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Maya Plisetskaya in Swan Lake, 1961. (credit: Paris Match/Pictorial Parade)

(born Nov. 20, 1925, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Russian prima ballerina. She studied at the Bolshoi Ballet's school in Moscow and joined the company as a soloist in 1943. Noted for her technical virtuosity and ability to integrate acting with dancing, she toured worldwide with the Bolshoi Ballet and appeared as a guest artist with several companies, including the Paris Opéra. She also danced in several films, including Swan Lake (1957). In the 1980s she was a guest ballet director in Rome and then in Madrid.

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