London
Cold London... Smug London... Forbidding London. London is a city of tradition
Tradition is what was not erased by time, what's real
London is a traditional and unerring tuning fork for artists around the world
Namely, London is always able to distinguish the genuine from fake
It appreciates concepts such as professionalism and impeccable taste
For any artist coming here alone is an important event. But receiving London's recognition means being recognised worldwide
Back in 1999 London Coliseum was holding a triumphal tour of the Bolshoi Theatre ballet
After one of the performances, in order to congratulate artists backstage, there came an amazing woman
The smug and cold city has opened its doors to her and became her home
London accepted her because her faithfulness to tradition, the tradition of Russian ballet, has always been the most important thing in her life
Her name is Sulamith Messerer
SULAMITH MESSERER
"I WANT TO TELL..."
Come through...
This is "Don Quixote", "Dream" scene
Myself
I was born in Moscow into a family of a dentist
There were ten children
Messerer Family (early 1900s)
I was born in 1908
My father was a very kind man. His business sign read:
"Messerer the Dentist. Military and Students Free of Charge"
I remember my mother would wait there for father to make a little money,
and he would say - I didn't charge them, they're poor
But we were poor too, very poor actually
Revolution (1917) period was very hard -
our daily ration would usually consist of a small piece of bread, some chaff
So yes, life was very hard indeed
My younger brother, he was two years old at a time
Someone came from somewhere, From the Ukraine I think,
and brought white bread
My brother looked at it and said:
I'm not eating that!
He did not even know what white bread was!
Messerer Family (1928)
Nevertheless, we, young people, were all drawn to the arts
First steps were taken by elder brother Azary
He was a drama actor. Extremely talented one
He was very much appreciated by Vakhtangov
Also Michael Chekhov, they were friends
Unfortunately, brother passed away untimely
My sister, mother of Maya Plisetskaya,
was very beautiful. She was a movie star
Back then cinema was silent and non-colour of course
There are movies where she starred in the lead roles, she was very beautiful
My brother Asaf, the famous dancer
Up until the age of 16 he has not seen any ballet at all, but he did sports
He was very agile and had a good jump
And once he happened to see Coppelia ballet performance at the Bolshoi with his friends
And he said: "This is my future"
So the next day my elder sister Rachel took his hand and walked him to the Bolshoi Theatre ballet school
On their way up the school stairs they met a friend who said: "What are you doing here?
At 16 years old students normally graduate from school. Why are you going? Don't, don't even think about that!"
So they turned and walked away
But what options did they have?
The friend advised that there were private schools
That Mordkin had just opened one
So they went there to find out that Alexander Gorsky was teaching ballet there
The genius Gorsky
Within literally few weeks Gorsky noticed Asaf and said he was going to recommend him for scholarship at the Bolshoi Theatre school
Asaf graduated from the Bolshoi Theatre ballet school after one year and within the next year he was performing the Prince role in "Swan Lake"
That's how genius Asaf was
I was on vacation at a Young Pioneer Camp when my sister Rachel came
She took me to the Bolshoi Theatre ballet school examination board
I remember it was incredibly cold out there
All examination board members sat there dressed in warm topcoats, fur coats, felt boots
They told me: "Girl, take your coat off, show us your legs"
So I took the coat off and showed them my legs
The audition was very short
They said my legs were all good
So I was accepted to school
They would assign grades one, two and three based on student's age and height
I was assigned to grade three straight away
Mosolova was the teacher; she was a very good ballerina
I had no clue in ballet, however I saw every one lift their legs
So I knew I had to lift mine even higher
I progressed very quickly
By the time I graduated the school was run by famous Tikhomirov
We studied six years in total
We were all enrolled to the Bolshoi Theatre
However, we were enrolled on an ad hoc basis
Because there were no vacancies, no staff roles. Nothing like that
And gradually, as vacancies would arise, we were enrolled in the troupe
That is how we got to perform in the Bolshoi Theatre;
Mornings and evenings
Sometimes in opera, in the Bolshoi Theatre branch
Often our day's wage was greater than that of the ballet
That's how I ended up in ballet dance
I was very curious and baring in mind we starved pretty much whole our lives,
I wanted to get up on my feet as soon as possible
I would always carefully watch everything
One morning I came to see "Swan Lake" performance and director says:
"Listen, we have a catastrophe! We're missing a dancer for Pas de Trois in Swan Lake"
I said: "and I can do it!"
"Oh, sure! But you'd need a rehearsal, right?"
"No, why would I need a rehearsal? I know everything!"
"Well, go and perform than!"
