#ONE SPIRIT DANCE ACADEMY HOW TO#
#ONE SPIRIT DANCE ACADEMY FULL#
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#ONE SPIRIT DANCE ACADEMY FREE#

вЂњI have very little free time during the school year-only on Sundays,вЂќ she says. ItвЂ™s not surprising that Irina says her biggest challenge is overcoming tiredness. вЂњClassical ballet is a long road to perfection, and the student must understand that every step is important.вЂќ

#ONE SPIRIT DANCE ACADEMY HOW TO#

вЂњThere is usually a discussion with the coach regarding each mistake and how to correct it,вЂќ says school principal Vera Dorofeeva. Sometimes academics and ballet intersect, as when students are required to write essays about their technical mistakes. In addition to their dance classes, students at the Academy study history, algebra, geometry, geography, biology, Russian language and literature, French, English, physics, chemistry, music, music history and ballet history. In the evenings, there are rehearsals for various student concerts and for the small roles they perform with the Maryinsky Ballet. Then they have academic classes, followed by another dance class. Most students head to the dance classrooms-with their raked, usually wooden floors, sprinkled with water, rather than rosin, to prevent slipping-early in the morning to warm up before their 9:30 am technique class. вЂњIt is much the equivalent of the American masterвЂ™s degree in that they study every aspect of training dancers of all ages, from 10-year-old beginners to 18-year-old preprofessionals,вЂќ White explains.ДЇrom dawn to dusk, the Vaganova studentвЂ™s life revolves around training, a point driven home by the fact that the dormitories and dance studios are all part of the same immense, majestic facility. To maintain the AcademyвЂ™s style and technical standards, all of its teachers and coaches receive extensive training before they are allowed in the classroom. But dancing becomes true dancing when you leave the earth and fly.вЂќ вЂњShe felt that adagio is nice-it gives the eye a chance to rest, and has beautiful poses and positioning. To Vaganova, вЂњeverything leads to allegro,вЂќ White says. This isnвЂ™t to say that the legs and feet arenвЂ™t important. ItвЂ™s different from some of the other schools, which often focus on the legs and feet.вЂќ вЂњThe eyes, the upper body, the facial expression and the arms and hands are all connected. вЂњThere is a total involvement of every part of the person in each and every movement,вЂќ he says. According to White, one distinguishing aspect of the technique is its emphasis on the arms, hands and eyes. вЂњVaganova was a pioneer, and we owe her a lot in the ballet world,вЂќ says John White, a former National Ballet of Cuba dancer who teaches the Vaganova syllabus at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet and gives Vaganova workshops across the country. The hallways of the school are lined with photos of classes from the last 150 years, an inspiring-and intimidating-reminder for the students of the great dancers who came before them.Дuring her tenure, Vaganova created a syllabus that is now the standard in Russian training.

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вЂњToday, the whole school is full of this spirit of history,вЂќ says Irina Tolchilshikova, 18, who is in her eighth year of training at the Academy. (The school was renamed for Vaganova in 1957, six years after her death.) She was hired in 1921-the same year Balanchine graduated-and later became the director of both the school and the affiliated company, which by then had been rechristened the Maryinsky Ballet. A graduate of the school and a former dancer in the Imperial Ballet, Vaganova found her true calling as a teacher. The biggest development in the schoolвЂ™s more recent past was the arrival of Agrippina Vaganova.

It became the principal training ground for its affiliated company, the Imperial Ballet, where choreographer Marius Petipa created ballets like Don Quixote and Sleeping Beauty. But over the course of the next 100 years, the school blossomed.

The first class had only 12 boys and girls. Two hundred and seventy-two years ago, the Russian empress Anna Ivanovna issued a royal decree to start a ballet school in St. So what is it like to be a student there today, and to feel the weight of history on your shoulders every time you step up to the barre? DS takes a peek inside one of the most distinguished ballet training institutions in the world. ItвЂ™s also where Agrippina Vaganova developed her groundbreaking methodology. ItвЂ™s where legends like George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Makarova did their first pliГ©s. Through the centuries, czars and governments have come and gone-but the Academy has remained. Petersburg, Russia, is nearly as old as ballet itself.

The Vaganova Ballet Academy, based in St.

One spirit dance academy