Maya Plisetskaya in Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky

[gregorykahndc]

I truely matter and I say Maya is the top like the Tower of Pisa and the smile on the Mona Lisa..

[itsonlykat]

wow just amazing from Maya, love her interpretation!

[tayto179]

There is so much wrong with this performance!  Gah!

[delmoral73]

Maya at her best! Beautiful.......

[GLAMAZONinc]

beautiful!

[SuperGuillaumin]

MERCI CHERS AMIS CAR RIEN DE PLUS BEAU EN CE MONDE;.........

[LeTerrible2008]

She was perfection. I have seen her in Paris and in Avignon in th '60s and '70s - she was grace personified.

[wolframg1]

Exeptional. undoubitable than Maia is best of the best,Maybe as Odette play the best of her roles.

[IndiaHicks1]

RudyCat 8 I totally agree that they have proven themselves that's why I don't say anything negative even if it's my opinion.lol Your right if I ever get there then I don't wanna here no ones opinions on my techinque cause obviously that person deserves the role they get. Even if I'm in the corpe de ballet.

[prn4ustat]

so beautiful!!! so mesmerizing.

[federicoxxl]

Por suerte este mamarracho no baila más.

[aiko7909]

i saw margot fonteyn n maya's odette, each ballerina have their own intrepetation of being an odette hehehhe......but two of them are really GREAT!!!

[dancingwithoutwords]

Ho-rri-ble ...such an aggressive version...0 - O , I can not effort this old dancers...such a turns...is this swan lake or is she in rush just because she want to be like a twister) hahaha ...good for the museum of the ballet evolution...from the rude to the finest ...

[nandacarmen]

Maya is fantastic! She is technically perfect!

Uma das maiores bailarinas de sempre!

Genial!

[maldoror26]

Thanks!

[brewskyxxx]

Comparing the 1957 version to this one is different. Odette is much softer and more flowing than in her 1957 version. Does anybody else agree? I think she is technically better in this and she is twenty years older!!!

[calomeni]

Yes, I completely agree with you. Here Maya is much more softer and so exquisite! Look at her entrance! That's perfection!

[afreakanature]

she has THE biggest false eyelashes like...EVAR! hahaha

[bibi5027]

@afreakanature it is ballet,and teatre,you moron

[gyorgybaan]

when was this? what year?

[sergshal]

1973

[Ruk8mini]

Fantastic! BRAVO!!!

[BalletFreak107]

one of my fav. ballerina's of all time!

[rudycat8]

You know I wish Youtube would just disable all comments. None of the famous ballerinas are really open to "Peanut Gallery" criticism. If you see them in a professional dance company on stage doing a lead role, then I would say they have already proven themselves to THE PEOPLE WHO TRULY MATTER. Criticism should really remain unsaid by people like us.

[brewskyxxx]

Rudycat8, If Maya ever reads these comments most of them are great!! I mean this is Maya we are talking about.

[erinundra]

I couldn't agree with you more.

All these fireside 'experts' and their vacuous comments are a real turn off.

[swanningaround]

Wrong, Rudy. Everyone matters. People like Maya played to the masses, not just "the people who truly matter". As far as Tchaikovsky was concerned, the people who truly mattered were men!

[rudycat8]

Oh give it a rest, would you? If you took offense to my comments, then you didn't understand what I was trying to say.

[swanningaround]

Who is this addressed to? I don't think anyone has taken offense.

[SugarTomAppleRoger]

@rudycat8 Sorry to dsappoint you. Even the great Justin Beiber comes in for criticism. Not be me of course... :)

[SjimboR]

@rudycat8 wow youre so right I hate all those people whine whine!

Thats what you wanna hear right?

[amazingkiss16]

That was breathtaking to watch. The fluidity of her movements amaze me.

[actor001]

Maya is one of my favorites assolutas

Her Odette is always delicious to watch

The entrance , the Adagio , the variation but the coda makes me get freeze

she has that amazing hands and arms and her facial expressions are something that i dont see this days

Brava Maya!

