8 THINGS - I struggled with most when I joined The Vaganova Academy
Hello Everyone,
Here are 8 things I struggled with most when I first joined Vaganova. This video was actually super entertaining to make and I laughed a lot making it going down memory lane!
Enjoy and please leave your comments below!
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About Me
Hello everyone! my names Isabella.
I am the first British graduate of the Vaganova ballet academy in Saint Petersburg Russia. I was a soloist working with the Mikhailovsky Ballet and Eifman ballet.
Now I live in London as a full time coach
Here, on my channel I am sharing my passion with you all about the Vaganova technique amongst many other things related to ballet we all love.
It's a hard industry so I am here to help with my insights and knowledge to make it a little easier for you all, as well as to hopefully entertain you with my content.
Thank you for watching!
I trained at the Bolshoi but I was already preselected for my body type. I did struggle with the raked stages and I lived off borscht and canned vegetables and weird meat. I’ve always been very thin and I saw food being taken away from girls, weight probation and loss of parts… the worst was that they would tell me I could eat whatever I wanted IN FRONT OF ALL THE GIRLS. They hated me.I fell in love with character class and my favorite part in the Spanish dance in Раймонда! Спасибо большое 👏🏻🩰
As a small child (1980-1981) my Dad was posted to the US Embassy in Moscow. He was a military attaché, so everywhere we (family of Diplomats) went we had Marine Guards and FSB minders. But my FSB minders knew I had a love of ballet. I was blessed to be able to see ballet at the Mariinsky and Bolshoi and several other less well known theaters. I still love Russian Ballet.
Love hearing more detail about the character classes. I’ve watched them online but never put all the pieces together as to the important. 🎉
Nice to hear this detailed comparison.
Awesome🔥. I LOVE Vaganova!!!❤️ Very informative piece. I love the info on the turning. I'm also convinced that you really like the word "massively" too.😄🤔😄
Loved this enlightening video from Isabella. My goodness, I've enjoyed watching the various Vaganova classes with awe. I would wonder what they endured for the precision and intricacies of their floor exhibitions. Thanks to Isabella, I now have learned this company is not for the faint of heart. Yet it is a company that is know for its high standards of excellence.
I left teaching Vagonova to Australian students who came to classes part time and were all body types. Forcing turnout can be be very damaging in the long term. So many former professional dancers have to have hip replacement in their 50's. I created the Living Dance International curriculum based on finding centreline of the body.
My doctor here in Australia was Russian. She said many of the Russian ballet dancers were riddled with arthritis by the age of 27.
@Beth Bluett it's normal, they forced their dancers since the age of 3 or 4 and destroy their bodies in the name of a perfection which doesn't exist because all have different preferences even in ballet. Your comments are really instructive and you seem to be an amazing person and teacher 😊
@@kleineoOoStern , хватит врать. В России в академию балета берут с 11 лет. И никак иначе.
@@professorpanchenko это в академию, а начинают просто балетом заниматься намного раньше. иначе отбор не пройдёшь. не говоря о том, что в балет часто приходят после худ гимнастики, фигурного катания и прочих педофильских, рушащих жизни тысяч девочек дисциплин
@@tmrttrn , прекрасно пройдёшь. Цискаридзе, например, избегает брать тех, кто начал заниматься рано, да ещё и в конкурсах участвует. Берут только из-за наличия данных- гибкость ( желательно в плечевом поясе, то есть под лопатками), подъём( он или есть или нет), шаг, музыкальность ( или есть или нет), выворотность- её не разовьёте, так как подвижность в вертлужной впадине это анатомия, вы ничего с ней не сделаете. Данные есть- возьмут, преподам это выгодно. Я сама проходила отбор. Тем более приезжают дети из регионов, где нет секций, например. Заниматься с 4 лет- это голимая коммерция. Не зря берут с 11- формируется определённым образом костная система. На поступлении львиная доля детей отсеивается по здоровью, даже с данными. В училище свои врачи, это официально,никаким справкам не доверяют. Ну прекрасно, что девочка из гимнастики подходит по данным. Далеко не всегда. В гимнастику , как и в бег тоже данные нужны. Как и в оперу.
Very interesting. Enjoyed your comments on a subject that has always fascinated me. Well done.
I really enjoyed this video unexpectedly interesting narrative! especially part with "stolovaya")) Thank You!
