A BALLET DANCER

Maia Plissetskaia

Read the article below:

Maia Plissetskaia is a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet, the

greatest ballet company in the world. She lives with her husband
Alexander, a diplomat, in a flat in Moscow. The flat is very small.
The bedroom and the sitting room are in one room and there is
only a small bathroom and a kitchen.
Every morning, Maia and Alexander have breakfast at half past
seven. Then Maia prepares her ballet shoes. She wears three
new pairs of ballet shoes for every performance. Maia usually
walks to her classes at the theatre. “I love the city”, she says, “It
opens my eyes”.
But on performance days, she takes a taxi to class and back. “I
like to save my energy”, she says. She arrives at the theatre at
about five o’ clock in the evening. The performance starts at
seven thirty. Dancing is very tiring and some ballerinas lose three kilos during a
performance. “I drink water, tea, lemonade, anything. Usually I can’t sleep until three
or four o’clock in the morning”.
Bolshoi dancers earn quite a lot of money and there are other rewards. “Men just
leave flowers outside my flat and then run away!” says Maia, and laughs.

A- Now read these sentences and write T (true) or F (false) and correct if necessary:
1- Maia lives alone in a flat.
____________________________________________________
2- She doesn’t take a bus to the theatre.
___________________________________________
3- She gets very tired at performances.
____________________________________________
4- There is one room in her flat.
__________________________________________________
B- And now answer these questions about the article:
1- What does Maia’s husband do?
2- 2- How does Maia go back home on performance days?
3- Why do you think Maia drinks a lot after performances?
4- What’s your opinion about Maia’s life?