On June 11, 13 and 18 the Vaganova Ballet Academy graduation performances will be given at the Mariinsky Theatre. One of the three works presented was George Balanchine's Raymonda variations. The ballet was staged by Darla Hoover, a répétiteur of the George Balanchine Trust who was specially invited to St. Petersburg for that purpose.
Ms. Hoover recollects dancing Raymonda Variations as her graduation performance too. George Balanchine watched her dancing that day and some time later invited Ms. Hoover to become a member of his New York City Ballet where she had been appearing as a featured soloist for 11 years. Ms. Hoover now focuses her attentions on teaching and staging ballets, including positions as the Artistic Director of Ballet Academy East’s Pre-Professional Division in New York City, and Associate Artistic Director of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.
Working as a répétiteur, Darla Hoover stages works for the George Balanchine Trust in many companies around the world making the dancers familiar with all the peculiarities of Balanchine's style. Ms. Hoover came to St. Petersburg in 2014 when the Vaganova Ballet Academy students first got acquainted with Balanchine's choreography to present Raymonda variations at the Mikhailovsky Theatre to celebrate Balanchine’s 110th birthday.
Having returned to the Vaganova Ballet Academy in the spring of 2015, Darla Hoover led five rehearsals including the dress-rehearsal at the Mariinsky Theatre and held two master classes for those dancing Raymonda variations.
Photo by Olga Abramova..
Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Darla Hoover and Yuri Fateev before the general rehearsal at the Mariinsky theatre.
‘Russia Beyond the Headlines’ told about Agrippina Vaganova and ballet school named after her.
Agrippina Vaganova — a ballerina and ballet teacher — was born in Saint Petersburg 135 years ago. Her career began immediately after graduation from Russia’s oldest ballet school. At that time, she didn’t even imagine that this school would bear her name only 50 years later.
The first professional Russian ballet school was founded in 1738 by order of Empress Anna of Russia (Anna Ioannovna) by the French-born Jean-Baptiste Landé who was a dance master at the Petersburg born in France and a dance master at the Petersburg Landed Gentry Corps. In pre-revolutionary times, most teachers at the school were foreigners.
A the turn of the century, the famous Russian school of ballet was still in its infancy and imbibed the techniques of the Italian school and the elegance of the French school. However, it had not yet found a set pedagogical practice. This task became the life’s work of Agrippina Vaganova.
‘Russia Beyond the Headlines’ is an international multimedia project about Russia launched byRossiyskaya Gazeta in 2007.