Basic Principles of Classical Ballet (2 page)

However, it was not only Vaganova who noticed this. Just as still earlier the prominent Russian ballerinas and dancers had creatively converted the principles of the French school into their own national style, so the Italian school was also substantially transformed in Russia. “Cecchetti’s pupils smoothed out the rough spots in his method and the Italian pattern of steps (for example, bending the legs under in jumps), and the indubitable advantages of the Italian influence did not leave any one of the talented representatives and pupils of the French school indifferent,” states Vaganova.

The famous stars of the Russian ballet, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Olga Preobrajenskaya and their predecessors, possessed a strongly national manner of dancing: a poetic spirituality, a purely Russian “cantilena” of dance movements, a wealth of expressive plastic nuances. But the Russian school, in the broad sense of the term, was not yet consolidated in its teaching practice. And this became the concern of Vaganova’s life. Recalling the lessons of one of her beloved instructors, Yekaterina Vazem, who had been able to develop in her pupils strength and softness in plié; profiting by Preobrajenskaya’s advice and elucidations of the Italian method; keeping an attentive eye on the choreographic activity of the young Fokine, who had achieved in his ballets a rare spirituality in dancing, a freshness in the poses and natural and poetic arm movements—Vaganova gradually selected the most distinctive features of the Russian manner of dancing. She became more and more conscious of her desire to investigate the “science of ballet,” to find effective means of training classical ballerinas.

The second period of Vaganova’s creative activity began right after the Revolution. In 1918 she began to teach in the private Russian School of Ballet directed by the ballet critic and fervent advocate of classical ballet, Akim Volynsky, but three years later she moved to the State Ballet School.

Vaganova’s teaching method took shape during the twenties, a difficult time for Soviet ballet, when the classical heritage was exposed to the onslaught of pseudo-innovators. The formalistic “left-wing” press called ballet a hothouse art, wholly conditioned by the feudal way of life and doomed to destruction under the new circumstances. “And the ballerina’s tarlatan costume and the rest of that high wisdom—all that dates from Montgolfier and his balloon.”
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“Classical art, rooted in the galanterie of the age of the kings Louis . . . is organically alien to our age.”
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Similar categorical declarations dotted the pages of newspapers and magazines. After the classical repertoire, classical dance—the arch-principle of ballet—was subjected to attacks. In place of the system of classical training of dancers, the apologists of the “new” art suggested “theaphysical training,” athletic gymnastics, “eccentric” dance, “mechanical” dance, “acrobatic” dance....

If the theater suffered considerably from biased criticism, which urged it onto the path of formalistic experiments, the position of the State Ballet School was no better. The school was charged with deliberate conservatism, backwardness, creative impotence; the critics demanded its reform “from top to bottom.” And during this period, within the walls of the Leningrad State Ballet School an instructional system rigorously tested in practice was being developed, a system later made known to the whole world as that of Agrippina Vaganova.

Naturally, the results were not immediately noticed, although as early as 1923 Vaganova turned out the excellent pupils Olga Mungalova and Nina Mlodzinskaya, and in 1924 Natalia Kamkova and Elena Tangieva-Birzniek. The following year, 1925, is registered in the annals of Soviet ballet as the year of the unprecedented triumph of Marina Semyonova (Semenova) and of her instructor. Contemporary viewers were astonished by the virtuosity of the seventeen-year-old dancer, the rich orchestration of her movements, the impetuosity of her tours, the unusual expressiveness of her melodious arms. Semyonova was recognized as a consummate ballerina, but the essence of her talent was at first misunderstood. The critics saw in her “the flower of old-fashioned art,” an exceptional, but accidental, phenomenon, whereas she was really the harbinger of the new Soviet choreographic school.