Your channel is extraordinary, thank you for all you do. Would you consider doing a video on Character Dance? It would be a great help!
Osipova talked on different occasions about her character classes during her schooling. No joke at all.
I had a similar experience when I started dancing at the studio I dance at now. When I was younger I was trained in Royal so that's what I was familiar with and after taking some time off I got back into ballet at this studio that teaches Balanchine and I was so thrown off. It's so different from what I was used to and a lot faster so I really had to get used to the speed of things quickly. I will say that Balanchine technique is really pretty and flowy versus what I was used to (not saying that Royal wasn't pretty).
Thank you so much for the video, loved it.
I recently switched from RAD to Vaganova. My teachers are Russian, but they don't force turnout, we do floor bar which is all to get strength so you can turnout naturally.
thank you for sharing your story, my daughter story is pretty similar to yours, thank you again.
The way you slayed the accent of a russian speaking english just melted my heart.🧛🏻♀️🖤 God bless Agripina🙌🏻.
The video is sooo engrossing😻 enjoyed watching it so much! Even though I’m not connected with the ballet world (btw I’m from Russia) it was interesting to listen to some of your takeaways about this culture
And, this is why the Russians will always have the best ballet dancers in the world.
No they haven't. The French used to be the best (a former prima ballerina who danced in the 40s/50s once said to me that most dancers when to paris for ballet training cause they were the best.), later Russia (Kirov ballet) and now it just a matter of taste. I think the Royal ballet have the best dancers
@@christycrane5902 Yes they have, for all the reasons outlined by Isabella
@@christycrane5902 not surprisingly they would go to Paris at that time, wouldn’t be easy to go study in USSR. You can check the comments by many ballet figures of the 50’s about the first tour of the Bolshoi in London in 1956 to see how ballet in the West was years behind the Russian ballet. And at some levels, it still is.
@@andrushkalm i know you couldn't study in the USSR, but she meant that the Paris opera ballet was at that time considered the best. If you look at the famous Anne Pavlova (who became famous bc she traveled all over the world where they had never seen ballet) and if you compare her with videos of the Paris opera ballet you'll see that paris was much better. Pavlova dancing was rather simple, no turn- out, no arm of foot positions nor straight legs. But she was amazing because she made ballet famous and was expressive. Now it's exactly the opposite, Russia ballet is very technical and some dancers like Maria Khoreva miss character. I even think Khoreva is rather stiff in her dancing. And is very obsessed in her private videos with staying super skinny which is promoted in Russia. Thats one of the reasons why i prefer the Royal ballet now. But Russia was indeed the best for a long time. One of the best dancers ever were Russian.
@@christycrane5902 Pavlova was from a time when the Russian school as we know (Vaganova) still didn’t exist. She had Cecchetti and Ekaterina Vazem as teachers, for example. 100% agree with you on Khoreva, over technical, yes; the embodiment of what the school is, far from it. As for the Royal Ballet, doesn’t go with me, specially talking about expressions and emotions. They are stiff and fake, like every single emotion is rehearsed… “smile in that music, on the second bit you don’t”. Way too “Hollywoody”. Marianela is one of those.
I trained Vaganova method in my 30s as an adult beginner in classes with little kids. I was constantly sore. Eventually I knew I would not keep up with my class as they had youth on their side. I found it hard not to injure my joints. I wasn’t trying to force turn out but I was overtraining some muscles developing imbalances. I had to start cross training with exercises in parallel. I’m glad I did it. I had fun, and my ballet literacy is high.
The raked floor makes a lot of sense, because your body needs to train for the kind of floor you will be dancing on.
I enjoyed this video very much. As for the food… It’s totally okay to complain, all Russian students are with you😂 I remember that my school had very decent and even tasty food, but my school, even though it was public, was one of the nicer ones. Still almost zero vegetables.
Hi, I love, love, love your videos and podcasts. I was wondering wether you could maybe film a long stretching tutorial (like one hour) for professional dancers that you can do every day. There is no such thing on you tube yet and I think so many people would find that helpful. ❤❤❤
You can find the advanced stretch amongst other 1 hour stretches on my website 🙂
perfect chat
I'm not a dancer or anything but I know when I exercise a lot the next day or the day after I'm sore. But if I eat enough protein I'm less sore.
