A while back, I read and reviewed (or panned...) Apollo's Angels and was so frustrated by the book that I set myself the task of studying ballet, its history and its ongoing evolution, for myself. I've done some reading since then, and I added Vaganova Today to my Fall Into Reading list as another perspective on ballet. (And that's an important reminder, particularly to someone like Homans, who authored Apollo's Angels: these book offer perspective, but none of them does, or should claim to, give the entire unbiased picture.)What's valuable about Vaganova Today is something that was more or less overlooked completely in Apollo's Angels -- and I apologize in advance for bringing up the book I read earlier, but it makes for a nice jumping-off point to explaining why I liked Vaganova Today so much more -- that is, the development of Russian ballet during the twentieth century, during the Soviet era, and without any influence of Balanchine. Agrippina Vaganova was a Mariinsky dancer who then became an instructor at the Leningrad Choreographic School. Later she became the founder of an entirely new method of ballet for Russia, a method that took what Russians viewed as the best of the French and Italian styles with the addition of something uniquely "Russian." As Homans would have had it, ballet in the Soviet Union withered away because of its singular focus on classical dance and the lack of Balanchine. As the Russians would have it, Vaganova gave them something invaluable, a style of training that is still recognized around the world today for its ability to mold exceptional dancers. (Even Americans have to admit this.) In fact, there's an amusing moment in which one of the pedagogues whom Pawlick interviews says that while there's some good in Balanchine's choreography, she doesn't find it very musical. Pawlick tries to follow this up with an explanation that Balanchine's work is generally recognized as being very musical, but I was left with the impression that this elderly Russian ballerina might know a little more than most people are comfortable admitting.
Anyway, that's more my opinion than anything else. What I really liked about this book was how little the author felt the need to make herself present in it. She was more interested in sharing the historical information about Vaganova and then in demonstrating through a series of interviews how the style has changed and how it's being incorporated today. The historical detail is heavily annotated, and the biographical information about Vaganova relies on direct resources from the day: reviews, newspapers articles, etc. The interviews are direct quotes from those who once knew Vaganova -- those who were her students and remembered her -- and those who are currently working to maintain the tradition. The element of authorial opinion comes in toward the end, where the author pulls all of these details together to explain one way of viewing the differing perspectives she's encountered.
Because differing perspectives there are. Many of the pedagogues (and "pedagogue" refers to a special kind of ballet instructor who works individually with dancers to shape and mold their artistic form; much more than a mere coach, as we might see it) see the changes in ballet with concern, primarily as regards the focus on tricks over artistry. But others acknowledge that ballet will always evolve, so it's a matter of absorbing the good changes and trying to weed out the bad. The author simply notes at the end that many of these opinions reflect a very internal view of a system that the individuals know well, and that as far as the rest of the ballet world is concerned Vaganova-trained dancers are still among the best. It's worth noting that recent graduates of the Vaganova academy, sometimes only eighteen or nineteen years old, receive top-level contracts with companies outside of Russia, because their dancing is already at that level compared to others in the same non-Russian company.
All in all, this is a very specialized book on a very specialized topic. If you want a springboard into a history of Russian ballet, this is good, but it might be a little confusing in places. (And if you have never seen Vaganova-trained dancers, in person or in video, then this will have very little direct application.) Still, it's interesting and well-written, and for the person looking for a more specialized book on the topic this is one-in-a-million. As far as I know, it might be the only one, so I'm glad Pawlick made her contribution.
Video included below.
Year of publication: 2011
Number of pages: 208
Some videos to offer an example of the training, as well as the outcome. These are not all the same dancers in the videos, but rather just a range of dancers from different years.
First year class:
Fifth year class:
Graduating class (2008):
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