense and empty professional pathos. The result was a live autobiography, saturated with a personal character, which was reflected primarily in the dance.
Maya Plisetskaya’s dance is largely expressive, fiery, rebellious, movements are strong, somewhere even sharp, and the ballerina doesn’t always get into music like Ulanova, but harmonious, integral and inimitable. Hands with incredible plastic. Strong legs. In all this, her charm. They say the audience cried on sad scenes and experienced a rise during incendiary performances.
early years
Plisetskaya was born in 1925 - the troubled times of our country. In 1938 they shot and then rehabilitated her father and sent her mother to the camp for 8 years as "the wife of an enemy of the people." Maya remained a teenager living with her aunt, a ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater. The children's mind could not understand why the Soviet regime did this to its father, an ideological and crystal-honest communist who sincerely believed in the bright future of mankind and neglected the interests of the family for the sake of the Communist Party. But not only her family suffered from that policy. Children's memories, bitter, hungry, poor and full of despair. She writes about it as it is. As it was. Ballet breathed into her the desire to live on, to create, to do what works well. Then there was war, devastation, crowded barracks and again vigilant scammers. And she did what she could, lived and danced.
Plisetskaya assigns a huge role in training to ballet master A. Vaganova, who gave her a few lessons, calling Maya a “red crow” because of her hair color and carelessness. These classes played a crucial role in the development of ballerina techniques. Plisetskaya to a greater extent sought to show the soul of the dance, to make it expressive, and not filigree accurate or, as she believed, "dead." She managed to create characteristic performances that make a person tremble from the inside.
In his autobiography, Plisetskaya follows chronology, but makes frequent digressions, looking ahead and telling how this or that story connected with her life ended, and then returns to the chronological order.
Describing life, she shares a certain experience. Here, for example, is a quote from a biography that followed the narrative of prohibitions by the party nomenclature of the play "Anna Karenina":
I will give you advice, future generations. Listen to me. Do not humble yourself; do not humble yourself to the very edge. Do not humble yourself. Even then fight, shoot back, blow trumpets, beat drums, call telephones, send telegrams from the post offices, do not give up, fight until the last moment, fight, fight. Even totalitarian regimes retreated, it happened, before obsession, conviction, perseverance. My victories only rested on that. Nothing more! Character is destiny.
About the results of life
What did I endure for my life, what philosophy? The simplest one. Simple - like a mug of water, like a breath of air. People are not divided into classes, races, state systems. People are divided into good and bad. On the very good and the very bad. The only way. Bloodthirsty revolutionaries who frantically swore that bad people would finally come to be replaced by good ones, bullshit, and lied. There have been more bad ones in all ages, many more. The good ones are always an exception, a gift from Heaven. So many clever, obvious things have been pronounced for centuries - from Christ, Buddha, Confucius, Habakkuk. Did you hear, heed? So blood is pouring, lives are being ruined, destinies, hopes are distorted. This will continue to be the case, alas, no doubt. Human biology is like that. Envy, greed, treachery, lies, betrayal, cruelty, ingratitude ... Does it stand against - responsiveness, compassion, compassion, kindness, self-sacrifice? .. Pipes. Unequal battle. But in every generation, in every corner of the earth, in the spaces forgotten by God, Good People are born and bear their cross. Our land also rests on them. In Russian it is said very precisely: a village is not worth without a righteous.
According to Plisetskaya, Galina Vishnevskaya, who independently wrote her book Galina, prompted her to "take up the pen." In the work on the book, Plisetskaya used personal notebooks with small notes. Otherwise, the memory would be overwritten and confused with events "without blinking an eye." Letters of the ballerina Shchedrin helped a lot. Their abundance also testified in favor of the good writing inclinations of the great dance artist. Autobiography in places shines with literature, and in some places it is clumsy. Apparently, the sharpened and ruthless editorial hand did not touch the manuscript.
Why did Maya Plisetskaya write an autobiography?
As already noted, she was predisposed to literature. But it was not the love of literature that prompted the ballerina to decide on such a responsible job. She decided to express her point of view about the events of her life in order to refute the mass of inaccurate information circulated by the media sensationalists. Clear your name, tell a story from the first person. About loyalty to Shchedrin, friendship with Kennedy, the reasons for the suspicions of the KGB, people of art and more.
Bribes honesty and lack of star author. She admits that a good ballerina came out of her, but a worthless choreographer, or that the main role in the success was played by natural physical data, perseverance and her husband.
Who is the book for? First of all, not to descendants. They are not here. She had no children. She, like an occasional lonely tree, withering in a sultry desert, open to all the winds and different senses, standing in front of everyone. And to this day it continues to stand in its place.
Plisetskaya addressed her book to a wide circle of readers, lovers of ballet, art and just good people. She completed her journey on May 2, 2015 in Munich.
She was almost 90.