Imperial Ballet School
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The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet is a school of
classical ballet Classical ballet is any of the traditional, formal styles of ballet that exclusively employ classical ballet technique. It is known for its aesthetics and rigorous technique (such as en pointe, pointe work, turnout (ballet), turnout of the legs, ...
in St Petersburg,
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. Established in 1738 during the reign of Empress Anna, the academy was known as the Imperial Ballet School until the
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
era, when, after a brief hiatus, the school was re-established as the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute. In 1957, the school was renamed in honor of the pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova, who cultivated the method of classical ballet training that has been taught there since the late 1920s. Many of the world's leading ballet schools have adopted elements of the Vaganova method into their own training. The Vaganova Academy is the associate school of the Mariinsky Ballet, one of the world's leading ballet companies. Students of the school have found employment with ballet and contemporary companies worldwide, such as the
Bolshoi Ballet The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest Ballet company, ballet companies. In the early 20th century, it ca ...
,
The Royal Ballet The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded ...
,
American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...
and the Mikhailovsky Ballet.


History

The school was established as the Imperial Theatrical School by decree of the Empress Anna on 4 May 1738 with the French Ballet Master Jean-Baptiste Lande as its director. The first classes occupied empty rooms in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and the first students were twelve boys and twelve girls. Nearly all the early teachers at the school were from
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...
, including Franz Hilferding and Giovanni Canzianni. The first Russian teacher to join the school was Ivan Valberg. After the spread of ballet in
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, the development of the school was influenced by a number of other teachers and methods, including Christian Johannson, a student of August Bournonville, and the Italian methods of Enrico Cecchetti, Pierina Legnani and Carlotta Brianza. Other renowned 19th-century dancers and ballet masters who taught at and were influential in the development in the school include
Charles Didelot Charles-Louis Didelot (28 March 1767, Stockholm7 November 1837, Kiev) was a French dancer, the creator of the ballet shoes and a choreographer. The son of Charles Didelot, the dance-master of the King of Sweden, he studied dance with his father ...
, Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Léon, Lev Ivanov, Marius Petipa and Mikhail Fokine. Since 1836, the school has been situated at 2 Rossi Street in St. Petersburg (known as Leningrad after 1924 until the collapse of the Soviet Union). The Imperial Ballet School was dissolved by the new Soviet government, but later re-established on the same site as the Leningrad State Choreographic School. The Imperial Russian Ballet was also dissolved and re-established as the Soviet Ballet. The company was later renamed the Kirov Ballet following the assassination of Sergey Kirov in 1934. Despite in 1992 being given the current name Mariinsky Ballet, the company is still commonly known as the Kirov Ballet.


Vaganova

Agrippina Vaganova brought developments in modern Russian Ballet. She graduated from the Imperial Ballet School in 1897 and danced with the Imperial Ballet, retiring from the stage early to pursue her teaching career following the
Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
. As the Soviet government had not yet re-established the school, Vaganova began her teaching career at the privately owned School of Russian Ballet, eventually joining the new Leningrad State Choreographic School in 1920. Vaganova is noted for authoring ''The Principles of Classical Dance'', which outlines the training system she created. There are a number of variations in the name of the school, but the official title in current use in the
English-speaking world The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English language, English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the ...
is Vaganova Ballet Academy.


Today


Overview

The Vaganova Ballet Academy which some consider the source of modern ballet is now over 275 years old. The Academy has over 300 students. The Rector of the academy is Nikolay Tsiskaridze and the Artistic Director is Zhanna Ayupova.


Auditions

Auditions for the school begin in June, and children must be at least 10 years old to audition.


Training

All students at the school begin by studying a program of dance training,
secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
level education,
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and piano lessons. As they progress through the school, the program becomes more intensive, with new subjects being added to the curriculum as the students become more advanced. Students are evaluated at the end of each academic year and a decision made as to whether they will advance to the higher grades which have progressively fewer openings.


Notable graduates

* Svetlana Adyrkhaeva * Altynai Asylmuratova * Zhanna Ayupova * George Balanchine * Emira Amzai * Mikhail Baryshnikov * Vakhtang Chabukiani * Alexandra Danilova * Natalia Dudinskaya * Valentin Elizariev * Mikhail Fokine * Ai-gul Gaisina * Elizaveta Gerdt * Eleonora Sevenard * Yuri Grigorovich * Tamara Karsavina * Maria Khoreva * Ji-Young Kim * Irina Kolpakova * Alexandra Koltun * Gabriela Komleva * Ekaterina Kondaurova * Mathilde Kschessinska * Nicolai Legat * Serge Legat * Larissa Lezhnina * Ulyana Lopatkina * Lisa Macuja-Elizalde * Natalia Makarova * Yulia Makhalina * Ryan Martin * Varvara P. Mey * Galina Mezentseva * Fethon Miozzi * Olesya Novikova * Bronislava Nijinska * Vaslav Nijinsky * Rudolf Nureyev * Aaron Osawa-Horowitz * Valery Panov * Yelena Pankova * Veronika Part * Anna Pavlova * Olga Preobrajenskaya * Evgenia Obraztsova * Anna Odintsova * Farukh Ruzimatov * Marina Semenova * Konstantin Sergeyev * Vladimir Shklyarov * Alla Sizova * Olga Smirnova * Yuri Soloviev * Alina Somova * Olga Spesivtseva * Yulia Stepanova * Viktoria Tereshkina * Galina Ulanova * Anastasia Volochkova * Diana Vishneva * Rostislav Zakharov * Svetlana Zakharova * Konstantin Zaklinsky * Igor Zelensky * Anastasia Smirnova


References


External links

* **
Photo-essay: Vaganova Ballet Academy
{{authority control Ballet schools in Russia History of ballet Ballet in Saint Petersburg Universities and colleges in Saint Petersburg Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg