On 20 and 21 November the Mariinsky Theatre will be dedicating its performances to legendary ballerinas of the 20th century – Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya and Natalia Romanovna Makarova. On 20 November, Maya Plisetskaya's birthday, there will be a performance of Carmen-Suite and scenes from the ballet Don Quixote. Appearing on-stage for the memorial evening will be Alina Somova, Renata Shakirova, Andrei Yermakov, Vladimir Shklyarov and Alexander Sergeyev. In honour of Natalia Makarova, on 21 November there will be a performance of the ballet Giselle featuring Nadezhda Batoeva, Kimin Kim and Ivan Oskorbin.
Maya Plisetskaya, a ballerina of rare talent, acting expressiveness and charisma, was applauded at theatres throughout the world. Her skills as a dancer and as an actress made audiences empathise with her Odette in Swan Lake, follow each flap and flutter of the wings of her Dying Swan and in sheer delight keep their eyes glued to every soaring leap of her Laurencia. In Don Quixote she could leave her contemporaries deflated thanks to the whirlwind of her own spins, flawless fouettés and dazzling leaps around the stage and she endeared herself to audiences with the sincerity of her dance, by truly living every second of the role. Another Spanish woman who formed the legend of Plisetskaya's personality was her Carmen. In the Soviet Union, the ballerina had succeeded in creating Carmen-Suite which was staged by a foreign choreographer – Cuba's Alberto Alonso – and she had the courage to dance it. Performed at hundreds of theatres, this ballet became a symbol of Maya Plisetskaya's artistic individuality. And the melodies from Georges Bizet's opera, re-orchestrated by her husband Rodion Shchedrin and sounding totally fresh were a hymn to Carmen in the 20th century.
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya was a friend of the Mariinsky Theatre for many years and an honoured guest at its festivals and premieres. The theatre invariably saw in her a wise counsellor and supporter. Inspired by her, the works of Rodion Shchedrin brought to life on-stage with her direct involvement today hold an esteemed position in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre.
In memory of Maya Plisetskaya, the theatre's site is hosting an exhibition depicting the ballerina on-stage and in the various halls of the Mariinsky Theatre.
For audiences in many countries in the 1970s and 80s, Natalia Makarova's dance embodied the great traditions of the Russian school of classical ballet and, moreover, it embodied the Russian soul in the art of dance. Her Odette-Odile, her Juliet and her Aurora all delighted audiences of American Ballet Theatre, the Royal Ballet in London, the Ballet de Marseilles and many other theatres throughout the world. But it was in Leningrad that Natalia Makarova's dazzling career began. The emotional graduate with incredibly beautiful lines of the Leningrad Vaganova School of Dance was spotted immediately, and in the ten years for which she was with the Kirov Ballet (today the Mariinsky), Makarova danced a huge number of roles. She made her debut as Giselle in her first season at the theatre, and that was a role that long remained in the ballerina's repertoire. "This ballet came to mirror my maturity as a person and as a performer," Natalia Makarova commented, "No other ballet sat so easily with my physical characteristics, no other ballet has brought greater success or artistic satisfaction, and I have reflected on no other to the extent that I have reflected on Giselle."
In 1970 Natalia Makarova took the decision to remain in the West, and the next twenty years of her life as a ballerina were linked with the world's great stages as well as with the acclaim and admiration of audiences across the globe. But it was to be at her home theatre that Makarova would dance her final performance – in 1991 she ended her career with an appearance at the Mariinsky Theatre.
There are exhibitions dedicated to the anniversary of Natalia Makarova on the site and in the theatre foyer featuring selected photographs from the St Petersburg period of the ballerina's career.
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