The following year Vaganova turned out Olga Jordan, then Galina Ulanova and Tatiana Vecheslova (1928), then Natalia Dudinskaya and Feya Balabina (1931). The critics noted the strongly individual character of the talent of the young ballerinas. But at the same time they found in Ulanova’s dancing “much of Semyonova’s style . . . grace, the same exceptional plasticity and a sort of captivating modesty in her gestures.”
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It was evident that these were the traits of a school that had been definitely formulated. There still appeared here and there in the press the former demands for the “renewal of the theater, starting with the Ballet School,” but in the meantime a significant balletic generation came into being, trained by Soviet instructors and above all by Agrippina Vaganova.

Vaganova’s system was consolidated in close connection with theatrical practice. If in the twenties the people concerned with Soviet ballet were defending the classical heritage against pseudo-innovators, in the thirties the chief task was the creation of a contemporary repertoire. From 1931 to 1937 Vaganova headed the ballet ensemble of the Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. In that period the ballets
Flames of Paris, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Lost Illusions and Partisans’ Days
were created. The new versions, staged by Vaganova, of the ballets
Swan Lake
(1933) and
Esmeralda
(1935) corresponded to the general orientation of the Soviet choreographers’ quest in the thirties for a sharpening of ideological conflict, for the efficacy of ballet, for veracity in the communication of human feelings.

In the new ballets the performance style of the dancers was strengthened and polished. The principles of this style were developed by the Soviet choreographic school, which can be called Vaganova’s. Starting in the thirties, the artistic homogeneity of the Leningrad ballet troupe became obvious. “It is not necessary to be a special connoisseur in the field of ballet to observe in the performances of our theater and of everyone, from the girls in the corps de ballet to the leading ballerinas, something they have in common in their manner of execution. A single style, a single dance ‘handwriting,’ which manifests itself most clearly in the harmonious plasticity of movement and the expressiveness of the arms, in the responsive suppleness and at the same time the iron aplomb of the body, in the noble and natural placement of the head—and these are the distinctive traits of the ‘Vaganova school’ “—so writes Natalia Dudinskaya in her reminiscences of her instructor.
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Decidedly rejecting the excessive decorativeness and posing that had occupied a large place in the choreography of the past, Vaganova sought from her pupils emotional expressiveness, strictness of form and a resolute, energetic manner of performance. The dancing of Vaganova’s pupils corresponded to the very essence of Soviet ballet as an art of great meaning, lofty lyricism and heroic spirit.

Vaganova’s method also exerted influence on the development of male dancing. Male dancers who never studied directly with her acquired the “iron” aplomb that was purely Vaganova’s, the ability to find support in their body, to gain
force
(a reserve of strength) with their arms for turns and jumps. In the State Ballet Schools of Moscow and Leningrad, Vaganova’s experience was acknowledged and grasped by other instructors, and her pupils gradually disseminated this experience throughout the country. Finally, the publication of the book
Basic Principles of Classical Ballet
made Vaganova’s method the property of the entire Soviet ballet theater.

New features in this significant method were the rigorous planning of the teaching process, the considerable complexity of the exercises, directed at the creation of a virtuoso technique, but mainly the aspiration to teach dancers a conscious approach to every movement. Vaganova’s pupils not only thoroughly mastered a step, but they were also able to explain how to perform it correctly and what its purpose was. Making them write down the separate combinations, suggesting that they find the reasons for the unsuccessful execution of a step, Vaganova developed their understanding of the correct coordination of movements.

Vaganova considered the firm training of the trunk of the body to be the major prerequisite of free bodily control in dancing. From the first pliés, which she recommends learning compulsorily in the first position—more difficult for beginners, but in turn important for the strengthening of the body—her efforts were directed toward the creation of aplomb. Later on, aplomb becomes the foundation for tours and complicated jumps in the allegro.

In her book Vaganova frequently emphasizes the fact that movements must be begun “from the body,” since dancing “from the body” ensures reliable support and artistic coloration of the step. The special attention she gave to épaulement (the turning of the shoulders and the body) is attested by the fact that it was impossible at her lessons to see two pas executed in succession with the same attitude of the body. Having developed in her pupils the necessary stability and suppleness, she then boldly introduced into the exercises various forms of fouetté, renversé and other movements based on the turning of the body.

