I, Maya Plisetskaya - Excerpt

Dance Magazine, Oct, 2001

When tomatoes at the markets were 10 to 15 rubles a kilogram. So there's the choice. Have a salad of green market tomatoes--or go to the Bolshoi four times. In Sverdlovsk I chose food for the soul.

Mita's forecasts were wrong. The Bolshoi was evacuated to Kuibyshev, and the ballet school went to a small town, Vasilsursk, on the Volga [not Sverdlovsk]. This accidental mistake cost me dearly. An entire year, from 15 and one-half to 16 and one-half, I spent without working at ballet. That was my year for standing in line. Gradually, I was overtaken by panic. Another year like that and I could kiss ballet goodbye.

I noticed an item in the paper that said that the remaining members of the troupe in Moscow had given a premiere on the Bolshoi's Second Stage. The Bolshoi itself was closed. Then we heard that part of the school had remained behind, too. Studies continued. It was like a bolt of electricity. I had to go to Moscow. Like Chekhov's three sisters, I kept repeating to myself, "To Moscow, to Moscow, to Moscow..." But how? You needed a special pass. We had no influential friends. Going to offices trying to explain why and what for would be a waste of time. Who would listen to some girl about ballet, training, physical conditioning, teachers?

I decided to take a desperate step--to make my way into Moscow illegally. Mother was in a panic and tried to talk me out of it. "They'll pick you up and arrest you."

"Let them!" I responded. "Time's running out." ... It wasn't easy getting a train ticket. It was expensive, and we had almost no money. And you couldn't buy one without a pass. The hand of Providence led me [to] the chess player Rokhlin, who offered to help. He was married to the ballerina Valentina Lopukhina, who would extend a helping hand to me a few years later, too. Both are no longer with us....

The train took five days.... The whole time I pondered whether to get out at the stop before Moscow and walk the rest of the way. Or to risk it all, counting on the crowds to conceal me. I repeat, had no pass allowing me into Moscow I decided to take the gamble. And I won. I attached myself to a limping old man, carrying his bag, which pleased him greatly, and his sincere attention helped me slip past the military patrol at the station doors. And--I was in Moscow.

Taking several trolleys, I reached Mita's apartment ... Luckily, Mita herself opened the door.... We talked all night and in the morning we went to the school building on Pushechnaya. My heart was beating as if I had just completed a difficult solo variation. People were happy to see me. No one asked how I had returned to a closed city, whether I had a pass, whether Mother was with me.

Maria Mikhailovna Leontyeva (E.P. Gerdt [Plisetskaya's regular teacher] had been evacuated) taught the final, graduating class. She was also a former dancer of the Maryinsky Theater. As I write, I am amazed to see that all my sources lie in St. Petersburg, even though by birth and character I am Muscovite. Maria Mikhailovna agreed to take me in, not worried about my lost year.