Vaganova

Encyclopædia Britannica on: Agrippina Vaganova, born June 14 [June 26, New Style], 1879, St. Petersburg, Russia: died November 5, 1951, Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], Russian ballerina and teacher who developed a technique and system of instruction based on the classical style of the Imperial Russian Ballet but which also incorporated aspects of the more vigorous Soviet ballet developed after the Russian Revolution of 1917 .

Vaganova studied at the Imperial Theatre School in St. Petersburg, where she was taught by a number of legendary teachers, including Lev Ivanov and Christian Johansson . Upon her graduation in 1897, she joined the Mariinsky Ballet , where she became known as the “queen of variations” for her soaring leaps and brilliant footwork. Yet, despite her strong technique and energetic style, her dance career progressed slowly because of the number of talented Russian dancers—such as Anna Pavlova , Tamara Karsavina , and Olga Preobrajenska —who wer e her contemporaries and competition. Vaganova danced the leading roles of Odette-Odile (Swan Lake) and the Tsar-Maiden (The Little Humpbacked Horse), but she was not given official ballerina ranking until 1915, the year before her retirement from the stage. When her years as a performer ended, Vaganova embarked on a second career as a ballet instructor, joining the Petrograd State Ballet School (formerly the Imperial Theatre School) in 1921.

Russian ballet at the beginning of the 20th century was a mixture of disparate influences, combining aspects of the traditional national style with French and Italian elements. Although it was appreciated throughout Europe, the future of Russian ballet was uncertain. The unique Russian style had developed over time, and a systematic method for teaching and communicating it did not exist. Russian ballet was further challenged by the turmoil that followed the Revolution; because ballet had been long associated with the aristocracy, its function as an art form was questioned by some revolutionaries.

During her years as a performer, Vaganova had observed the absence of method in Russian ballet. When she became a teacher, she selected the best aspects of the various styles and integrated them into a coherent system based in classical movement. Her teaching system emphasized harmony and coordination of all parts of the body but particularly developed the spine and neck, enabling her students to maintain a seemingly effortless core of stability while dancing. Vaganova’s new method of ballet instruction would eventually become the basis for all Soviet ballet training. Her efforts in this area were her greatest contribution to the history of dance, as they helped to ensure the survival of Russian ballet and expanded its impact on other dance styles. Many accomplished ballerinas, including Galina Ulanova , developed under her tutelage.

Vaganova was also active as a choreographer, beginning with The Visions of a Poet in 1927. As the artistic director of the Mariinsky Ballet (from 1935 to 1990 called the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet ) from 1931 to 1937, she encouraged both modern dance and revivals of classical ballet, notably Swan Lake (1933). From 1946 to 1951 she taught choreography at the Leningrad Conservatory.

Vaganova’s writings include a widely used textbook published in Russian in 1934; it was published in English as (trans. 1946, reissued incorporating all the material from the 4th Russian ed., 1969). In 1934 Vaganova was made People’s Artist of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, and in 1946 she was given the Stalin Prize of the U.S.S.R. Her legacy was confirmed when the Leningrad Choreographic School (formerly the Petrograd State Ballet School) was renamed the Vaganova School in her honour in 1957.

From "The Role of Honorary Awards in the Soviet Economic System", by NP Guillebaud, American Slavic and East European Review, 1953:

   These prizes were introduced on the occasion of Stalin's sixtieth birthday in 1939, and they have a different function from the other awards so far discussed. They tend to be given for more specific actions or achievements, the making of an invention or the writing of a specific book or opera, the introduction of a supposed innovation in industrial organization, or the development of a new breed of chickens.
   The original decree of December, 1939, provided for a total of ninety-two prizes to be given annually , their value varying from 100,000 to 25,000 rubles, and also for a number of Stalin scholarships at institutions of higher learning. Subsequently the number of prizes was increased to 160 annually, and certain prizes were raised to 200,000 rubles; the annual number appears to have risen still more since the war.
   These prizes are not subject to income tax, and they are given as a lump sum. The same person may receive more than one Stalin Prize, each with its gold medal, but there are no specific privileges attached to the prize other than the sum of money. Very few ordinary workers receive these prizes, as is not indeed surprising in view of their relatively limited scope and opportunity for making significant innovations.

