When she first arrived in the West, Makarova was eager to expand her choreography by dancing ballets by modern choreographers.

In December 1975, she and her dance partner Mikhail Baryshnikov featured prominently in an episode of the BBC television series Arena.

She was featured in the 1976 live American Ballet Theatre production of Swan Lake, simulcast from Lincoln Center on both PBS and NPR.

Today Makarova stages ballets such as Swan Lake, La Bayadère and Sleeping Beauty for companies across the world.

She played Lydia Lopokova (Lady Keynes) in Wooing in Absence, compiled by Patrick Garland.

[7] Janet Sassoon said about Makarova, "When I began teaching in San Francisco, through Madam Bali, I got to work with all these great Russian first dancers when they were there.