Maya: Portrait of Maya Plisetskaya

By any standard, Soviet dancer Maya Plis?tskaya (b. 1925) qualifies as one of the most vitally important ballerinas of the 20th century. She largely built her reputation on the basis of her ability to look beyond the scope of dance movements per se and invest each assignment with a characterization specific to that role. Legendary productions in which Plis?tskaya appeared included +Don Quixote, +Swan Lake, +Bolero, and +Romeo and Juliet. This documentary portrait from director Dominique Delouche presents Plis?tskaya as a woman riddled with a series of contradictions that often gained synchronicity onstage. It also touches on her successful attempt to invest her art form with a heightened modernity beginning with her collaborations with Maurice B?jart.