[1psoas9]

When was this? SO different from how we stage it now, by moonlight almost in the dark....

[Lidewijke]

I think 1977, but I think this was just for the film. I believe that really on stage they also did it in the dark..

[Lidewijke]

Or is it 1974, I'm not sure.

[radostsguy]

And Pavlova, who has now passed away, really defined modern classical ballet (huh?) She used to turn up at the Bolshoi to coach the kids when she was in her 90's! And of course, the kids worshipped at her feet.

[swanningaround]

hmmm. Anna died when she was quite young in her forties of pneumonia, wandering around outside of a train in Holland in the cold with only light clothing. Her train was delayed, and she wanted to know what was happening. She spend much of her time overseas from the Soviet Union, in many distant places such as Mexico and South Arfica.

[radostsguy]

Oh. I'm sorry. I must have mixed her up with somebody else. Is it Maya herself?

[swanningaround]

rado. You probably are thinking of Pavlova. She did return to Europe and did pass on "tips" to young children starting out. This was in her 40s though and not her 90s.

She did live in London, in her beloved Ivy House, complete with a lake with swans of course. Her ashes were buried not far from there in Golders Green cemetary. It understand her ashes were recently sent back to Russia for burial.

[chiefthegreat]

Did she loose the balance in the last 3 seconds ?? And did he have to hold her ?

It completely looks like that ...

[aliceshartava]

really? i don't see that at all.

[radostsguy]

No. That's part of the dance.

Maya, Maya! She was more than a great ballerina. She was a woman of steel! Being Jewish, she was shall we say, "picked on" by the Party. She never got the same perks that the other members of the Bolshoi got. But her basic attitude seems to have been "F*** You, comrades" and she would proceed to her beloved Bolshoi to dance. She was in the true sense of the phrase, a Hero of the Soviet Union. You will dance forever, Maya!

[Timurito]

She wasn't Jewish. Her origin is from Lithuania and other part Russian. Info from her own book

[blancusha]

Maya Plisetskaya was born in Moscow into a prominent family of Jewish artists. Her father was executed during the Stalinist purges, and her mother Rachel Plisetskaya (or Ra Messerer), a silent-film actress, was arrested and sent to Gulag.

[ecrowders]

Mother of Maya was born in Lithuania, Maya was born to a prominent Jewish family in Moscow. Not a single Russian has a different view of Maya's origin. BTW, "Jewish" or "Russian" to a Russian ear means very different things than to an English-speaking audience.

[ThaMich]

Para mí es la mejor bailarina del mundo. Perfecta, bella, armonía y transmite la música de Peter Tchaikosky en lo más profundo del alma.

Lizandra

[Toujoursici]

simply lovely

[mothersgrave]

How can you even compare ballet on film to it in person. Although I must say my mother and grandmother have said she was the greatest prima ballerina they have ever seen.

[Thannus37]

I actually saw the Boloshoi perform the Swan Lake. Maya P was quite old then (more than 25 years ago). Still the entire performance was exquisite and a real treat!

[anrianri7]

Maya Plisetskaya is just amazing i tell y'alls amazing..... no wonder she's d best of 'em all!

[swanningaround]

Absolutely. There is only one ballerina to compare her to. That's the beautiful Anna Pavlova. These two ladies define the very meaning of the word ballerina.

[freebabydolldancer]

i agree with you but i think that ekaterina maximova is also a great dancer. I espacialy like her perfomance of don quixote. I think the way she dance is amzing. I love her energy. But i like pavlova and plitskaya too.

[Benny190891]

gee ive left a lot of comments hey! lol

[Benny190891]

So in that context u cant really argue that plisetskaya has better technique than guillem or zakharova and therefore i dont think that maya communicates the emotions of the swan as well as the modern day ballerinas do!