And I did. All good. Then there was such a rule: next repeat
And thus, one act, two, three...Everything very quickly came to me
Soloists were quite fussy, complained they couldn't do it randomly without rehearsals
And I could do everything
Then I had the lead role in La Fille Mal Gardee, Alexander Gorsky production
It was 1929
Right after La Fille Mal Gardee I was given Coppelia rather quickly
Then there was a lucky turn-up again
Geltzer was staging "Don Quixote"
Geltzer was a "queen"
Firstly, she was a very good dancer, and secondly she had a very strong personality
Also her dance partner was Tikhomirov (not sure if he was a husband or not but he definitely was her dance partner)
Supposedly he feared her; She was in charge of everything
I guess she cost Gorsky an arm and leg as she was very demanding. All to herself, you see
But she was an amazing dancer
Also she was fairly "democratic" with us, youths
She allowed us to rehearse in the same classroom, together with her
Tikhomirov would give classes mainly to her, you see
But she would allow us to watch, sit and watch for as long as you want
Afterwards she would show different tricks, so to say
For instance, she would ask to put your leg forward, would point at your heel and put a glass of water there
Positioned like that (shows) You see?
Therefore her school was amazing
I learned a lot of things from her, from Geltzer
For example, I remember passage in "Don Quixote", during the very first notes
The crowd was everywhere and she would intentionally walk on them
So they would just back off
This would make tremendous effect on public, you see
And I picked that up from her and stared doing so too
Instead of shrinking like if you're obstructing someone
No, the opposite
And the public would step back. This is fascinating, you see, she knew the scene very well
Than all of a sudden a major mishap came along - 10 days before performance Geltzer damaged her foot
Tikhomirov approached me and, touching his moustache like that, asked:
"Well, you probably know everything. Would you like to perform?"
I said: "Yes, I can do that"
That way I got my role in Don Quixote
And thus, gradually I became prima ballerina, one of the leading ballerinas in Bolshoi Theatre
SULAMITH MESSERER
I was very happy, this allowed me to travel abroad
Mostly I danced together with my brother Asaf Mikhailovich
Before me his dancing partner was ballerina Krieger
There was such a famous ballerina, who got invited to Riga. Riga was considered as a foreign destination
So she would take Asaf with her
He had an enormous success and was invited again the next year. My brother Asaf that is
But he wanted to go there together with me, as we were partners in "Don Quixote" Pas de Deux
And all of his other theatre productions
Basically, the repertoire was brilliant
However we had no clue how to get permission to travel abroad
Asaf said: "You know, they say somewhere up there, in power circles in the Central Committee, there is someone called Yunikidze who is in charge of Cultural matters
Just give him a call. I can't do it myself, I'm too shy."
So I found out his contact number and rang him up
I said: "Aveliy Safronovich, such and such person is bothering you. We received an invitation abroad. What do we do?"
He replied: "Well, just go"
I said: "How do we do that, we don't even have passports!"
He advised that we speak to his secretary and we would just get our passports
So we went abroad, me and Asaf
This was an end of 1932, close to New Year's Eve 1933
We had an enormous success in Riga
We were also invited to Kaunas and other Baltic cities
After that we were invited to Paris and Berlin
We went to Paris and performed in Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
We had an incredible success
Because they thought that with the advent of Soviet rule it was all over, and suddenly we had such brilliant dancers
We were paid a visit by Kschessinska, Preobrajenska, Egorova. There were such ballerinas
They invited us to see classes in their schools
We went to Kschessinska
She was about 60 years old, dressed in an elegant bright dress, looking rather plump
The classroom was fairly small, which was very unusual to me
Everything's grand in Bolshoi Theatre and there we had those small classroms
And dancers were various too - some had skills, some did not. But all involved
We were slightly disappointed
Kschessinska then said to me:
"I see you're in doubt, you're not happy with something
Let me put it that way: i have a girl from a wealthy family, a millioneires, she says she wants to be taught 32 Fouetté. And I teach her"
I asked: "Is she doing well?"
