Saint Petersburg - Anna Karenina - Maya Plisetskaya 15/20 Nov 2025

 

Maya Plisetskaya

There are names in ballet that are admired, and then there are names that alter the very course of the art.

Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya, born on 20 November 1925, belongs irrevocably to the latter. A legend not only of Russian ballet but of world culture, she was a phenomenon whose artistry transcended national borders, political boundaries, and stylistic categories. To speak of Plisetskaya is to speak of an era—one marked by courage, defiance, musicality beyond measure, and a dramatic intelligence that reshaped the language of classical dance.

In November, as the world approaches what would be her 100th birthday, St. Petersburg prepares to honor her with a week of performances that promise to turn the Mariinsky Theatre into the epicenter of global dance. These days are not merely performances; they are acts of remembrance, celebrations of an artist who changed ballet forever, and tributes to a woman whose shadow still falls beautifully across the stage.

The Unrepeatable Maya Plisetskaya

Plisetskaya possessed the rare gift of making roles entirely her own. Her Kitri in Don Quixote was not simply virtuosic—it was definitive, fiery, and irresistible. Her Odette-Odile blended immaculate technique with psychological nuance. Her Carmen Suite, created for her by Rodion Shchedrin, was a revolutionary reimagining of a classic femme fatale, sculpted with sharp angles, feline tension, and an authority that no dancer before or since has matched.

And her Dying Swan—those few minutes of shimmering fragility—became an icon of expressive minimalism.

For decades she was a beloved friend of the Mariinsky Theatre, an honored guest at premieres and festivals, and an artistic voice whose insight shaped the theatre’s repertoire. Many of Shchedrin’s works, born from their artistic partnership, hold a distinguished place in the Mariinsky to this day. It is therefore fitting that the theatre now pays tribute not only to her memory but also to the enduring power of the ballets she inspired.

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A Week of Anna Karenina: Four Women, Four Universes

Rodion Shchedrin’s Anna Karenina—a ballet of sweeping emotion, intricate musical architecture, and devastating human drama—returns to the Mariinsky stage in a series of performances dedicated to both Plisetskaya and Shchedrin. Few ballets are so intimately tied to the soul of the artist who inspired them; few roles offer a dancer such psychological richness.

This week brings four Annas, each shaped by a different temperament, dramatic instinct, and musical sensibility.

November 15 – 14:00

Featuring: Olesya Novikova, Islom Baimuradov, Alexander Sergeev

The luminous Olesya Novikova opens this series. A dancer of crystalline technique and refined musicality, Novikova embodies Anna with a classical purity and emotional delicacy that promise a reading of the role rich in introspection. Her lines, always exquisite, seem to breathe with Tchaikovskian melancholy. Paired with Islom Baimuradov and Alexander Sergeev—artists of exceptional dramatic intelligence—this performance will undoubtedly bring forth the ballet’s quiet, aching poetry.

November 15 – 19:00

Featuring: Viktoria Tereshkina, Yevgeny Deryabin, Roman Belyakov

The evening performance brings my personal favourite: Viktoria Tereshkina, one of the greatest ballerinas of our time. Tereshkina’s dancing possesses a rare combination of power, majesty, and sculptural clarity. Her Anna is not fragile; she is formidable, proud, and tragically human. Few dancers can command the stage with such authority, and the drama of Shchedrin’s score seems to radiate through her entire presence. With Deryabin and Belyakov as her partners, this will surely be a performance of thrilling intensity.

November 17 – 19:00

Featuring: Ekaterina Kondaurova, Yevgeny Deryabin, Konstantin Zverev

Ekaterina Kondaurova—intellectual, magnetic, sculptural—approaches Anna with a psychological depth that transforms every gesture into narrative. She is a dancer who thinks in chiaroscuro, in contrasts of light and shade, making her interpretation uniquely compelling. The partnership with Deryabin and Zverev enhances the dramatic tension that lies at the heart of the ballet.

November 19 – 19:00

Featuring: Renata Shakirova, Islom Baimuradov, Alexander Sergeev

Renata Shakirova brings a different energy: youthful, vibrant, impulsive. Her attack, speed, and fearless theatricality make her Anna a portrait of emotional turbulence. This performance, with Baimuradov and Sergeev, will surely highlight the ballet’s more visceral dimensions.

Four interpretations. Four visions of womanhood, passion, vulnerability, and fate. Each cast illuminates a different facet of Shchedrin’s masterpiece. And together they create a living tribute to Plisetskaya, who shaped this ballet with her spirit long before it reached the stage.

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20 November — “Maya Plisetskaya: A Portrait of an Era”

Mariinsky II, 19:00

Dedicated to the 100th birthday of Maya Plisetskaya

The week culminates in a grand gala—a celebration not only of a ballerina, but of a century she helped define.

The cast reads like a gathering of stars:

Viktoria Tereshkina

Renata Shakirova

Nadezhda Batoeva

Oxana Skorik

Ekaterina Kondaurova

Maria Iliushkina

Yana Peneva

Elena Yevseyeva

Daria Kulikova

Valeria Kuznetsova

Anastasia Yaromenko

…and many of the company’s leading men, joined by the Mariinsky Orchestra under Arseny Shuplyakov.

The program of the first part has not yet been revealed, but one jewel has already been announced: Carmen Suite, the masterpiece created expressly for Plisetskaya.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of this ballet. It is not simply a role she danced—it is a role she created, shaped, and infused with her own rebellious artistic DNA. Its return to the stage on the evening of her centenary is profoundly symbolic.

This gala is not an ordinary celebration. It is a portrait not only of Plisetskaya’s artistry but of the artistic lineage she helped forge—a lineage now embodied by the brilliant dancers who will pay tribute to her.

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A City Transformed: St. Petersburg at the Center of the Dance World

For these days, St. Petersburg becomes a sanctuary of memory and movement, a place where the past and present converse through choreography. Maya Plisetskaya’s legacy is not a museum artifact; it lives in the bodies and minds of the dancers who take the stage today.

To witness Tereshkina, Novikova, and Shakirova—three of my most beloved ballerinas—perform during this commemorative week is a privilege. They represent the continuation of a tradition shaped by the audacity and brilliance of Plisetskaya herself. Their artistry, each distinct, forms a constellation that honors the legacy of the ballerina who made the impossible seem not only possible, but inevitable.

These performances are not merely evenings at the theatre—they are chapters of ballet history, unfolding in real time.

As we enter this week of remembrance and celebration, one thing becomes clear:

Maya Plisetskaya did not simply dance ballet; she expanded its universe.

And in St. Petersburg, that universe shines brighter than ever.