[swanningaround]

O dear! I couldn't disagree with you more. Plisetskaya is for me the best ballerina who ever lived. She is pure class alongside any male dancer. Unlike Fonteyn, she doesn't only shine when dancing with Nureyev.

[alissabru]

You are absolutely right. Plisetskaya is unique, she is as you said : a pure class!!!!

[brewskyxxx]

you are joking with that reply!! There is no one who compares to her. You obviously are new to ballet.

[Benny190891]

yeh, alright-i accept that ballet isnt jus a sport-but art is made of diffrnt emotions which r portrayed (in ballet atleast) by the way ppl move. E.g. if a dancer is tryin 2 portray a pure swan n she has awful technique (plisetskaya's is average... ish) n they move in a messy and uncontrolled way then they're not gonna b very effective in communicating a pure swan!

[kurpitsakuningatar]

Surely you know, Benny, that ballet isn't only about technique. This is art, not sports.

And Plisetskaya's 48 years old in this clip. I think she's a great role model to any dancer today.

[Benny190891]

I'll accept that she may have had very good technique for back then, but i have a feeling that it is for the very reason that she doesnt have the adequate technique or strength to dance slowly and make it look beautiful that these old ballerinas must dance the classics at a faster pace. Sorry again! haha, thanks for your comment though!

[Benny190891]

you see jcliff i have to disagree about the passion and the speed aswell because i think that this is too fast-and therefore she doesn't have as much opportunity to embrace the moment like the modern day ballerinas do, or create that kindov flowing, slow-motion quality that the music evokes.

[calbalgal]

i think she looks amazing and maya's technique is better than most ballerina's today, maybe not freakish high (she is really flexible though) extensions but she has everything else!

[brewskyxxx]

Modern day ballerinas do not have the emotion that Maya has in this performance. That's what is lacking today in modern day dancers. Just watch how she uses her facial expressions and the way she moves her head and neck altogether. It is unbelievable.

[jcliff26]

Sorry Benny, but her technique, for her day, was only rivaled by Alicia Alonzo. Plus, the ballerinas you mentioned do have better legs and feet, but NOT musicality nor passion, and everyone today dances all the classics way too slow. She is not a legendary ballerina for nothing!

[Benny190891]

sorry guys but i think it's kindov gross... if you look at sylvie guillem, svetlana zakharova or lucia lacarra they have much more fluid movements and they make it look a lot easier (plus they're not fat). But then this must be a VERY old video so i spose it's a great standard for back when it was filmed. But being a dancer i cant help but cringe at her technique... sorry

[kurpitsakuningatar]

Well, according to what I've read, Plisetskaya was one of the ballerinas who created the whole swan style. That's why her Swan Lake became so famous. Most of the ballerinas today, more fluid, better technique, skinny (do you really mean Plisetskaya's fat??) - they're just trying to be like her.

[Benny190891]

hmmm, i have to doubt that they're trying to replicate exactly what plisetskaya did, but maybe more the style that she evoked. I think that the ballerinas of today would more create their own character of the swan, make their dancing seem more genuine-because if they were trying to evoke someone else's dancing then it would ruin their individuality. Anyway even if she did create the floating movement ideology of odette i still think that the current great ballerinas do it better!

[brewskyxxx]

Absolutely!

[ssouldancer]

what i kno about ballet is =0 ...but i like it i think is gorgeous...itz...art...i can feel what she feels...i...i just........gorgeous

[jewingten]

Wow! She is one one of the prettiest odettes that I've ever seen!!! She is soooooo gorgeous!

[sundaegirl75]

she looks like a doll :-). so beautiful...thanks for posting

[morganka]

SHe's just excellent, perfect artist

[anniemihn]

Plisetskaya is like Baryshnikov: she is so good technically that she surpasses it and can think only in the role, in her art. What a extraordinary artist she is!

[dhiemart32]

i love tchaikovsky and i love his music, i think that this kind of music is made for soul.

[mariogorga]

I saw Plisetskaya doing Swan Lake when she was in her 50's and still DIVINE as always..