Can you talk more about the turnout aspect? Or is there another video of yours where you go into it? Particularly how you were able to change/improve it in those months. You speak of finding/working new muscles or working then differently, can you go into that and tell us which muscles you focused on? The ones that got super sore...then super strong! Also how much of it is flexibility vs strength Also the position of the tailbone. And the involvement of the glutes? (is it a little? none? a lot?) Thanks!!!!!!! ❤️
I’d love to see examples of the differences between different methods of dance.
Could you do a video about turnout and how to know how far you can go with it etc. i am trying to turn out more and no matter how i use my muscles i fell like i am forcing it or turning out no where near enough!!
Wow.. no wonder Russian ballet is a thing. I could see there's a difference from just watching, but hard to put your finger on it, because it's so many different nuances. This video definitely explains a few things
Great video, you are soooo inspiring. I love that you talk about your struggles and how hard it was for you to improve - it makes me believe that with time and hard work I can achieve anything. Also, did you not think about aiding character classes to the studio?
I will think about this! Tbh I’ll probably get a trained Russian character teacher to join me on that course 😍
@@balletwithisabella That would be sooo awesome ❤
I love the Russian accent on the massage segment.
😂 Thank you!
I loveeed this videoo! It is sooo interesting🤓 can you make a q&a video??
Yea yes yes!!
I will likely ask for questions on my Instagram so make sure you follow me ❤
@@balletwithisabella 🥹🥹 I can’t believe you answered me haaha😊 yesss of course! It was the 1st thing I did 🙈🥳
What stretches did you do to improve your turnout and how long did you do them? Currently I also have problems with my turnout, I would greatly appreciate your answer
You should definitely check out my website and try the turnout course. All the information is there! You get a 7 day free trial so it’s worth doing. Try a soloist membership ❤
45 years ago, I took a ballet hobby class in the ex-USSR. It was in a small (2000-3000 people) mining village and it was canceled a year later. But! The obligatory enrollment test included a flat turnout. I'm almost 50 now, severely overweight, and I didn't do any sport for the last 20 years. 170 degrees is my limit now :(.
Would you explain how you improved your turnout? There's a jungle of information out there about how to do that but I can't seem to find something that helps....
Hey Mel! Try my turnout course on my website - all my favourite exercises and stretches are there for great results x
Trying to figure out, mid turn, how you would turn on a raked floor? Just to realize when you would be going down vs up? Also I feel they should have given lots of vegetables. You handled things brillantly.😊❤
You just have to have your weight slightly back throughout the whole turn - we don’t think about change during. But that’s not just leaning back - it’s core use, glutes, strong shoulders and back to maintain this super straight line - going to flat after was like oh wow was I one my Leg 😍
Raked floors are CRUEL I could never
Молодец. Очень понравилось.
Can someone explain to me why the floors at Vaganova have a slop? Is it done on deliberately to help with the training or is it because the building is defective?
Stages in theatres used to be sloped and the audience was flat - so the school had studios to match the historical theatres. The Mariinsky theatre for example is sloped. The vaganova school had studios to match. Where as, most European companies the audience is sloped and the stage is flat. The new Mariinsky has a flat stage and hence the vaganova school built a huge new studio with a flat floor so now they work on both
@@balletwithisabella Thank you for explaining. That is so interesting.
Happy World Ballet day
I've never understood why the English style does the rounded arms at all; do you know?
I wonder if it's the influence of the Cecchetti style?
That actually makes a lot of sense.....@@gkrasskova
Please could you share some stretchings for achieving the flat turnout ?
Of course! But try my stretching classes and turnout course on my website! balletwithisabella.com
this is really cool to hear--i wish i could have studied at vagonava but (1) i'm black so i probably would not get accepted anyway (especially when i was 9 and starting ballet, it was 2008--maybe times have changed, i don't know) and (2) my parents would have never sent me to russia. it's very interesting about the food. to give porridge and bread for breakfast, there is no protein, just carbs and ultra-processed carbs which actually WILL make you fat. they should provide meat and eggs for breakfast.
