Maya Plisetskaya was born in Moscow in 1925 and studied at the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet School, becoming a principal dancer with the Bolshoi on graduating in 1943. She became prima ballerina in 1962, and after being excluded for political reasons many years from tours to the West, she was finally in 1959 allowed to join the American tour with the Bolshoi. She soon gained recognition as one of the world's... see more