The correct training of the arms was also an object of Vaganova’s unremitting concern. Naturally, there is no need to speak about the feet, since every school of classical ballet strives above all else for the development of turn-out, long strides and strong toes. Vaganova paid no less attention to the arms. According to her method, the arms must not only crown the artistic picture of the dancer, must not only be expressive, light and “melodious,” but must also actively aid the movement in high jumps and especially in tours, which are sometimes performed without a preparatory “springboard” push-off—here the
force
depends exclusively on the ability to control the arms. It was no accident that the technique of all sorts of turns was improved by Vaganova.

In short, Vaganova’s system aimed at teaching pupils to “dance with their whole body,” to acquire harmony of movements, to widen their expressive range.

In the book the movements are grouped by fundamental types. In a work of this sort there was only a limited possibility of dwelling at length on the conducting of the lesson. In connection with this, it is worthwhile to point out some of the book’s notable features. All pupils remark on the unusual fullness of Vaganova’s lessons, the complexity and swiftness of pace of the exercises, the diversity of the choreographic combinations. If Vaganova considered a great number of repetitions of movements helpful and necessary for beginners, in order better to develop the elasticity of the ligaments, in her advanced classes she would vary the lesson infinitely. Being opposed to the mechanical learning of steps, Vaganova set them forth in varied combinations which she had always thought out in advance—she did not believe in improvisation by an instructor during a lesson. This kind of lesson kept her pupils in a state of rapt and eager attention, increased their activity and was of greatest use to them. Developing the creative initiative of her pupils, Vaganova often requested them to devise a short adagio or allegro from the material that had been covered.

Never remaining content with what she had already accomplished, as the years went on Vaganova made her lessons richer and more intricate. The artistic innovations of choreographer-producers did not escape her notice. She unhesitatingly introduced all new movements into her lessons in order to prepare the aspiring artists and young students for working in contemporary productions.

Vaganova wrote in one of her last articles:

“Pupils who have not seen me for a long time find an improvement and progress in my teaching.

What is the cause of this? Diligent attention to new types of productions.

Look at life all around; everything is growing, everything is moving forward. Therefore I recommend . . . keeping in touch with life and with art.”

That is the important precept Vaganova left to her followers.

Now Vaganova’s instructional method has become the foremost and the basic method of the entire Soviet choreographic school. It is being creatively developed by Vaganova’s followers, who work in various ballet academies in the nation.

The efforts of a number of Soviet instructors are perfecting the methodology of ballet teaching. While Vaganova was still living, her associates at the Leningrad State Ballet School, Alexander Shiryaev, Alexander Bocharov and Andrei Lopukhov, worked out, for the first time in the history of balletic art, a method for character ballet, expounding it in the book
Basic Principles of Character Ballet
(published by “Iskusstvo,” 1939). Now Leningrad instructors are preparing fundamental studies on the methodology of teaching classical ballet in the younger classes of ballet schools, on the pas de deux and so on. New methodological materials are being published in the
Bulletin
of the Moscow State Ballet School.

Vaganova herself by no means regarded her instructional system as immutable or fixed once and for all. Guided by her vast experience, Vaganova’s pupils are enriching and emending this instructional system in their creative practice. Thus, a number of ballet classes now give successful exercises on the high, not the low, half-toes. In the last few years, the expansion of cultural ties has created the possibility of international exchange of creative experience in the field of choreographic instruction, as in other fields. The people concerned with Soviet ballet have not failed to notice the achievements of foreign dancers in the area of ballet technique, particularly in tours and virtuoso beats. Special attention is now being paid to these areas of ballet exercise.

Perfecting the methodology of ballet teaching, enriching the lexicon and emotional expressiveness of movements, the Soviet instructors, followers of Vaganova, are striving to make their choreographic school correspond to the current level of Soviet balletic art, augmenting the glory of this art.