Nordic porridge is long carbs, as well as rye bread, which isn't sweetened (unlike American ultra-processed bread), and it will be giving you energy slowly for a long period of time. Taken for breakfast it won't make you fat, it will make you not hungry and full of energy for the next four or five hours in a cold climate. It's also reach in fibre. Definitely my choice of breakfast for a long tough day of training, studying, wandering around in the snow. Note it's milk porrige - so it has some protein too, and if you can't digest it - you'd have problems being in Russia. Russians generally are very lactose-tolerant and cow milk is a huge part of a traditional diet providing for a decent part of proteins and vitamins. Skin tone itself won't be an issue, but in ballet academies they're looking for a particular set of body and facial features as well as abilities (flexibility, music interpretation, etc). It's how your bones form and how your joints work, and how your brain functions. Most people simply don't fit into those, my body, for instance, doesn't. Beginning at 8 years old would be also way too late, you have to start about four when you're still stretchy. You're expected to have a very decent and hard training before applying to the academy and show your skills and the entrance tests. There actually was a Black student at Vaganova academy, but she failed quickly, because she was unprepared for the challenge it is. She wasn't trained enough. She didn't know Russian well enough. She wasn't self-sufficient enough to live on herself in a foreign country. They treated her equal to other students - nobody would teach the basics everyone else knew to her. Hiring a tutor is possible, but you have to care about that yourself. Nobody would speak English specially for her. Nobody would babysit her, if she came and asked for help, they probably would help - but she had to know where to go, and the information about that is typically in Russian in Russia. She failed her exams where they test everyone equally and she failed, so she was expelled. She told soon after failure that to her, ballet was a thing she enjoyed. To her Russian classmates it's tough labour they've been doing as long as they remember. She never considered one has to work THAT hard to get there simply.
@@annasolovyeva1013 no, you need to read up on nutrition and anatomy. bread, like pasta, is ultra-processed due to the wheat, not the sugar, actually. think about it, you take a grain and pretty much grind it down to nothing, stripping it of its cellulose and solubke fibers. for instance, if you take celery and juice it, it's just a cup of sugar because you've processed all of the carbs into simple sugars. your process foods to make them simple. and regardless, anatomically, it spikes your blood sugar and is still poison to the liver, it doesn't matter how you make it. this is exactly why peasants died quickly and the royals lived a long time. lack of nutrition. not to mention these foods have no protein and no fat. there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. for me, i start my day with eggs and some cheese (healthy fats and protein), and it keeps my blood sugar level and i can pretty much go the entire day without eating until dinner time (although i shouldnt). if you like porridge and bread, go for it. but you liking it does not makw it healthy because the data shows that it is not. And, you've proven exactly my point of having a "look". a black student in a see of white students is just not homogenous, and for corps roles, likely, they want homogeneity. additionally, if the student was light-skinned, that is still another story. i'm very dark skinned. according to precious adams, who spent an intensive course at the bolshoi, she was asked if she could make herself lighter skinned for roles, so... that's what i am going off of. but i take your point, students of all looks may not succeed when given the opportunity. it's not like she was the only one who failed exams, it's highly likely that others did too. and, another point on being self sufficient. my parents would have to go with me and they would not be able to. learning the language is another thing because in America, we only know English. knowing other languages is a good skill. but also it's surprising that she got in whilst not knowing the basics of ballet. sounds like a fabricated story because it just doesn't make any sense, and given your lack of knowledge on the subject of anatomy / development / nutrition, i would not be surprised if it was. also, i don't get the "how your brain works". i mean, i study math as a career (phd student at a global university *cough* humble brag), so logic is very important to me and kind of the only way that i remain admitted. i find that it helps with ballet. but remembering choreography is very easy especially with time. also, I am pretty sure a lot of students start at around age 10 at vagonava but did rhythmic gymnastics or studied ballet prior too, which was my point. because, sorry, there are no 4 year olds at VBA. or the 4 year olds are really big. i was around the size, at age 9, of the younger students entering (like, 50 pounds) and was this weight until i turned 13 and got my growth spurt. but anyway, they take serious students and 4 year olds generally are not serious about anything. oh, and your flexibility only changes when you grow taller. i was very flexible in my hips and was over-turned out and would kicky myself in the head during battements sometimes and didn't ever have to stretch. only when i started growing did i have to. additionally, most people in the world are lactose intolerant to some extent so your point makes absolutely no sense.