-"No"
So there it was
This was my first trip abroad. And so we toured for four months
We even received an invitation to the USA
At the same time we also received a furious letter from Bolshoi Theatre which read:
"Come back immediately. Otherwise you will be considered defectors"
So we immediately came back to Moscow and continued performing there
Asaf was quite an exceptional personality
He had such an ability for movement, he had that unique perception and understanding
If he was rehearsing right pirouette, let's say 10 pirouettes, he would always go out of his way and do 10 left pirouettes too
If he did arabesque double right, he would do arabesk left too, you see
He believed if you could do one side, you had to do the other too
That what old school is, by the way
Asaf produced many performances. Act 4 in Swan Lake is still staged in his production
If I'm not mistaken, if it wasn't taken off recently, I'm not sure
One way or another it's been on for many-many years
All the best performances such as "Spring Waters" and his famous "Footballer", Asaf performed himself
Nobody, even Vassiliev, couldn't do this performance
Asaf performed it and it was always a success
Also Asaf didn't like performing an encore
He thought encores discouraged the viewer
So there was this one time when he was performing in Stockholm, show was a massive success, audience wouldn't calm down
Some man took to the stage (Swedish King was in the audience) and said:
"At the instance of the King we would ask Asaf for encore performance"
Asaf performed encore
This was the only time when Asaf performed encore
This record shows Asaf Mikhailovich at the age of 80
He took to the stage on the day of his 80th birthday anniversary to do another favour
He performed his famous Footballer for Vladimir Vasiliev on stage of Bolshoi Theatre
Everything was going really well for us
I performed almost all of the Bolshoi Theatre repertoire, all of the classics, so to say
And then dreadful 1937 came
My sister Rachel was married to a wonderful man, his name was Mikhail Plisetski
He was sent as consul to Spitzbergen
And out of a sudden he got jailed, just like everybody else - for no reason
They apologized for that at end, but many years later
My sister was pregnant at the time with her third baby, Azary Plisetski
There was Maya, there was Alexander, six years her juniour and Azary was the third child
If I am going to write a book, this chapter is going to be called "Sleeping Beauty"
Why "Sleeping Beauty"?
I was about to perform "Sleeping Beauty" together with Asaf in Bolshoi Theatre,
when out of a sudden, right before I took to the scene, somebody approached me and said that there were two kids waiting for me.
Maya, 11 years old girl and a five years old Alex
My hands and legs started shaking
Firstly, because my sister would always come to see my performances (they also said that kids brought flowers)
Secondly, she was a very considerate person, she knew that kids were not allowed in the theatre
In a state of shock I quickly found Asaf behind the scenes and told him that something must have happened
Meanwhile we knew that there were jailings all around on a massive scale - it was 1938, February 1938
Asaf told me: "Please don't be stupid. Prepare yourself and go perform"
How did I perform, what did I perform - I don't remember
All I can remember that there was that Monachov in director's sector who was hissing something non-stop
But I remember nothing - I was miles away at the moment
I asked that the kids be sent to my dressing room to wait for me
When I saw them I asked Maya where her mother was and what happened?
She replied that mother was urgently summoned to Spitzbergen, where dad was
So she thought, that was what her mother told her
When in fact her father has already been executed, and her mother was put behind bars in Butyrka prison together with her 7 months old baby
But we were unaware that she was put in Butyrka prison, I ran around in search of her
I had to take care of the kids
Little one stayed with Asaf, because Asaf had a son Boris (Messerer) who was only a year younger than Alex
And Maya stayed with me
Oh, this is horrible to recollect...
So I ran places in search of my sister to no avail
And then, out of the blue, I receive a triangle-shaped envelope in post. Such as the ones they receive from war zones
It had no stamp, nothing like that
So what it was is...
After one and a half or even two months together with her infant in Butyrka Prison, she was put in a boxcar together with criminals
And, while being on halt at some way station, she asked one of the prisoners for a burnt matchstick and she wrote literally few words to me:
"We are being taken to Karaganda, I think. The baby's with me" and she put my address on the note
She caught a moment when the guard was looking away, and through that tiny latticed window she saw two women working on the rails
One of them turned away and the other nodded her head
So my sister threw that note to her
And I received that letter, imagine
So I decided to solicit for my sister
This was an extremely dangerous thing to do back then as I could have been easy jailed too
I'm surprised they didn't
Cut story short, I went to prosecutor's office. Back then you could simply walk in freely
Vyshinsky was in charge of the office then
Some random man approached me and asked: "Girl, what are you doing here?"
He called me a girl, even though I had a medal of Bolshoi Theatre, which I certainly have put on my jacket prior to going there
I told him: "I'm here to see Vyshinsky. I want to take baby from her mom"
I bared in mind that soviets used to point, how humane soviet people were
He pushed me through some door where I saw a woman, she wore military dress with epaulettes
So I told her everything. She went out, came back after a while and brought me a letter
She told me to go to Akmolinsk (currently Astana)
I went to the rail station. There were thousands of exhausted, unhappy people lying about
I could feel lice crackling under my feet
So all those unfortunate people where desperate to get away
All counters were closed at the station. I knocked on the window of one of them
I heard back: "What do you want?"
