Teachers Congress on Russian Technique Classical Ballet
Annette Thomas
I have just returned from an incredible Teachers Congress held in Panama City, Florida. Professor Peggy Willis-Aarnio taught on the topic of Russian Classical Ballet Teaching Method, which was developed in Saint-Petersburg Russia at the Kirov Choreographic School by Mme.Vera Kostrovitskaya and Pisarev. It was initially based on the approach first developed by Agrippina Vaganova. It was a wonderful a treat as I learned many more nuances of teaching and polished my existing skills.
A Little Classical Ballet History
Agrippina Vaganova (1879-1951) was the founding creator of the Teaching Method of Classical Ballet. Mme. Vaganova was well ahead her time in that she completely understood that the training of a "firm trunk."This training emphasizes the muscles of the lower back to develop the core strengt that isa major prerequisite for free body control for physiological and artistic purposes. Early critics noticed that her system of teaching was scientific, and predictable. It was not by chance that Agrippina Vaganova consistently and regularly produced top ballet stars and teachers.
Mme. Kostrovitskaya was one of the closest disciples of Agrippina Vaganova, and for many years she was a senior teacher at the Vaganova Choreographic School. She further broke down the details of Vaganova's teaching method and developed the 6 year program in it's final form (from the original 8 year program) as it is used in Russia and around the world today. In 1978 along with Alexei Pisarev a long time teacher at the Vaganova School and the Kirov Ballet Company classes, Mme. Kostrovitskaya wrote what is considered today to be the "Bible" of classical ballet teaching method entitled School of Classical Dance . In 1979 John Barker, a New York Dance Artist and Teacher, after 20 years of work with Kostrovitskaya, translated this monumental work for the English speaking world. Mme. Kostrovitskaya realized that even Russian teachers and dancers were beginning to take the easy way out by performing tricks without a solid foundation, and that the achievements of the Russian School of Ballet were becoming watered down. Impatience to dazzle with "choreography" was taking over foundational technique and more and more frequently professional injuries were occurring. |
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Mme. Kostrovitskaya decided to pass on this precious information through John Barker to teachers in the West, hoping that it will live on. John Barker in turn taught the method to Dr. Peggy Willis-Aarnio who in 1992 received an invitation to complete har advanced studies at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint-Petersburg Russia. Dr. Peggy Willis-Aarnio became the first Americal Ballet Teacher to be sanctioned as a certified practitioner of the Russian Teaching Method of Classical Ballet.
The Congress
What I came to study was this extremely analytical and methodical breakdown of steps and the precise learning time frame required in the Teaching Method. Nothing in this Method is arbitrary or simply choreographic. It is to specifically and methodically train the entire body to consistently perform with excellence without risk of injury. My original teacher Mme Maria Nevelska was a member of the Bolshoi Ballet Company in Moscow . This ballet company trains its dancers in a similar, less precise but more dramatic style. Mme. Nevelska was taught by pupils of Vaganova so that many aspects of the Teaching Method were familiar to me and has been, in its basic form, the way I have taught ballet for over 25 years. The Teachers' Congress opened my eyes as to how the Method that Vaganova founded (now called Teaching Method) has evolved and grown to become an incredibly precise science of movement training where no single movement is arbitrary but calculated to produce consistent and predictable results!
As I have been working with skating students and writing about ballet and skating, I have been even more impressed by how the methodical detail the focus on physiology and aesthetic in he Teaching Method can produce the finest quality professional dancers and figure skaters while keeping the participants virtually injury free. The Teachers' Congress confirmed many of the teaching practices I have already been using.
The results of the Teaching Method were made evident in Dr. Peggy Willis-Aarnio's students: After only 2-3 years of study, many of them show incredible physical and intellectual understanding of this fine art form. During the seminar I was also privileged to watch the Saint Petersburg Classic Ballet Theatre of Marina Medvetskaya Ballet taking a lesson and rehearsing for one of my favorite classical ballets: La Bayadere. I can say without any doubt that I have not seen such a high level of discipline, artistry and virtuosic technique in over 20 years!
- Everything in the Teaching Method leads up to the execution of jumps and the Grand Pas De Deux (literally "large dance of 2) which is the culmination of artistic and physical virtuosity.
- When students and teachers follow the Teaching Method, injuries never occur as each step is broken down and taught within a very specific, in fact daily, timeline and framework.
- The course is built on an eight-year program of six 1½-hour lessons per week. With gifted dancers (such as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova) the program can safely be accelerated to six years without causing injuries.
- Each exercise form is broken down into component parts. This is much like a sports scientist who would "slow mo" a perfectly executed action in order to analyze, moment by moment, the progression of a step or element. In this analysis, one can describe the elements: A before B, and B before C. Then one translateds this into specific exercises for the tudent to perform in a precise fashion. As a part of the technique, the student executes carefully calculated repetitions to form the muscles, ligaments, tendons and correct neurological pathways.
- The Teaching Method builds confidence in structured movement, takes the guesswork out of whether a student will succeed in dance and virtually eliminates the possibility of professional injuries.
- One of the main reasons for the rise in injuries of both dancers and sports people (and the rise in turn of the sports medicine profession) is the lack of following a methodical and progressively detailed daily syllabus. Sometimes this is simple impatience and the desire to do difficult and fancy "tricks" before the body is ready, and to have the instant gratification of acquiring a medal or leading role before one is truly ready for it.
- The question is if it takes only 6 years to create a professional caliber classical dancer why have so many children taken "ballet lessons" for over 10 years which have amounted to nothing?
- The other question, from the stand point of figure skating, is why have so many like Tara Lipinsky given relatively the same period of training time incurred so many life debilitating injuries? Failure of a unified concise daily method on the one hand, and the desire to accelerate before the body is truly ready to do so are some of the main reasons. But if you look at the facts 6 years at 6 days a week (almost the same amount of time many dancers and skaters are already taking for weekly lessons combined with practice time) can produce the wanted results with predictability while remaining virtually injury free.
[Editor's note: Annette's web site includes more on this topic. Visit
http://ballet4figuresk8ers.da.ru/]
Three more articles on the relationship between ballet and figure skating training:
Choreography vs. Movement Training