Azarius Plisetsky. Your friend and brother

“A thousand men, drawn along the Arbat.
by the cares or idleness of the day,
I asked: “Tell me, is there not a brother
among you all a brother for me?”

Bella Akhmadulina dedicated this poem to Azary Mikhailovich Plisetsky. In her strange dream, pleading for a brother, there was something infinitely touching and even sublime. There were plenty of men in her life. But not a single brother!

Azarii Plisetsky has always amazed me with his ability to get along, negotiate and even be friends with the most difficult and tormented women.

Read his memoirs, A Life in Ballet. And you’ll understand. It seems that classical ballet tradition itself requires the dancer to be always half a step behind the ballerina, as if a little in the shade, on the sidelines. And at the final bows he must step back, generously giving her all the applause, flowers and loving glances… Here Plisetsky, it must be admitted, is faultless. Not one superfluous recognition, not one rash gesture. For today’s taste, brought up on fearless revelations and scandalous camming-outs, Azari Mikhailovich is even too buttoned up in his ballet braid of an ideal beau. He is too suave, closed, and a bit verbose.

Azarii Plisetsky’s entire life, which began with a grueling journey in a Stolypin’s carriage to the North, will then pass (albeit in more comfortable conditions) in incessant moving and traveling: Mongolia, Cuba, USA, China, Switzerland, Spain… And these are not just tour routes, but often places of his permanent work and residence.

With the passion and thoroughness of a professional Robinson, he traveled to different continents and countries. He didn’t need much for this: a machine in the dance class for his daily ballet exersises, a mirror to perfect his own and others’ movements. And music, which can now be brought with him in any quantity in a weightless iPhone.

It seems to me that the secret of Azarii Plisetsky’s long-lasting success as a ballet teacher-tutor lies not only in his thorough knowledge of the classical ballet school, but also in some inner plasticity, in his mental responsiveness to other styles and ways of life, in his readiness to understand others, to accept them and even to love them.

It is not without reason that he was the only one in the Messerer-Plisetsky family to have mastered several foreign languages on his own. Against the background of the language-less and rather conservative ballet majority, he always looked like an intellectual, a polyglot and an enlightened European. Hence his foreign career, which took shape safely back in Soviet times and has continued successfully to this day. Of course, at some stage, his name and reputation helped, but not only that.

In the very character and outlook of Azariah there is a kind of calm benevolence, lack of fussy and nervous suspicion, so familiar to people of the theater. Life for him is not closed to one stage and auditorium, is not exhausted by theatrical intrigues, conflicts and ambitions. Life is hot, like a burn, air, which he first took a full breath, descending the ramp at the airport Jose Marti in Havana. It is the mysterious underwater world he never tired of exploring with snorkel and flippers in the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic. These are the old stones of Europe and Latin America, learned by heart, like poems by Ronsard, Rilke or Neruda.

Every time Azarius comes to class with his students, he brings with him more than just a set of ballet steps. Behind him is the culture, the breed, the history, the outlook of a man who has lived a great life, who has known and befriended the most interesting people of his time. There is the sarcastic Roland Petit, the demonic Maurice Béjart, the tragically beautiful Jorge Donne, the inspirational Bella Akhmadulina… It is surprising that all of them in different years will be included in the orbit of his destiny, in some ways changing it forever. And Mikhail Baryshnikov, whose portrait will be particularly accurate, will be revealed for the first time not only as a great dancer ahead of his time, but also as a deep, complex, suffering man besieged by his own demons, which he never ceases to tame, defeating them with the strength of his own will and the power of his genius.

And, of course, her, Maya Plisetskaya! The great and inimitable. The relationship between brother and sister was at times very tense. There were a lot of hidden resentments and wounds. But Azary Mikhailovich managed to detach himself from them. This is also a special gift: not to forget or pretend that nothing happened. No, of course it was! But to remember, to know and… still to love. To love this extraordinary woman, this incredible cosmic creature.

With the support of his co-author, the remarkable writer Vasily Snegovsky, AM prepared a book-album “The Century of Maja” dedicated to his great sister. Unique material has been collected – photos from the family archive, letters, notes, printouts of 16-millimeter film, and completely unexpected confessions. We read in one of Maya Mikhailovna’s letters: “All my life I am engaged only in repeating other people’s roles, and to repeat – there is no more willingness. And it is difficult to fight. Here, Azarik, how things are. Not destined, it seems, I can not create something” … In Russia must live a long time. Both her sister and her younger brother managed a lot of things. Including being honored with beautiful poems by the best poets of their time.

“The alley awaits the poet or the bard
There from Bulat I receive tidings.
There is no one: no friend and no brother
Said Azaric: you are mistaken. There is.”

An evening performance of Maya Forever with Azary Plisetsky will take place in London on January 15, 2026. Author and host of the evening – the editor-in-chief of ZIMA, Sergei Nikolayevich. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here .