Maris Liepa, a ballet dancer, Bolshoi soloist and People’s Artist of the USSR, was born on July 27, 1936 in Riga, the capital of Latvia. His parents sent him to the ballet studio at the Latvian Opera Theater. In 1953, the promising student was transferred to the Moscow Choreography School, from which he graduated in 1955 cum laude. Soon he received an unexpected invitation from Maya Plisetskaya to join her tour in Budapest, where he danced as Siegfried in Swan Lake. In the summer of 1956, Liepa accepted an invitation to join Moscow’s second ballet theater dance company – the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater. In 1960, Liepa was invited to the Bolshoi company. His all-star year was 1968 when the theater premiered the new ballet Spartacus, in which Grigorovich created the role of Roman army leader Crassus specially for Liepa. In 1979, Maris collaborated with the ballet company under Boris Eifman. In 1982, he appeared on the Bolshoi stage for the last time. After his benefit performance he was forced to retire (at the age of 45). In 1989, the Moscow City Council decided to establish the Maris Liepa Ballet Theater under his artistic direction. Former Bolshoi performer Sergei Radchenko was to have become its director. But on March 26, 1989 Maris Liepa died from a heart attack. The ballet company he formed was transformed into Festival Ballet under Sergei Radchenko.
