Injury Cancels Maximova Appearances

Bolshoi ballerina Ekaterina Maximova has injured her foot and has canceled guest appearances next month with the Moscow Classical Ballet at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa and Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the company has announced.

Though casting for the engagements is far from complete, it was understood that Maximova, 49, would dance the lead role of Eve in “The Creation of the World” in addition to possibly appearing in a program of divertissements during the Orange County engagement (Oct. 4-9), and in “Romeo and Juliet” during the Pasadena run (Oct. 11-16).

A protegee of the great Galina Ulanova, the dark-haired Maximova has earned a reputation within the Soviet Union that matches that of any dancer of her generation. However, she is less celebrated in this country--partly due to a series of accidents paralleling her current injury.

In the late ‘70s, for example, she was injured midway through the filming of the Bolshoi ballet “Spartacus” and had to be replaced. Similarly, in an international telecast of the Bolshoi “Nutcracker” in 1978, she and her husband, Vladimir Vasiliev, danced the first act, but after he became injured on stage, both were replaced in the last half of the ballet.

The Moscow Classical Ballet is reportedly seeking to find a substitute guest star but other Bolshoi injuries, as well as previous commitments, have caused the Kirov to be a more likely source of Maximova’s replacement than her own company.