On October 28, the Ministry of Culture officially announced that Nikolai Tsiskaridze would become the rector of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet instead of Vera Dorofeeva. While he is only an acting head, the date for the election of the rector has not yet been set. And although, according to the regulations, the artistic director of the Academy (which can only be a graduate) is chosen only by the rector, it is already known that this position will be taken by the prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Ulyana Lopatkina.

Petersburg School

The Agrippina Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet is the oldest ballet school in Russia and one of the oldest in the world; in terms of age, it is second only to the Parisian L`Ecole de Danse, created by order of Louis XIV. In 1669, the French monarch decided that there should be an Academy of Opera at court, and in 1713 - that a dance school was also needed, approving the rights of two types of art at once. Thus, the world’s first opera house and the first ballet school trace their history back to the reign of Louis XIV. It is the French who are considered the founders of choreographic education (although ballet itself, as a kind of complete dance act, has Italian roots, since dance scenes were originally part of a musical performance), opera comes from Italy.

After the flowering of court ballet in France, dance training began in Russia. In the early 1730s, the French choreographer Jean-Baptiste Lande arrived in St. Petersburg and began giving private dance lessons. In 1738, thanks to his efforts, Empress Anna Ioannovna, eager for fun, signed a decree establishing the “Dancing School of Her Imperial Majesty,” the first school where the children of palace employees—boys and girls—began to teach the art of dance. It is this institution, which has changed names and statuses several times, and in 2013 is celebrating its 275th anniversary, is now called the Agrippina Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet and is considered one of the most prestigious choreographic educational institutions in the world. Graduates of the Vaganova Academy are scattered among the ballet troupes of the largest musical theaters.

Charles Didelot

About twenty years after the creation of the school, it was transformed into a theater school: it also studied music, dramatic acting and other disciplines. In 1773, a second choreographic center arose in Russia - the Moscow Theater School, now named after the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Historically, it so happened that both the Moscow and St. Petersburg schools from the very beginning supplied personnel for the imperial theaters - the Mariinsky (Bolshoi Kamenny, later the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after Kirov) and the Bolshoi; this state of affairs has continued to this day.

For a long time, French teachers and choreographers influenced the development of classical dance in Russia and its teaching. Charles Didelot (born in Stockholm, but in a family of French dancers) is one of the main figures in the history of the development of the national choreographic school. For 20 years (1801-1821) he taught at the St. Petersburg school, under which the basic principles of ballet education were formed: the study of professional disciplines together with general education ones; emphasis on classical dance; seven-year training. Almost the entire second half of the century passed under the sign of Marius Petipa, the author of the “great ballets”, who worked at the school in 1855-1887; It was he who determined the vector of development of Russian ballet and significantly enriched the choreographic language.

We can say that on the eve of the revolution, Russian ballet was in brilliant shape. At the turn of the century, Pavel Gerdt taught at the St. Petersburg Theater School; in 1898, the choreographer Mikhail Fokin and one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, Anna Pavlova, graduated from it, who introduced Russian ballet to the whole world: she toured Europe with Sergei Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons, then in the USA, India and other countries. French (even more broadly, European) ballet, which gave birth to Russian, was in crisis at that time, and Diaghilev’s company significantly revived the foreign stage. The soloists and choreographers of his “seasons” were scattered all over the world, and if Serge Lifar (Sergey Limfar) headed the Grand Opera Ballet for more than thirty years, then George Balanchine (Georgy Balanchivadze) turned out to be the main American choreographer of the 20th century, the founder of the School of American Ballet.

Anna Pavlova

Skeptics believe that after Diaghilev’s experiments, Russian ballet is slowly but surely moving downhill. And although in the 20th century both the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters experienced prosperous times, it must be admitted that the fate of ballet and Russian dancers in the last century was sometimes quite dramatic. First, ballet faced denial from the Soviet government, then the war and the difficult post-war period (although the evacuation of the Vaganova School and the Kirov Theater resulted in the emergence of a strong choreographic school in Perm), then censorship and ideology, which affected the work of prominent choreographers, then isolation and emigration brilliant dancers. It was this isolation from the Western world that influenced both Russian ballet itself and, ultimately, the principles of choreographic education.

Agrippina Vaganova

It was in the USSR that the foundations of comprehensive education in the field of ballet were laid, and a unified pedagogical system began to take shape. Then the Russian school was formally born. A key role in the development of domestic choreographic pedagogy as a science was played by Agrippina Vaganova, a soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, who, perhaps, did not turn out to be an outstanding ballerina, but became a brilliant teacher. She trained several generations of brilliant dancers - including Marina Semenova, Galina Ulanova, Natalia Dudinskaya - and became the country's first professor of choreography.

During her short work at the Bolshoi Theater in 1944, Vaganova managed to work with Maya Plisetskaya. The young ballerina only danced for the first year in the Bolshoi Theater troupe, and Vaganova had a strong influence on her. In her memoirs, Plisetskaya called her “Michelangelo in ballet.”

Vaganova, who herself graduated from the St. Petersburg school (1897), after her artistic career, decided to systematize all the dance experience coming from the Italians and French, and also to determine the features of national choreography. Thanks to her, everyone learned that the Russian school is distinguished by the “liberation” of the body, special “poetic” hands (characteristic more of St. Petersburg than of Moscow), and exceptional expressiveness of dance. It is interesting that Vaganova already said that choreographic technical schools need to be given the status of higher educational institutions, but this happened much later.

As a result, Agrippina Vaganova developed a system according to which ballet lessons should be conducted and the entire educational process should be structured. She outlined her ideas in the book “Fundamentals of Classical Dance,” published in 1934. The “Vaganova system” is taught not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but all over the world; however, for the national ballet school its textbook is the Bible.

