Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Plisetskaya is the most outstanding dancer of the second half of the 20th century.
Immediately after graduation from the Moscow Choreography School she became well-known, creating her own style which is characterized by a brilliant technique, elegance, perfection of each individual gesture and pose, always in combination with her beautiful dramatic art and extraordinary musicality.
Her star part was the Dying Swan: she danced this (her) role more than 20.000 times within fifty years. She danced all classical leading roles as well as the Laurencia in the ballet of the same name by Krein, the Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet', the Carmen in the 'Carmen Suite', an extremely successful ballet after the music by Rodion Shchedrin.
Maya Plisetskaya worked very close together with Maurice Béjart, Roland Petit and Jerome Robbins.
Maya Plisetskaya has been married to the Russian composer R. K. Shchedrin since 1958.