There's a lot of quality vaganova ballet schools all over the world. Try to search online for some school near you (or a studio if there is no school but they tend to be sloppy), or ask in theatre maybe they know where to find. If you like it and really find yourself in this technique, then ask your teacher to prepare you for audition for vaganova academy in Russia. Dancers mostly go there at the end of the high school on one year. Skin colour is certainly not an issue in Europe (where I'm from) body typ is important for high school but most of the schools will give a chance to middle school kids because your body is still developing (again Europe, not Russia). and to be honest if you're really in to it and have a quality teachers there's a little chance to be anything other than lean. Eating healthy will make you better dancer no matter what technique you dance. My teachers was very strict about students eating habits, but opposite of what you're thinking. I was once sent on bench with a sandwich because I didn't eat that day and almost fainted during the class, my mom was called and they had a serious talk with her. The truth is I just didn't take a chance to eat but that was not an excuse. Children need to eat and they were extremely careful about eating disorders. In high school they have a nutritionist when needed.
@@sheeniebeanie2597 no 4 y.o. at VBA - you typically start learning choreography and stretching at a more local dancing studio. Maybe as a part of your rythmic gymnastics or figure skating or anything training (those are also big in Russia and often employ a former ballerina to teach those. When I was training as a figure skater, we had a former Bolshoi ballet choir-de-ballet member to teach us. He taught me that, also called me a duck, and told me my legs were too short and hips weren't the right shape. He was also teaching very painful stretching.). Bread - it's likely to be rye bread. It's different in therms of "overprocessed carbs". It's Russia, after all, there are different kinds of grains and going through a different process. Yes, very finely milled wheat used for Italian pasta and sweet (sandwich bread tastes sweet to a person out of the US or UK) American bread is overprocessed. Way less finely milled rye or full-grain soft sort wheat (you can even taste the difference) doesn't. Doesn't to the point that patients with gastric problems who have troubles digesting foods reach in fibre (i.e. leaf salad or raw carrot) can't digest Russian rye bread too. Why? Simply climate. Rye and sorts of wheat that grow in Russia are actually softer on the insides, so you don't have to and can't actually grind them that fine. That makes great, flavourful and textured bread, and awful, horrible pasta. Not even talking about steel cut North European/Russian oats. Think of it - you just strip a grain of it's hardest outer shell, and either just chop it into pieces or put it under a press in a cloud of steam, then you boil it. Whole buckweat and steam rolled buckwheat oats are advertised in the US as a superfood to loose weight actually. Psst... They're my breakfast option. As for body and facial features... Well, the length of your legs divided by total height being big and the total height being not too big matters. Facial features - they're known to look for "scenic appearance" which means that your facial features should be somewhat even, symmetrical, proportional and clearly distinct from a distance. See any particular problems with skintone here? I saw people from very different ethnicities who had and who didn't have these. They're also looking for an ability of your body to form sleek nearly straight curved elongated lines that form the aesthetics of ballet. I remember being into a gifted lids event, and there were some ballet kids. We were probably 13 or something. There was a giant lounge, and sometimes there gathered a thousand of us, dessed casually, and kids would spread out and mix up, but I would spot ballet school kids from a distance. How did I know? Well, they looked like ballet kids. There were also little figure skaters, but I had no problems telling those apart.
@@sheeniebeanie2597 most people (80%) in RUSSIA are ethnic Russians. Ethnic Russians used to survive (historically) on cow milk as their main protein source, as in north-western Russia there are only two things that grow well - pines and grass, and sometimes root vegetables. No grain for hens or pigs. Unstable wheat crops. Rye, oats, barley - that type of thing. Basically having a cow not long ago = your family survives this winter, because the cow turns grass into food. Most ethnic Russians are lactose tolerant to the point one gets themselves half a litre of whole milk from a local cow, boil it to kill bacteria, cool it down to the point it can't burn you and drink it at a time with no negative health consequences. An average Russian person typically consumes over a litre of milk worth of different dairy products and just plain, a day. With a traditional diet it can get to two. Being lactose intolerant is considered a rare disease in Russia. I personally know more people with diabetes than lactose intolerant people.
Astonished that at Royal Ballet School, character is "a joke." You can't convey Giselle or Juliet without learning to inhabit and express her soul.
