The realMaya PlisetskayaI am looking through her many photographs. Today"s world celebrity has been photographed over the years for posterity, and her dancing is becoming documental evidence of our age, our art.The photographs show us many Plisetskayas-the child, the adult, Plisetskaya with Fidel Castro and John Kennedy, Plisetskaya on the stage, at home, in the ballet class.They help us to reconstruct a mental picture of her life and art.The photo chronicle begins with infancy. It tells the remarkable story of the child gazing at the world with big, sad eyes. Tells us about her parents, her lessons and roles, her pastimes and everyday training, her guest tours and her triumphs....I find myself looking at many different women with different kinds of plastique. They all arrest the attention and it is impossible to single out one Maya Plisetskaya.These women are constantly in motion. They seem to be charged with an energy which forces their strong, supple body to demonstrate its plastic powers in sharp, expressive bends and lithe, gentle grace.Another frequent state is that similar to a coiled spring about to release its tension in some startling and incredible way.The purely static pose is rare and as a rarity attracts special attention. Plisetskaya the immobile, pensive and aloof seems a strange, almost artificial phenomenon.The long, thin face with its chiselled features is a splendid frame for the huge, glowing eyes. The whole head is like an exotic orchid on the long, resilient stem of the neck...Andrei Vavra