Vaganova Ballet Academy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Vaganova Ballet Academy is one of the most famous and influential classical ballet schools in the world. It has also been known as the Imperial Ballet School and the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute. There are other variations of the name, however Vaganova Ballet Academy is the official title used in English speaking countries.
Established in 1738 , the academy is based in St. Petersburg , Russia and is named after the renowned pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova , who cultivated the method of classical ballet training that has been taught at the school since the late 1920s. Graduates of the school include some of the most famous ballet dancers, choreographers and teachers in history and many of the worlds leading ballet schools have adopted elements of the Vaganova method into their own training.
The Vaganova Ballet Academy is the associate school of the Mariinsky Ballet , one of the Worlds leading ballet companies. Students of the school are successful in achieving employment with ballet and contemporary companies worldwide, such as the Bolshoi Ballet , The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre .
http://collectnobel.com/Balfour_-_credentials_from_Vict.html
History
The school was established as the Imperial Theatre 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. The purpose of the school was to form Russia's first professional dance company, which lead to the formation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, the school becoming known as the Imperial Ballet School. The Imperial Russian Ballet is the direct predecessor of today's Mariinsky Ballet , which remains one of the worlds leading ballet companies to this day, with the Vaganova Academy as its associate school.
Nearly all the early teachers at the school were from Western Europe, including Franz Hilferding and Giovanni Canzianni. The first Russian teacher to join the school was Ivan Valberg. After the spread of ballet in Europe, 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 , Jules Perrot , Arthur Saint-Léon , Lev Ivanov , Marius Petipa and Mikhail Fokine .
Since 1836 the school has been situated on Rossi Street in St Petersburg. Following the upheaval of the Russian Revolution of 1917, St Petersburg was renamed Leningrad after the communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin . The Imperial Ballet School was dissolved by the Soviet Government and later re-established on the same site, as the Leningrad State Choreographic School. The Imperial Russian Ballet was also dissolved as a result of the revolution and was re-established as the Soviet Ballet. The company was later renamed the Kirov Ballet following the assassination of the Bolshevic revolutionary Sergey Kirov in 1938. Despite later being given the current name Mariinsky Ballet, the company is still commonly known as the Kirov Ballet by the majority of Western audiences and the company still use the title Kirov Ballet when touring internationally.

Vaganova

Agrippina Vaganova brought perhaps the most important developments in modern Russian Ballet. She graduated from the former Imperial Ballet School in 1897 and danced with the Imperial Ballet, retiring from the stage early to pursue her teaching career following the Russian revolution. As the Soviet Government had not yet re-established the school at that time, Vaganova began her teaching career at the privately owned School of Russian Ballet eventually joining the new Leningrad State Choreographic School in 1920. Vaganova was to become possibly the most renowned ballet teacher of all time and is most noted for authoring "The Principles of Classical Dance", which outlines the training system which she created and which heads the list of numerous works produced by teachers of the school.
Vaganova's students would become some of the most famous ballet dancers of all time and in recognition of her achievements, the school was named in her honour in 1957, six years after her death. There are a number of variations in the name of the school, but the official title in current use in the English speaking world is Vaganova Ballet Academy.

Today: Overview

The Vaganova Ballet Academy is one of the Worlds leading ballet schools and currently has over 300 students. Like other similar institutions, competition for a place at the school is very fierce with over 3000 children auditioning each year, 300 of these being from St Petersburg. Approximately 60 students are selected annually, with approximately 25 eventually graduating from the school having completed the full course of training. The School employs approximately 75 dance teachers, 30 piano teachers, 40 academic teachers and 40 accompanists. The Director of the school is Leonid Nadirov and the Artistic Director is former Kirov Ballet dancer and choreographer Altynai Asylmuratova .
Auditions
Auditions for the school being in June and children must be at least 10 years old to apply.
The audition process is divided into three sections.
Aptitude: to assess the candidate's proportions, height of jump, degree of turnout and general appearance etc
Physical: an examination by a specialist medical practitioner to assess the physiological possibilities of the candidate
Artistic: to assess the candidate's musicality, rhythm, co-ordination and artistic talent
Training