You’re confusing character ( charisma and a role) with character dancing. Google Vaganova character dance exam and you will see what I mean. It’s a different thing all together.
giselle and juliet don't do character tho lol
character dance is a FOLK style ballet dance, that's done in flats with heels, not in pointe shoes. Also the long Chopin skirt or a tunic is normal. Those are a part of divertissement in e.g. Nutcracker or Cinderella, and are also big in Russian style operas and ballets, such as Prince Igor or Petrushka. Character dance, especially the lyric one, focuses a lot more on music interpretation and character interpretation than on complex technical elements. Meanwhile, faster and happier folk dancing may involve things a bit out of the customs of balle if the music requires so. Generally speaking it's playing the character and dancing to the music, while rules of ballet are applied somewhat loosely.
@@balletwithisabella Acknowledged. My ignorance on that point granted. Meanwhile, my comment applies -- separately and generically -- to this: how do you learn to inhabit Giselle or Juliet at Vaganova?
@@operaguy1 they have acting classes and acting exams at vaganova, so that's where they would learn it :)
A Vagonova student would struggle at first if they landed at the Royal. Two different tecniques. But the concern about Vagonova is it's a school for anorexia. Dancers do not have to be down to the bone and especially young girls.
It didn't start out as school for anorexia, and a school that overstretched. An unfortunate evolution...
❤❤🌹🌹
Stolovaya almost always bad in Russia, but its usually cheap
Why would anybody be offended, russians hate stolovayas too
What you are telling about the food is 100% true, food at the Russian schools and kindergartens is awfully terrible. I live near a school and I walk sometimes around with my dog and it smells, it smells terrible and i cannot stand it at all. I remember how awful that food tastes and I have no idea how I consumed it several years ago. If I had to eat today I could never place a bite of it i my mouth. But now I have to stop to complain and clarify why is it so. In the Sovjet time you could not buy vegetables in the most parts of the country in autumn, winter and spring. The shops were just empty. And vegetables were not very common in the everyday life at all. And speaking about vegetables I mean cucumbers and tomatoes. Eggplants were only accessible somewhere in the South in Caucasus. Brussels, celery, rucola leaves... just forget about it. My parents learned that these are quite a thing to eat it only in late 2000s early 2010s, and I am from a good family. So the cuisine adjusted to the fact that vegetables are not accessible, even Russian cookbooks about healthy meals do not have many dishes with vegetables, may be a salad with cabbage and carrots. Soviet cookbooks could have more about vegetables if they were for instance Georgian cookbooks or whatever. So that is understandable, typical an awful.
Eug, you are lying. I grew up in the Soviet Union, and while some vegetables were not available all year round (like fresh green veg in February), seasonal vegetables were plentiful and cheap, and the traditional carrots/cabbage/beets etc were always there and cost copecks. As for kindergartens, if fresh hot food made from scratch is horrible, then think about Americans giving their little ones stupid lunch boxes with chips. So please just stick to talking about things you are really familiar with, or lived through. Stop reading other authors with too rich an imagination, and retelling all their nonscense. Thank you.
@@anaalshansky6470 first of all there is the answer in your comment to all you've written. "Like green veg in February" but is it something that can be described as luxury? In today Russia or Ukraine (before the war) or wherever you could go to a shop and buy everything you want, isn't it how it should be. Secondly if the Soviet food at schools and in kindergartens was so delicious as you mentioned that means that sins 1991 (the collapse) and until 1999 ( I was for the first time in a kindergarten) that became unimaginable worse although the availability of food in the shops became better. And I the time when the availability of the food grew in Russian shops (1999-2013, in this period I was forced to eat this food in a kindergarten and in one of the most famous schools in Moscow) and the food at schools was the same? For me that sounds like a miracle. Moreover that's important to know that in proportion to average salary Soviet union was a very expensive place. In the late Soviet union for instance the average salary was near 150 rubles and the price for bananas 2 rubles per kilogram, that means 600 rubles or 12 dollars today
no. where do you think the veg in borscht comes from? this is sill. it's true that the veg was regional and had to be got in certain shops and market- but root veg was all over. Also the famous Soviet cookbook from the 1930s has plenty of fruit and veg. as of 2015 there were small little Russian salads on small plates and fruits- often excellent cabbage salads and their version of a Greka salad
Why do the Russians have raked stages? Isn't it dangerous?
lol no. And it's so you can see the back fully