Russian Ballet School or Vaganova System

The ballet program at Xwexwey’em’ Academy for the Performing Arts is based on the principles of the Russian School of classical ballet, which is controlled by the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg. The Vaganova Ballet Academy is synonymous with the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly the Kirov) whose core training is based on the venerated Vaganova system, founded and developed by Agrippina Vaganova. Madame Vaganova is heralded as one of the greatest ballet teachers of the ages and her work is the very foundation of all ballet instruction in Russia. Beyond Russia, dancers and international audiences have long revered the grand artistry and training of Russian classical ballet through the appearances of many Mariinsky (Kirov) and Bolshoi Ballet performers including Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Vaganova, Agrippina. The greatest Russian teacher of her day (1879-1951). She was a graduate of the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, where she studied under Ivanov, Vazem, Gerdt, Legat, and others. She was accepted into the corps de ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre in 1897 and became a ballerina in 1915. She left the stage in 1917 to devote herself to teaching. In 1921 she became a teacher at the Leningrad State Ballet School (formerly the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg) and began developing the instructional system that later became known to the world as the Vaganova system. In 1934 she became head of the Leningrad Choreographic Technicum and published her textbook Fundamentals of the Classic Dance. Vaganova's method become the basic method of the entire Soviet choreographic school, now the Russian School. This method is still being developed by Vaganova's followers.