This teaching system was developped in the late 1910s in Leningrad at the Kirov Accademy by Agrippina Vaganova, a russian ballet dancer and pedagogue. The Vaganova is nowadays considered the best known and dominant method in the world especially in the European countries with important classical dance traditions such as Italy, France, England and Denmark, this system is in fact the natural continuation of these schools.
The Vaganova approach to classical ballet comes from a deep study of the two oldest and best classical dance schools, in fact it brings together the excellent techique of the Italian school system (by Enrico Cecchetti) and the elegance and softness of the French school. To get these results, Vaganova elaborates a rigourous system of sequences of exercises to help the dancers understand and practice a movement steps by step gradually in order to develop their virtuosity.
Every step is learnt from its deep roots gradually adding expressiveness, not only do the students learn every step of classical ballet but they do so while building their body awarness, coordination and while exploring other movements. Also, since the first movements the Vaganova system works on the correct posture and on body balance.
"From the first pliés in first position, the effort of the dance teacher is to teach body balance and the correct body posture." A. Vaganova
The Vaganova system provides a higher but progressive level of difficulty of the exercises related to age and the psycho-physical development of the children in order to avoid risks to the dancer. That's why the attention during class is focused on: quality of the movement and not quantity, on a more conscious approach of the dancer in relation to the movement and on the self awareness and control of their body.
The Vaganova system is continuously growing and the recent update of its fundamentals brought an incredible level of technique to the dancers. It is interesting to underline that in Russia, the Vaganova Academy formed some of the greatest dancers such as Rudolph Nureyev and Michail Barysnikov.
The Vaganova approach to classical ballet comes from a deep study of the two oldest and best classical dance schools, in fact it brings together the excellent techique of the Italian school system (by Enrico Cecchetti) and the elegance and softness of the French school. To get these results, Vaganova elaborates a rigourous system of sequences of exercises to help the dancers understand and practice a movement steps by step gradually in order to develop their virtuosity.
Every step is learnt from its deep roots gradually adding expressiveness, not only do the students learn every step of classical ballet but they do so while building their body awarness, coordination and while exploring other movements. Also, since the first movements the Vaganova system works on the correct posture and on body balance.
"From the first pliés in first position, the effort of the dance teacher is to teach body balance and the correct body posture." A. Vaganova
The Vaganova system provides a higher but progressive level of difficulty of the exercises related to age and the psycho-physical development of the children in order to avoid risks to the dancer. That's why the attention during class is focused on: quality of the movement and not quantity, on a more conscious approach of the dancer in relation to the movement and on the self awareness and control of their body.
The Vaganova system is continuously growing and the recent update of its fundamentals brought an incredible level of technique to the dancers. It is interesting to underline that in Russia, the Vaganova Academy formed some of the greatest dancers such as Rudolph Nureyev and Michail Barysnikov.
