Ballet Star. She followed a long tenure as prima ballerina of Moscow's famed Bolshoi Ballet with a distinguished career as a teacher and coach. Raised in Moscow, she was early drawn to the stage, making her professional debut at 9 in an opera staged at the Bolshoi Theatre. At 10, she met her future husband and stage partner, Vladimir Vasiliev, while at ballet school; graduating from the Moscow Ballet School in 1958, she was designated for the Bolshoi, where she was to be equally acclaimed in tragedy and comedy. Though best known for her role of Phrygia in the Bolshoi political showpiece, Aram Khachaturian's 1958 "Spartacus", she gave performances acclaimed the world-over in standards such as "Giselle, "The Nutcracker", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Don Quixote", lesser known pieces like "Flames of Paris" and "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai", and, later, in works that coreographers such as Maurice Bejart and Roland Petit created specifically for her and Vasiliev. Miss Maximova first toured America in 1959; she was to be seen frequently in virtually all of the world's major venues. Gradually retiring in the 1980s, she left the Bolshoi in 1988, and thereafter coached with the Kremlin Ballet, the Moscow Classical Ballet, and the Russian Academy of Theatre. She had recently formed a foundation to aid retired artists in financial distress. Maximova's honors were many, including a gold medal at the Varna competition in 1964, People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1973, and the USSR State Prize in 1981. Of her portrayal in "Sparticus", one critic said: "Maximova would melt any tyrant's heart".
Ballet Star. She followed a long tenure as prima ballerina of Moscow's famed Bolshoi Ballet with a distinguished career as a teacher and coach. Raised in Moscow, she was early drawn to the stage, making her professional debut at 9 in an opera staged at the Bolshoi Theatre. At 10, she met her future husband and stage partner, Vladimir Vasiliev, while at ballet school; graduating from the Moscow Ballet School in 1958, she was designated for the Bolshoi, where she was to be equally acclaimed in tragedy and comedy. Though best known for her role of Phrygia in the Bolshoi political showpiece, Aram Khachaturian's 1958 "Spartacus", she gave performances acclaimed the world-over in standards such as "Giselle, "The Nutcracker", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Don Quixote", lesser known pieces like "Flames of Paris" and "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai", and, later, in works that coreographers such as Maurice Bejart and Roland Petit created specifically for her and Vasiliev. Miss Maximova first toured America in 1959; she was to be seen frequently in virtually all of the world's major venues. Gradually retiring in the 1980s, she left the Bolshoi in 1988, and thereafter coached with the Kremlin Ballet, the Moscow Classical Ballet, and the Russian Academy of Theatre. She had recently formed a foundation to aid retired artists in financial distress. Maximova's honors were many, including a gold medal at the Varna competition in 1964, People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1973, and the USSR State Prize in 1981. Of her portrayal in "Sparticus", one critic said: "Maximova would melt any tyrant's heart".
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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