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Maya Plisetskaya's Love Affair With Spain
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16371 |
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THE ARTS
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5 / 1989 |
2,192 Words |
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Maya Wallach
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The ominous peal of a bell rumbles through the theater, and the black stage is split by a shaft of light. A woman appears at the heart of the brightness, her bare arms weaving a sorceress' incantation, evoking the spirit of the ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots. Beheaded by order of Queen Elizabeth I in 1587, Mary Stuart is one of history's sadder figures, hardly a ballerina's dream--unless that ballerina happens to be Maya Plisetskaya.
Embattled Ballerina
Reigning prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Ballet--and perhaps of the century--Plisetskaya empathizes with the embattled Queen of Scots: "Life is a war." Honored with awards and material luxury, Plisetskaya is one of the Soviet Union's elite, yet she has been often denied what is a dancer's lifeblood: new works. Only once was a choreographer authorized to create a new role for her at the Bolshoi, and she had to fight constantly for any opportunity for artistic creativity.
Still, Plisetskaya has not been beheaded by her enemies--"yet," she cautions--and the tied may at last be turning now that she is in her sixties. In 1987 Plisetskaya was appointed artistic director of Spain's national ballet company, the Ballet del Teatro Lirico Nacional. Barely a year later, a long cherished dream of hers came true: She created and danced the lead in Jose Granero's Mary Stuart.
Plisetskaya was engaged to raise the Lyrical Ballet from provincial to international rank. Founded in 1979 by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to promote classical dance by and for Spaniards, the company is only slightly less youthful than its dancers. "The eldest dancer is twenty-six," Plisetskaya said last year. "They are wonderful dancers." Where she previously sought artistic expression only for herself, she is now responsible for a company of fifty dancers. The task does not feel like a burden. On the contrary, she feels it is liberating.
Simultaneously, Plisetskaya is giving herself and her company what she has always wanted, what all dancers need: expert training, new and challenging roles, and respect. Nor has she had to renounce her ties to Russia. She continues to perform with the Bolshoi for six months of every year and is surrounded by Russian friends and family while in Madrid.
Although born and raised in the icy reaches of Russia, Plisetskaya has always had an exuberance and dignity, qualities more often associated with Spaniards than Russians. Differences in language and age are bridged by a simpatico understanding: Her personality matches that of her company.
Plisetskaya's love affair with Spain began long before the Lyrical Ballet was founded. She was twenty-five years old and a principal dancer with the Bolshoi when she first danced the lead role of Kitri in Marius Petipa's Don Quixote in 1950. Almost forty years later, ballerinas are still attempting Kitri's "Plisetskaya leap," springing aloft with backs so arched that their heads touch their toes.
Cuban Alberto Alonso came to the Bolshoi in 1967 to choreograph Carmen for Plisetskaya. She succumbed to the idea almost immediately, but the Bolshoi had second thoughts. Carmen Suite was not the stylized, watered-down version of Spain a
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