- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
-
Chapter One The Dacha and Sretenka Street -
Chapter Two What I was Like at Five -
Chapter Three Relatives -
Chapter Four Spitzbergen -
Chapter Five I Study Ballet -
Chapter Six Back in School and Father's Arrest -
Chapter Seven My Mother Disappears -
Chapter Eight Chimkent -
Chapter Nine Concert for the Cheka -
Chapter Ten Tchaikovsky's Impromptu -
Chapter Eleven The War -
Chapter Twelve My First Year at the Bolshoi Theater -
Chapter Thirteen The Apartment on Shchepkinsky Passage -
Chapter Fourteen Mastering the ABCs of the Theater -
Chapter Fifteen Raymonda -
Chapter Sixteen Swan Lake -
Chapter Seventeen Youth Festivals -
Chapter Eighteen My Injuries, My Healers -
Chapter Nineteen Who'll Get Whom! -
Chapter Twenty Stalin's Birthday -
Chapter Twenty-One I Dance in Don Quixote, I Dance in Golovanov's Opera -
Chapter Twenty-Two Life on the Road and the End of the Stalinist Era -
Chapter Twenty-Three My Trip to India -
Chapter Twenty-Four Persecution -
Chapter Twenty-Five How I Didn't Go to London -
Chapter Twenty-Six While the Company Was in London -
Chapter Twenty-Seven How I Dressed -
Chapter Twenty-Eight What a Person Needs -
Chapter Twenty-Nine Shchedrin -
Chapter Thirty Life on Kutuzovsky Prospect -
Chapter Thirty-One I Go to America -
Chapter Thirty-Two Seventy-three Days -
Chapter Thirty-Three How We Were Paid -
Chapter Thirty-Four Paris Meetings -
Chapter Thirty-Five Work with Yakobson -
Chapter Thirty-Six Why I Did Not Stay in the West -
Chapter Thirty-Seven Marc Chagall Draws Me -
Chapter Thirty-Eight November 20 -
Chapter Thirty-Nine How Carmen Suite was Born -
Chapter Forty Work with Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart -
Chapter Forty-One A Lyrical Digression -
Chapter Forty-Two My Ballets -
Chapter Forty-Three My Ballets (Continued) -
Chapter Forty-Four I Want Justice -
Chapter Forty-Five Work in Italy -
Chapter Forty-Six Work in Spain -
Chapter Forty-Seven Untitled -
Chapter Forty-Eight Years of Wandering -
Chapter Forty-Nine Curfew
Why I Did Not Stay in the West
Why I Did Not Stay in the West
- Chapter:
- (p.239) Chapter Thirty-Six Why I Did Not Stay in the West
- Source:
- I, Maya Plisetskaya
- Author(s):
Maya Plisetskaya
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
In this chapter, Maya Plisetskaya explains why she would not seek political asylum in the West even if she had the chance and chose to remain in Russia. She witnessed how Americans enjoyed freedom and lived in abundance, while Russians like Maya did not. Yet she stayed in Russia for fear that the Soviet authorities would have her killed. In 1961, Rudolf Nureyev reportedly asked for political asylum in a Paris airport when he was separated from the Kirov Ballet troupe leaving for London. There was an attempt to force him to fly back to the Soviet Union, which practically ended his ballet life. Maya had her chances to do the same, first during her second American tour in 1962 and second during a trip to England in 1963. But Maya believed that her life was only beginning, having become the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet following Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova's retirement. Two other reasons she did not stay in the West was her husband Rodion Shchedrin, without whom she could not imagine life, and her conscience.
Keywords: ballet, political asylum, West, Russia, Rudolf Nureyev, Bolshoi Ballet, Rodion Shchedrin
Yale Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
-
Chapter One The Dacha and Sretenka Street -
Chapter Two What I was Like at Five -
Chapter Three Relatives -
Chapter Four Spitzbergen -
Chapter Five I Study Ballet -
Chapter Six Back in School and Father's Arrest -
Chapter Seven My Mother Disappears -
Chapter Eight Chimkent -
Chapter Nine Concert for the Cheka -
Chapter Ten Tchaikovsky's Impromptu -
Chapter Eleven The War -
Chapter Twelve My First Year at the Bolshoi Theater -
Chapter Thirteen The Apartment on Shchepkinsky Passage -
Chapter Fourteen Mastering the ABCs of the Theater -
Chapter Fifteen Raymonda -
Chapter Sixteen Swan Lake -
Chapter Seventeen Youth Festivals -
Chapter Eighteen My Injuries, My Healers -
Chapter Nineteen Who'll Get Whom! -
Chapter Twenty Stalin's Birthday -
Chapter Twenty-One I Dance in Don Quixote, I Dance in Golovanov's Opera -
Chapter Twenty-Two Life on the Road and the End of the Stalinist Era -
Chapter Twenty-Three My Trip to India -
Chapter Twenty-Four Persecution -
Chapter Twenty-Five How I Didn't Go to London -
Chapter Twenty-Six While the Company Was in London -
Chapter Twenty-Seven How I Dressed -
Chapter Twenty-Eight What a Person Needs -
Chapter Twenty-Nine Shchedrin -
Chapter Thirty Life on Kutuzovsky Prospect -
Chapter Thirty-One I Go to America -
Chapter Thirty-Two Seventy-three Days -
Chapter Thirty-Three How We Were Paid -
Chapter Thirty-Four Paris Meetings -
Chapter Thirty-Five Work with Yakobson -
Chapter Thirty-Six Why I Did Not Stay in the West -
Chapter Thirty-Seven Marc Chagall Draws Me -
Chapter Thirty-Eight November 20 -
Chapter Thirty-Nine How Carmen Suite was Born -
Chapter Forty Work with Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart -
Chapter Forty-One A Lyrical Digression -
Chapter Forty-Two My Ballets -
Chapter Forty-Three My Ballets (Continued) -
Chapter Forty-Four I Want Justice -
Chapter Forty-Five Work in Italy -
Chapter Forty-Six Work in Spain -
Chapter Forty-Seven Untitled -
Chapter Forty-Eight Years of Wandering -
Chapter Forty-Nine Curfew
