Madame No

She is perhaps the most charming of ballerinas in the history of ballet. Few words and extremely reserved, closed off and inaccessible in life, on stage and on screen she seemed to embody light and joy — light, elegant, radiant, sparkling with humor in comedic roles, but mesmerizing with deep drama in tragic roles. "Goddess..." — they whispered in admiration behind her back... She is the great Russian ballerina — Ekaterina Maximova! The French nicknamed her Madame "No" because that word was heard from her lips more often than any other. Both our compatriots and countless fans around the world agreed in unison that there was no one like her, that such as she are born once a century. Valentin Gaft dedicated poems and lines to her: "You are eternal, like the marvelous moment from Pushkin's Natalievskaya Russia." She lived a long and bright creative life, where her husband and stage partner Vladimir Vasiliev was always by her side. She never pretended and did nothing for show. Despite her loud fame, she tried not to attract attention to herself. She was open and soulful with her loved ones, friends — "the main wealth of her life." The images created by Ekaterina Maximova will forever remain a part of that world to which she remained faithful all her life, regardless of any circumstances. Its name is — Ballet!