I said: "Please, open"
They opened and I gave the man my medal and order letter
Without saying a word he issued a ticket and there I was on my four day journey to Akmolinsk
On arrival I showed them prosecutor's letter. They told me to wait for a truck which would take me there en route
So after an hour and a half or two in the journey, I saw towers, barbed wire and gates
So we went through the gate and I was met by the chief supervisor of the camp
His surname was Mishin
He said he knew all the details. Also it was getting late so he suggested I slept over and he would bring my sister in the morning
I felt slightly relieved; however I certainly didn't even lie down, just kept walking around the house
At about 5 a.m. I saw groups of women, consisting of about eight people, walking from different directions and gathering into one group
I started bustling about in hope to see my sister. Well, I didn't see her
Than Mishin showed up, he approached me and said: "I'm sorry for the delay; your sister shall be here soon I'm going to get her"
An hour passed, two hours passed and they still didn't show. I was shaking in limbo...
At last I see quite a distance away there my sister walks with an infant on her hands
He looked so frail when she put him on the floor
Later I found out... She couldn't tell me why it took them so long in the presence of witnesses
He asked her: "Would you like to see your sister?" She asked if I was there too and passed out
It took a while for them to bring her to senses. Weanwhile that frail baby was just crawling around
I told her I was there to take Azary
In response she just put her eyes down. I knew her well so I understood I couldn't take the baby
Later I found out why. Because of the baby they wouldn't put her in hard labour
I asked Mishin: "Can I send her parcels? You see how frail is the baby"
He replied: "Yes, you can" -"How often?" -"Once every three weeks" -"How big can they be?" -"Whatever"
I asked if I could send juices and staff
He replied: "Yes, yes, of course"
So I went away with that
NKVD wouldn't let go - every week they would show up and say that Maya had to be sent to orphanage
I can only imagine what they would have done to her there. Ballet would have been off the cards completely
For that reason when they finally came (they were a woman with epaulettes and a man ) to take Maya away, I lied down across the door and said: "Only over my dead body"
They got frustrated and said: "In that case go to Public Education Committee and speak to them"
I went there and told them everything: who I was and what I was and all
I said: "I want to adopt her. She doesn't have a father, nor a mother"
They had a conversation behind closed doors
I was given green light and so I adopted Maya Plisetskaya
I produced "The Dying Swan" for her. This was not "The Dying Swan" performed by Pavlova
This was absolutely my production, which had nothing in common with Fokine production
I produced it specifically to suit Maya
She had wonderful hands, set up by Elizaveta Pavlovna Gerdt
Therefore I did some other things like sitting on the knees and bends. Everything to suit her, basically
All this, so to say, made her international career
Meanwhile NKVD club was open on Lubyanka street in Moscow. Huge, outstanding club
Meyerhold worked there, Goleizovsky, Asaf worked there too
All the best artists...All the best theatricals were performed there
Cut story short, Asaf (he was a very modest man, by the way) had his office next to Abakumov's secretary
He asked the secretary, in a very delicate manner, whether it was possible to meet Abakumov in person
The secretary replied it was possible
Asaf said that he was too shy and that his sister (me) would go instead
The secretary replied that this was not a problem at all
So the very next day I receive a phone call from that secretary and he says:
"Please come for an appointment. Abakumov wants to see you"
Everyone thought I was insane and that I simply would not return from there
I said I'd go and I did
So I made my way to Lubyanka
I remember that huge building with massive doors I went through
I told the whole story to Abakumov, to what he replied:
"Ok, we'll help you"
So her sentence was reduced from 8 years in labour camp to 8 years in open prison in Shymkent in Kazakhstan
And yet again I take a special note and go through the route I already told you about, yet again
I arrive there, she gets told about all that
And the next thing I see - the gate opens, all that barbed wire is removed
So she talls Azary to run to Mita (to me)
He spread his arms wide like that;Being one year and seven months old already, he could run on his feet
Nobody could have known back than that little Azary, the boy who spread his arms wide open towards his Mita, Would become an outstanding ballet dancer, Azary Plisetski
But the stage of Bolshoi Theatre was to be there later
Meanwhile I heard shouting, crying and weeping - thousands of women were trying to climb up barbed wire
So I grab the baby, Azary, and I notice his clothes is rustling
What's the matter?
