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Interview with Maya Plisetskaya, a famous Russian ballet dancer (continued, part 3)
“AiF”: - But “Dying Swan” – your signature piece – was performed neither in Paris no in Moscow. Nobody dared to dance the number you had been dancing for all your creative life, since 14 till 75. How did it appear?
M. P. – This ballet was produced for me by my aunt, Sulamith Messerer. She was inspired for this by the fact that a ballet dancer couldn’t do without a portable number in those years. We concertized in village halls with uneven floors, or in Kremlin where the floors are first-rate, but where there is no place and no time to warm-up… The number was very successful, and despite the fact I had to appear with my back at the public to distract attention from my disadvantageous feet, the audience concentrated on my arms.
“AiF”: - Have you ever counted how many times you have performed this number in your lifetime?
M. P.: - It’s hard to count. Once I tried to count how many times I danced “The Swan Lake”. It was about 800 times. Taking into consideration the fact that “The Dying Swan” is a pas seul requiring neither decorations nor orchestra, I couldn’t count the number of its performances. Maybe it was 50,000 or even 100,000 times. Meanwhile I wanted the emotions put into this image never to repeat.
“AiF”: - Formerly Soviet ballet was concidered the best one. And how do matters stand with our ballet nowadays?
M. P.: - Now ballet is wonderful everywhere. They never danced before like now, neither in Russia, nor abroad. And what an amazing shape the dancers have! They are all like models, slim, with beautiful legs, high… That was not the case before. What were the ballerinas like in my day? Pathetic specimens!
“Aif”: - Why were all the ballet dancers known by name in the past, and now there is only Anastasia Volochkova who is a household name?
M. P.: - She’s in the public eye. She appears frequently, and she’s in general a beautiful woman, pleasant to look at. So people do it, that’s what I think. But she isn’t working in th theatre now, and it seems to me that a ballet dancer must by all means work every day, because when you skip a week, your legs are half they were before. It’s like in sport.
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Interview with Maya Plisetskaya, a famous Russian ballet dancer (continued)
“AiF”: - And you’re a perfectionist, Maya Mikhailovna! You perfect your pen movements as you do on the stage! And who appraises your work? Your readers?
M. P. – These are people who are interested in the lives of actors and sportsmen. I started in Soviet times. And everything I wrote in my books is absolutely veracious, I can swear to it even now. When one of my acquaintences who knew all my life was told rhat I must have had exaggerated, he answered; “On the contrary, sha has understated”.
But I neither exaggerated nor understated. I wrote only the truth. I have never been keen on fancies. I wrote for those who are interested in the life of those times, not only ballet, but the life of people and our country. You can find all of it there.
“AiF”: - Have you forgiven those who have made trouble for you? The impostor daughter, the press which is slinging dirt at you?
M. P.: - For what reason should one forgive bad people? They remain bad. I tell you upright that I haven’t forgiven or forgotten.
Maintain the Reputation
“Aif”: - You’ve recently celebrated your jubilee! How was it held?
M. P.: - My jubilee was celebrated by two theatres in Moscow and in Paris. In Paris it was a luxurious theatre on Champs Elysees where Dyaghilev used to start his famous Russian seasons, and in Moscow the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre. Today’s best ballet dancers performed in a big concert program.
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Interview with Maya Plisetskaya, a famous Russian ballet dancer
Maya Plisetskaya is 85, but she is slender, active and witty, and meetings with her gladden both old-time ballet admirers and the new generation who are just learning the ABC of worshipping Terpsichore.
Without Diplomacy and Retouch
“AiF”: - Maya Mikhailovna, you have recently published your third book, “Reading My Life”, which combines two you’d written earlier. What did rouse you to write all your memoirs?
M. P. – The first book “I, Plisetskaya” was based on my diaries. A great amount of entries has amassed, and of course I wouldn’t be able to write anything without them. Unfortunately, human memory can’t retain everything. In my diaries there was everything, even dates, which are quite impossible to memorize! I wanted to tell what and how happened to me in fact. I wanted to call a spade a spade, show everything in its true colours, without diplomacy and retouch.
“AiF”: - Right, at the beginning of 90-s it was enough for you to say “I, Plisetskaya”, and your autibiography was snapped up. The second book was entitled “Thirteen Years Later”, but it had luck, too. Why is it so?
M. P.: - This book had a subtitle “Angry Notes in Thirteen Chapters”. I wasn’t going to write it, but then suddenly made up my mind for it. As I had conjectured, my first truthful book didn’t please the people I wrote about. But the thing that surprised me most was that it offended people I didn’t write about at all! And I had to take up a pen again and continue writing. I wrote everything myself, and it’s quite a toil. I had been writing these thirteen chapters for four years.
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First notebook entry: Introducing myself
Hi! I have just graduated from my home town Teacher Training University, Philological department. I'm now teaching English, but sometimes I'm not sure if I'm speaking correctly. That's why I would like to improve my English with the help of this site, and have my messages corrected if errors creep into them))) In my turn, I would be glad to help everyone with the difficulties of Russian))) Feel free to write to me!
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