Plisetskaya, Maya (mä`yä plēsĕts`käyä), 1925–, Russian dancer. Pliesetskaya became a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on graduating from its school in 1943. She soon gained recognition as one of the world's foremost ballerinas, combining flawless technique with a sensitivity to emotional nuance. Her roles ranged from Odette-Odile in the romantic Swan Lake to the passionate title role in Carmen. Her memoir, I, Maya Plistetskaya (tr. 2001), reveals the difficulties she suffered as an artist in the Soviet Union.

Plisetskaya, Maya (Mikhaylovna)

Maya Plisetskaya in Swan Lake, 1961.

(credit: Paris Match-Pictorial Parade)

(born Nov. 20, 1925, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Russian prima ballerina. She studied at the Bolshoi Ballet's school in Moscow and joined the company as a soloist in 1943. Noted for her technical virtuosity and ability to integrate acting with dancing, she toured worldwide with the Bolshoi Ballet and appeared as a guest artist with several companies, including the Paris Opéra. She also danced in several films, including Swan Lake (1957). In the 1980s she was a guest ballet director in Rome and then in Madrid.