It turned out that his jacket was staffed with letters from labour camp inmates
My sister was released from labour camp the next year and she came back to Moscow
However, as soon as she returned to Moscow, the war has started
I spent 25 years working as ballerina in Bolshoi Theatre
Also I became a ballet teacher quite early
Elizaveta Pavlovna Gerdt, who was also my teacher, used to always motivate me for that
She used to say to me: "you would be a good ballet teacher because you have your "eyes wide open" You can see everything"
Many years later she told me that I was a leading dancer in her class
I really did have an eye for detail. Not sure whether it's called talent or something else
Cut story short, since 1938 I worked as a teacher in ballet school
Director Gusev invited me
Firstly, I believed that you also learn while teaching others
And secondly, I thought if there was something to happen to my legs, I would have another profession
I thought about that and for that very reason I became a ballet teacher
So after I stopped performing on stage in Bolshoi Theatre, I stayed there in a role of a ballet teacher and tutor
In 1959... I travelled some places before then too, because the Ministry of Culture knew I was a good teacher etc etc
Cut story short, I was offered to go to Japan for two years by the Ministry of Culture
Mr. Hayashi started a new ballet school there, named after Tchaikovsky
The school had enormous success
A year later we produced the Nutcracker in Vainonen production. I knew it by heart
Right then Minister of Foreign Trade Mikoyan was on a visit to Japan so he was invited to see our performance in the Embassy. He was very delighted
He (I have a photograph) visited us behind scenes. He took "a bunch" of girls and held in his arms. I need to say that
The next year we produced a Japanese ballet, Marimo
Another two years passed, we did a lot of things
Classic ballet started to thrive in Japan
Cut story short I became famous there
And up until this day, for the past 40 years I've been visitng Japan at least once a year
I feel like my Japanese is as good as Russian. Same level
And this should not come as a surprise
You'd think there were no impassable barriers for this amazing, petite but very strong lady
She knew how to open biggest doors, she travelled thousands of kilometres
Russia and Japan; America and Europe
The greatest ballet schools and theatres of the world used to invite her to teach ballet
Why did she succeed at everything she was doing?
Possibly because she always knew what she wanted... Wanted to help, wanted to share
Share her skills and experience, to share deep knowledge of her craft; To share her love for Russian ballet, it's traditions
Because love is always a necessity to share
I love Russia, of course. This is my motherland
I love all people, all those I got to work with
I don't have bad feelings towards anybody
And if they ask me to show something, anything like that, I'm going to do it with pleasure
For example: just the other day I saw "Don Quixote", which I certainly know very well and which I produced in many countries
There is a gypsy dance act there, in Goleizovsky production. This wonderful dance used to be performed by an absolutely brilliant ballerina Sangovich And here I realise that a lot of it is gone
I would have shown the way it was originally if I was asked. Such things are impossible to forget, because this used to be an absolutely genius production by Goleizovsky
Even things like "Don Quixote" Pas de Deux... Ballerina used to do 32 fouette, her partner 32 pirouettes
And these days young artists are like: "What do you mean 32 pirouettes" They're surprised
But how can you do only 16 pirouettes? This is not even right in combination with Pas de Deux. Do you see?
Unfortunately that's how things are currently and is considered acceptable all over the world
32 pirouettes is extremely rare now, I don't remeber seeing it done recently
They say it doesn't fit well with music, but in fact it fits very well
Again...
It's exactly the same...Exactly the same thing
-"Amazing... When I studied in Royal Ballet, I took lessons from you. I learned with you, I was happy" -"That's right"
-"Such a pleasure to see you, absolutely a pleasure" -"I'm going to Japan again soon" -"I'm also going to Japan!" -"When?" -"In October" -"And I'm going in September"
What can I say? The Bolshoi Theatre is great. The Bolshoi's school, I mean teaching and training. All that is very good And watching them is a pleasure because they're brilliant dancers. This is all I have to say
Our meeting was coming to an end
Sulamith Mikhailovna treated us with coffee, showed photographs from which we were looked at by Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart,
Natalia Makarova and Alexander Godunov. And many others, who she came across during her amazing life
She didn't look tired at all. She kept on telling us stories and jokes with admirable energy
I'm in the same shape
This is because, as I say, I'm a swimmer. And that's a big deal
You see, visit swimming pool daily. And I do front crawl, every day
Perhaps, not everyone knows that 20 year old Mita was USSR swimming champion in freestyle 100 metres discipline
I have no doubt that older generation, those who still work in Bolshoi Theatre, continue carrying those wonderful achievements we found in our lifetimes
Those we received from our older generation
Therefore I would very much want our new generation to look after style purity
Because these days, unfortunately, television and everything is about leg lifting mostly
And often some necessary and essential details, those that compliment technique and real expression, are disappearing
For that reason I want traditions preserved. Traditions not in a sense of something old, but what's done in art
That's all
Filming took place in London in August 1999
Film creators are thankful to: Sulamith Mikhailovna Messerer Alexander Mikhailovich Messerer Mikhail Grigorievich Messerer For sharing their personal archive files
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