Maya Plisetskaya Tapa dura - 1976

Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976. (RUS) 1st printing, 1976. No markings, about Very Good; no dust jacket as published. Hardcover, [176]pp, B&W photos of dancers and ballerinas. Thetext is in English. Plisetskaya studied ballet at The Bolshoi Ballet School from age nine, and she first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre when she was eleven. She studied ballet under the direction of Elizaveta Gerdt and also her aunt, Sulamith Messerer. Graduating in 1943 at the age of eighteen, she joined the Bolshoi Ballet company, quickly rising to become their leading soloist. In 1959, during the Thaw Time, she started to tour outside the country with the Bolshoi, then on her own. Her fame as a national ballerina was used to project the Soviet Union's achievements during the Cold War. Premier Nikita Khrushchev considered her to be "not only the best ballerina in the Soviet Union, but the best in the world" (1,9 JM HOZ 403/b1. 1st. Hardcover. Good/No Dust Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾".