Interview with Maya Plisetskaya, a famous Russian ballet dancer (continued, part 3) “AiF”: - But “Dying Swan” – your signature piece – was performed neither in Paris no in Moscow. Nobody dared to dance the number you had been dancing for all your creative life, since 14 till 75. How did it appear? M. P. – This ballet was produced for me by my aunt, Sulamith Messerer. She was inspired for this by the fact that a ballet dancer couldn’t do without a portable number in those years. We concertized in village halls with uneven floors, or in Kremlin where the floors are first-rate, but where there is no place and no time to warm-up… The number was very successful, and despite the fact I had to appear with my back at the public to distract attention from my disadvantageous feet, the audience concentrated on my arms. “AiF”: - Have you ever counted how many times you have performed this number in your lifetime? M. P.: - It’s hard to count. Once I tried to count how many times I danced “The Swan Lake”. It was about 800 times. Taking into consideration the fact that “The Dying Swan” is a pas seul requiring neither decorations nor orchestra, I couldn’t count the number of its performances. Maybe it was 50,000 or even 100,000 times. Meanwhile I wanted the emotions put into this image never to repeat. “AiF”: - Formerly Soviet ballet was concidered the best one. And how do matters stand with our ballet nowadays? M. P.: - Now ballet is wonderful everywhere. They never danced before like now, neither in Russia, nor abroad. And what an amazing shape the dancers have! They are all like models, slim, with beautiful legs, high… That was not the case before. What were the ballerinas like in my day? Pathetic specimens! “Aif”: - Why were all the ballet dancers known by name in the past, and now there is only Anastasia Volochkova who is a household name? M. P.: - She’s in the public eye. She appears frequently, and she’s in general a beautiful woman, pleasant to look at. So people do it, that’s what I think. But she isn’t working in th theatre now, and it seems to me that a ballet dancer must by all means work every day, because when you skip a week, your legs are half they were before. It’s like in sport.