All students at the school begin by studying a programme of dance training, secondary school level education, French language and piano lessons. As they progress through the school, the programme becomes more intensive, with new subjects being added to the curriculum as the students become more advanced. In the first year, students study classical and historical dance progressing to character dance in the fourth year and pas de deux and mime in the sixth year. At the end of the 8th year of training, all students dance in a graduation gala at the Mariinsky Theatre. The most successful students may be offered a contract with the Mariinsky Ballet company, with the majority seeking employment with ballet companies in Russia and worldwide, including leading companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet , The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre .

AGRIPPINA VAGANOVA

1986

colour

65, 05

The Kirov theatre. “Bayaderka” ballet is on tonight. The 3d act – “Shadows”. It’s a wonderful performance. It is music expressed in motion. No theatre in the world preserves its cultural heritage of the past as the Mariinsky Theatre does. School – that’s the necessary condition fot it. We can see the building of the choreography college. A. Vaganova, daughter of the theatre usher, entered the doors of this school when she was 10 years old. The rehearsal room saw many famous choreographers, ballet-masters and dancers – Johanson, Gerdt, Cecetti, Petip, Ibanov, Fokin, Pavlov, Nizhinsky, Karsavin, Preobrazhenskaya and Vaganova. First she was a student here and then – a teacher. Classes are conducted by Dudinskaya, Vaganova’s student. Vaganova began to teach in 1920. There was no unified approach to teaching that time. All knowledge and skills that she got in this school she enriched and shared with her students. It was not easy get into the theatre at once and Vaganova made her way to the stage with the help of her teacher Gerdt. It turned out that solo dancing – variations – was closer to her. And that was the sphere where she achieved incredible perfection. Not for nothing she was called “The Queen of variations”. “She knew everything about the human body”, - her students say. But life in ballet is short. After Vaganova got a title of a ballet-dancer she retired. After 1917 many dancers and people of art immigrated abroad. But Vaganova refused to. Her name is surrounded by different legends – her strictness, straightforwardness, rare praises seemed to be eccentric and strange. She demanded wise attitude towards dancing. The main principles of her teaching method were as follows – expressiveness, precision and no blurred lines. Fame of Vaganova as a teacher flared like a firework and it continues to give light today. Many of her famous students and potégés continue her line and follow in her footsteps nowadays. Among them – Semjonova, Ulanova, Doudinskaya, Balabina, Kirillova, Shelest, Voyshnis, Petrova, Kourgapkina, Moiseeva, Osipenko, Kolpakova and many others.

A crowd of people is standing near the Kirov Theatre. They are the audience. Every year they come here to watch the performance of new graduates of the college, who continue the tradition of Vaganova’s school.

Cast: N.Doudinskaya, I.Kolpakova, N.Kourgapkina, M. Plisetskaya, G.Komleva, G. Mezentseva, T.Terekhova, S.Berezhnoy, K.Zaklinsky, M.Koullik, J.Agapova, I.Chistyakova, G.Yablonskaya, V.Ivanova, I.Shapchits, M.Vyasiev, ballet-dancers of Kirov’s Leningrad State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet; Symphonu orchestra of the theatre conducted by E.Kolobov, V.Fedotov, V.Shirokov; students of A.Vaganova’s Leningrad Academic Choreography College.

The film features fragments from ballets: “Swan Lake” by Tchakovsky, “Bayaderka”, “Don Quixote”, “Paquita”by L.Minkus, “Konek-Gorbunok”, “Esmeralda” by Pugni, “Chopiniana” by F. Chopin, “Carnaval” by R.Schuman.
From http://www.lentelefilm.ru/doc/cat_documentary_eng.doc.

Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (July 6 1879 - November 5 1951) was an outstanding Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method - the technique which derived from the teaching methods of the old "Imperial Ballet School" (today the "Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet") under the "Premier Maître de Ballet" Marius Petipa throughout the mid to late 19th century, though mostly throughout the 1880s and 1890s. It was Vaganova who perfected and cultivated this form of teaching the art of classical ballet into a workable syllabus. Her "Fundamentals of the Classical Dance" (1934) remains a standard textbook for the instruction of ballet technique .
Vaganova's whole life was connected with the Imperial Ballet (later the Kirov Ballet) of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. She was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School in 1888, the great institution of classical dance founded by Anna of Russia and funded by the Tsars. She graduated from the "Classe de Perfection" of the former "Prima Ballerina" Eugeniia Sokolova (she was also trained by Ekaterina Vazem, Enrico Cecchetti, Christian Johansson, and Pavel Gerdt).
Ballet did not come easily to Vaganova in her first years as a student, but slowly, through the efforts of her own will power, she was able to join the illustrious Imperial Ballet upon her graduation. By the time she attained the rank of soloist, Saint Petersburg balletomanes dubbed her "queen of variations", for her unlimited virtuosity and level of technique.
The old Maestro Petipa cared little for Vaganova as a dancer — any mention of her performances in his diaries were usually followed by such comments as "awful" or "dreadful". But Petipa was notorious for offhand remarks about the greatest dancers of his time, including the prima ballerina assuluta, Mathilde Kschessinska, who he thought "rotten", "spiteful", and a "nasty swine". In 1915 the Ballet Master Nikolai Legat cast Vaganova as the Goddess Niriti in his revival of Petipa's 1889 grand ballet "The Talisman". Vaganova's portrayal was a great success, and won her promotion to the rank of "Prima". Nevertheless, she chose to retire one year later to concentrate on teaching.
In 1916 Vaganova began teaching at the "khortekhnikum", as the Imperial Ballet School was by then known. Though she did have a respectable career as a dancer, her leadership in teaching classical dance was what gave her one of the most respected places in the history of ballet. Her own early struggle with deciphering ballet technique had taught her much. She taught students who would go on to become legends of the dance.
After the Revolution of 1917 the future of ballet in Russia looked grim because of its tradition as court entertainment. Vaganova "fought tooth and nail", as she put it, for the preservation of the legacy of Marius Petipa and the Imperial Ballet. In 1934 she was appointed director of the "khortekhnikum", the school which now bears her name: The Vaganova Ballet Academy. This is the school that prepares dancers to perform with the Kirov Ballet.
Among Vaganova's pupils were the distinguished Soviet ballerinas Natalia Dudinskaya, Marina Semenova, Galina Ulanova, Olga Lepeshinskaya, and Maya Plisetskaya. Her teaching combined the elegant, refined style of the Imperial Ballet which Vaganova had been taught by Enrico Cecchetti with more vigorous dancing developed in the Soviet Union. In 1933, she staged and choreographed the celebrated version of "Swan Lake" with Ulanova as Odette-Odile.

Famous graduates of the Vaganova Ballet Academy include many who achieved international recognition: Ninel Kurgapkina, Rudolf Nureyev, Irina Kolpakova, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, Yuri Soloviev, Galina Mezentseva, Altynai Asylmuratova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, and Svetlana Zakharova, among many others.

Crew:

Scriptwriter – M. Ilcheva

Directed and produced by – V. Okuntzov

Photography director – R.Chernyak

Art director – L.Loukonina

Costume designer – N. Vorobieva

Sound – G.Maximovich

Assistants of:

director – G.Vengerova, A.Gainanov

cameraman – S.Aksenov

Make up – L.Khruscheva

Sound recording technichian – G.Shlyahtina

Video-tape operator- S.Drozdovsky

Video-tape editor- V.Plotnikov

Editor – D.Petlina

Administrator – O.Vysotskaya

Associate producer – V.Vad

With the use of archive materials of the Leningrad State Museum of Theatre and Music