Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya

Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya – an outstanding ballerina and choreographer, a soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre. She was born on 20 November 1925 in Moscow into the family of Mikhail Emmanuilovich Plisetsky and Rakhil Mikhailovna Messerer-Plisetskaya. She was the eldest of three children. In 1943 Plisetskaya graduated from the Moscow Choreographic School and was accepted into the company of the Bolshoi Theatre. She quickly became a soloist and attained the status of prima ballerina.

Plisetskaya performed with triumph in many countries around the world, including England, the United States, France and Italy. In 1966 she signed a letter opposing the rehabilitation of Stalin. In 1990, together with Ekaterina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliev and some other artists, she was dismissed from the Bolshoi Theatre, which caused a widespread public outcry. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Plisetskaya lived in Munich, from time to time coming to Moscow and Saint Petersburg with her husband. Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya died on 2 May 2015 in Munich of a massive myocardial infarction.