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Legendary Bolshoi ballerina Maya Plisetskaya dies at 89 ― RT News

As tributes poured in from the world over, Russia's prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, called her a "genius," and her passing "an end of an era."

Known as both a superlative technical and dramatic performer, Plisetskaya was a mainstay on the stage of Russia’s premier ballet for more than five decades, retiring as a soloist only in 1990, at the age of 65.

Born into a prominent Russian-Jewish artistic family, Maya saw her parents arrested, and her father executed on trumped-up political charges during Stalin’s purges in the late 1930s.

She was accepted into the Bolshoi at eighteen, and soon became one of its stars.

But her rise to international fame came when her ban on international travel was personally lifted by Nikita Khruschev in 1959, a year before she became the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi.

As she traveled the world, performing her trademark piece, The Dying Swan, and the lead parts in Swan Lake , Spartacus, and The Sleeping Beauty, she became synonymous with Soviet ballet itself, which was undergoing a resurgence.

As the 1970s and 1980s went by, Plisetskaya became as famous for her longevity as much as her prowess, her silhouette unchanged, and her movement as graceful.

In 1983, she became one of the first Soviet celebrities allowed to work for Western dance companies without having to defect, when she became the artistic director of the Rome Opera Ballet.

From the 1990s she split her time between Russia and Europe, one half of a power couple with Rodion Shchedrin, a virtuoso pianist and world-renowned composer. Despite being married for over 50 years, Plisetskaya never had children, saying “it was a choice between a career and childcare, and I chose the former, a decision my husband grudgingly accepted.”

Mariinsky Theatre

We are saddened to hear that Maya Plisetskaya, one of the greatest ballerinas of all time, has passed away today. http://fb.me/6FMAKfHC9

プリセツカヤさん死去　８９歳　２０世紀最高のバレリーナ　日本を「第二の故郷」と呼んだ親日家 - 産経ニュース

　ロシア・バレエの殿堂モスクワのボリショイ劇場で長年プリマを務め「２０世紀最高のバレリーナ」と称されたマイヤ・プリセツカヤさんが２日、滞在先のドイツの病院で心臓発作のため死去した。８９歳だった。ロシア主要メディアが伝えた。

　１９２５年モスクワ生まれ。１８歳でボリショイ劇場に入団すると間もなく頭角を現し、４７年に主役を演じた「白鳥の湖」は世界的に称賛を浴びた。６０年にボリショイ劇場のプリマとなり、「眠れる森の美女」「瀕死の白鳥」などで不動の名声を築いた。

　６５歳でボリショイ劇場のソリストを退いたが、その後も各国に招かれて舞台に立ち続けたほか、振り付けや演出にも取り組んだ。

　　日本を「第二の故郷」と呼び約４０回訪日。日本のバレエ界の発展に貢献したとして、１１年には旭日中綬章を受章した。