Agrippina Vaganova

New rector

It was about the educational standard, the “Vaganova Bible,” that Nikolai Tsiskaridze spoke when cultural figures met with officials in 2011-2012 to discuss the law “On Education.” Then the Russian system was actually on the verge of destruction: instead of recruiting children at the age of 9-10, the authorities proposed recruiting at the age of 15. In such a case, the Vaganova Academy would have the status of a vocational school and would not produce any ballet dancers with higher professional education.

Tsiskaridze turned out to be convincing, and, it must be said, not least thanks to his oratorical talent, emotional fervor and a certain gift of suggestion, the threat passed. As a result, harmful amendments to the education law were not adopted. Of course, the Bolshoi Theater prima Svetlana Zakharova (by the way, a graduate of the Vaganova School), who occupies a deputy seat in the State Duma, also influenced the situation.

According to Tsiskaridze himself, it was at that moment that officials came up with the idea of calling him to head the St. Petersburg Academy, which they allegedly did a year ago, but he refused. It is unclear when exactly the issue of Tsiskaridze’s appointment was finally decided: according to some sources - back in May 2013, according to others - after the end of the contracts with the Bolshoi Theater (June 30), where they no longer wanted to see the artist. In any case, he did not remain unemployed for long - and this, obviously, is the merit of the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiev. The opinion of the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky about the employment of Tsiskaridze quickly changed: an extra person was rapidly turning into the only one necessary and possible. The inspiration descended on the minister from above, no less.

Academy

In August 2013, Forbes magazine wrote that Gergiev allegedly wants to create a kind of National Arts Center, which would include the Vaganova Academy, the St. Petersburg Conservatory and the Russian Institute of Art History. The maestro was concerned about the failures in specialized education; he would like to see these institutions “more effective” in the future and would like to work with them in direct contact.

It can be assumed that the most pressing issue for the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, who has already denied the “desire to unite,” is the issue of personnel. Now that the St. Petersburg theater has opened a second stage and the number of performances should increase significantly, Gergiev needs to expand the staff, in particular, recruit as many dancers as possible. And probably the question of the number of artists now interests the conductor no less than the level of their professional training.

In fact, this is not the first time that claims have been made against the Vaganova School; Some dissatisfaction with the quality of education at the Academy has been evident over the past ten to fifteen years - it was noticeable after it was given the status of a higher educational institution in 1991. The criticism, in fact, boils down to the fact that after Ulyana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva, no other ballerinas of this class were trained there. However, there is no doubt that, in principle, teaching at the Academy is still conducted at a good level, and at a higher level than at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. In Vaganovka, apparently, a talented and sincere team has formed; they live in a renovated building and avoid conflicts.

Ulyana Lopatkina

Probably, if we can talk about the problems of ballet education in Russia, then they are not specific to the Vaganova Academy, but characteristic of the entire sphere. As many critics note, there are many more talented dancers graduating from schools than dancers, and therefore especially gifted premieres are worth their weight in gold. However, the reason for this is in the history of ballet: initially the partner performed a more supportive, auxiliary function. In addition, the general system is tailored specifically to teaching classical dance; Graduates of educational institutions are completely unprepared for the language of modern choreographers. At the Paris Ballet School, by the way, in 1974, an experimental group “Theater of Quest” was established to master modern dance.

Obviously, these issues will have to be resolved by Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who, however, himself is focused specifically on the classics. Surely he will also take up the main task - rapprochement with the Mariinsky Theater. The Academy is afraid that Gergiev just needed its rehearsal halls, but the conductor assures that the theater already has “enormous” rehearsal capabilities. The maestro needs both institutions to have a synchronized creative and artistic process.

Vera Dorofeeva

However, the main thing that Tsiskaridze faces is to preserve and not lose the level of education already existing at the Academy. The press service of the educational institution told Lenta.ru that from the last graduating class (2013), 10 dancers were accepted to the Mariinsky Theater, three to the Mikhailovsky Theater, where, by the way, Vera Dorofeeva, the former rector of the Academy, went to become deputy director. In total, about 25 people graduate from higher education institutions every year, and about 60 are recruited into the performing arts department.

It is interesting that the young stars of 2011, Olga Smirnova and Kristina Shapran, were accepted into the Bolshoi Theater and the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, respectively. At the same time, the press service of the Academy emphasized that they were immediately enrolled as soloists, while the Mariinsky Theater invited girls only to the corps de ballet.

Graduates of the Vaganova Academy are among the first soloists of the Vienna Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, and among the premieres of the Bolshoi Theater. In addition, students of the choreographic school also occupy leadership positions: Igor Zelensky, for example, heads the ballet troupe of the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, and choreographer Alexey Miroshnichenko heads the troupe of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater.

Tsiskaridze's appointment was met with controversy. Firstly, because the oldest St. Petersburg school will be headed by a student from the Moscow school. Although one can argue here: both Ulanova and Semenova were the artist’s teachers at the Bolshoi in their time. Secondly, as the St. Petersburg media write, the new appointment and its unceremoniousness were critically perceived by the entire staff of the Academy, which will now be managed by a person without leadership experience and even with a scandalous reputation. The choice of Ulyana Lopatkina, an active ballerina without a teaching background, to replace Altynay Asylmuratova also caused dissatisfaction.

A number of claims against Nikolai Tsiskaridze sound convincing. Some opponents of the appointment, for example, believe that a person who cares most about himself will not be able to care for children. However, the artist, who played an important role in the popularization of ballet in Russia, always said that he was very passionate about ballet, for choreographic education and for theater in general. Apparently, right now Nikolai Tsiskaridze has a unique opportunity to finally prove this.

In the embrace of “poetic” hands