I, Maya Plisetskaya

Description

Maya Plisetskaya, one of the world’s foremost dancers, rose to become a prima ballerina of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet after an early life filled with tragedy and loss. In this spirited memoir, Plisetskaya reflects on her personal and professional odyssey, presenting a unique view of the life of a Soviet artist during the troubled period from the late 1930s to the 1990s. Plisetskaya recounts the execution of her father in the Great Terror and her mother’s exile to the Gulag. She describes her admission to the Bolshoi in 1943, the roles she performed there, and the endless petty harassments she endured, from both envious colleagues and Party officials. Refused permission for six years to tour with the company, Plisetskaya eventually performed all over the world, working with such noted choreographers as Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart. She recounts the tumultuous events she lived through and the fascinating people she met—among them the legendary ballet teacher Agrippina Vaganova, George Balanchine, Frank Sinatra, Rudolf Nureyev, and Dmitri Shostakovich. And she provides fascinating details about testy cocktail-party encounters with Khrushchev, tours abroad when her meager per diem allowance brought her close to starvation, and KGB plots to capitalize on her friendship with Robert Kennedy. Gifted, courageous, and brutally honest, Plisetskaya brilliantly illuminates the world of Soviet ballet during an era that encompasses both repression and cultural détente. Still prima ballerina assoluta with the Bolshoi Ballet, Maya Plisetskaya also travels around the world performing and lecturing. At the Bolshoi’s gala celebrating her 75th birthday, President Vladimir Putin presented her with Russia’s highest civilian honor, the medal for service to the Russian state, second degree. Tim Scholl is professor of Russian language and literature at Oberlin College. Antonina W. Bouis is the prize-winning translator of more than fifty books, including fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs by such figures as Andrei Sakharov, Elena Bonner, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Contents Foreword Preface Chapter One. The Dacha and Sretenka Street Chapter Two. What I Was Like at Five Chapter Three. Relatives Chapter Four. Spitzbergen Chapter Five. I Study Ballet Chapter Six. Back in School and Father’s Arrest Chapter Seven. My Mother Disappears Chapter Eight. Chimkent Chapter Nine. Concert for the Cheka Chapter Ten. Tchaikovsky’s Impromptu Chapter Eleven. The War Chapter Twelve. My First Year at the Bolshoi Theater Chapter Thirteen. The Apartment on Shchepkinsky Passage Chapter Fourteen. Mastering the ABCs of the Theater Chapter Fourteen. Mastering the ABCs of the Theater Chapter Sixteen. Swan Lake Chapter Seventeen. Youth Festivals Chapter Eighteen. My Injuries, My Healers Chapter Nineteen. Who’ll Get Whom! Chapter Twenty. Stalin’s Birthday Chapter Twenty-One. I Dance in Don Quixote, I Dance in Golovanov’s Opera Chapter Twenty-Two. Life on the Road and the End of the Stalinist Era Chapter Twenty-Three. My Trip to India Chapter Twenty-Four. Persecution Chapter Twenty-Five. How I Didn’t Go to London Chapter Twenty-Six. While the Company Was in London Chapter Twenty-Seven. How I Dressed Chapter Twenty-Eight. What a Person Needs Chapter Twenty-Nine. Shchedrin Chapter Thirty. Life on Kutuzovsky Prospect Chapter Thirty-One. I Go to America Chapter Thirty-One. I Go to America Chapter Thirty-Three. How We Were Paid Chapter Thirty-Four. Paris Meetings Chapter Thirty-Five. Work with Yakobson Chapter Thirty-Six. Why I Did Not Stay in the West Chapter Thirty-Seven. Marc Chagall Draws Me Chapter Thirty-Eight. November 20 Chapter Thirty-Nine. How Carmen Suite Was Born Chapter Forty. Work with Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart Chapter Forty-One. A Lyrical Digression Chapter Forty-Two. My Ballets Chapter Forty-Three. My Ballets (Continued) Chapter Forty-Four. I Want Justice Chapter Forty-Five. Work in Italy Chapter Forty-Six Work in Spain Chapter Forty-Seven. Untitled Chapter Forty-Eight. Years of Wandering Chapter Forty-Nine. Curfew