"When
in 1944 I moved from my native Leningrad to Moscow, the future
ballet master Yuri Grigorovich had not yet finished his course
at the choreography school... Some time later Leningrad Kirov
Theatre (now Mariinsky) arrived in Moscow with some guest performances,
and I saw its "Legend of Love". The ballet for many
years ahead predicted the philosophic and civil stance of the
young but already infinitely talented ballet master Yuri Nikolaevich
Grigorovich. I was deeply impressed by the ballet and regretted
that I did not dance any longer..." Galina
Ulanova
"There
are roles of which only small bits come to be loved by actors.
On the contrary, in "The Legend" I enjoy every moment
of Mehmene’s stage life. The very poses, movements, their sequence
talentedly found and subordinated wisely to the logic of the
character, are so expressive, that the only thing for the dancer
to do is to impeccably perform them.
Such is, altogether, the refined elaborate choreography of Grigorovich’s
staging with its gentle movements which hark back to the Persian
miniatures." Ìàóà Plissetskaya
