Basic Principles of Classical Ballet

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AGRIPPINA VAGANOVA

(Courtesy Dance News)

Copyright © 1946 by Kamin Dance Publishers

Copyright © 1953 by A. & C. Black
Copyright © 1969 by Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.

This Dover edition, first published in 1969, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the second English edition published in 1953 by A. & C. Black, London.
The Introduction to the Fourth Russian Edition
and the
Supplement,
prepared and translated by Stanley Appelbaum, and the
Sample Lesson With Musical Accompaniment,
translated by John Barker, are taken from the fourth Russian edition. An Index has been added based on entries from the first edition published in 1946 by Kamin Dance Publishers, New York.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-17402

International Standard Book Number

9780486121055

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation 22036226

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INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTH RUSSIAN EDITION

AGRIPPINA VAGANOVA’S BOOK
Basic Principles of Classical Ballet
first appeared in 1934. Even then it was evident that the book’s significance far exceeded the bounds of a teaching manual. The method expounded in it for teaching classical ballet represented a remarkable contribution to the theory and practice of the balletic art, a summation of the achievements of Soviet choreographic instruction.

Vaganova’s system is the natural development and continuation of the traditions of the Russian school of ballet. The creative efforts of many Russian choreographers, instructors and dancers were directed toward the perfection of the technique and expressiveness of classical ballet. Many well-known foreign instructors also worked for the Russian stage. The skills that they imparted were assimilated creatively by the performers and were sometimes considerably altered in stage practice. The enormous experience amassed by those associated with Russian ballet was critically interpreted and systematized in the Soviet period, and became the innovative basis of the activity of Soviet ballet instructors. This grandiose work was headed by Agrippina Vaganova, a professor of choreography, a People’s Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and an instructor in the Leningrad State Ballet School which now bears her name.

The book
Basic Principles of Classical Ballet
is known and prized by the entire choreographic world. Translated into English, German, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and many other languages, it has crossed the borders of all countries where the art of ballet exists. It can be stated with certainty that the translations of this book have promoted the consolidation of the worldwide glory of Russian ballet no less than the guest appearances abroad of outstanding ballerinas—pupils of Vaganova—and the most prominent dance troupes of the country. Vaganova’s experience is a guide to the authors of contemporary foreign manuals of classical ballet. All the more reason for the great popularity of her teaching system in our country. Three Russian-language editions of
Basic Principles of Classical Ballet
have proved to be insufficient to satisfy the needs of Soviet dancers, choreographers, dance instructors and a steadily growing army of participants in amateur ballet activities. In the last few years, with the broadening of the network of choreographic education and the appearance of new dance ensembles, the need for a fourth edition of Vaganova’s book has become evident.

In the creative life of Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (1879— 195 I) two periods can be clearly distinguished. The first of these, her stage career as a dancer, she usually recalled with bitterness. The second, her activity as an instructor after the Revolution, brought her worldwide recognition. And yet these periods are interconnected. It is precisely in her dissatisfaction with her artistic career that the sources of her subsequent achievements lie concealed. The pages of Vaganova’s recently published memoirs
¹
reveal the figure of a woman who was a persistent seeker from her very youth.

A brilliant dancer of the Maryinsky Theater, Vaganova had become famous as the “queen of variations” in ballets in which the leading roles were performed by Pavlova and Karsavina, Preobrajenska(ya) and Kshesinskaya (Kchessinska), but she received the title of ballerina only a year before her farewell benefit performance, and in 1916 she left the stage for good. She left deeply disappointed.... The causes of this were rooted not only in the atmosphere of routine prevalent on the Imperial stage. Extremely self-critical and demanding, Vaganova became aware of the inadequacies of her dance technique. “It was obvious that I was not progressing. And that was a terrible thing to realize. So then, I started to feel pangs of dissatisfaction both with myself and with the old system of teaching,” she wrote in the rough draft of her memoirs.
²
Vaganova never lost an opportunity to learn from her older stage companions, but the principal factor was still her independent work, her search for a personal approach to ballet on the basis of a critical assimilation of the experience of her contemporaries.

Her first conclusions were drawn from a comparison of two systems of ballet teaching that served the Russian stage at the end of the nineteenth century under the conventional appellations of French and Italian schools. The representatives of the so-called French school were the well-known Russian ballet instructors Nicholas (Nikolai) Legat and Paul (Pavel) Gerdt. Vaganova took lessons from them in the Ballet School or in the theater. By way of Gerdt’s teacher Johansson, under whom Vaganova also studied, the traditions of the “noble” classical ballet could be traced back to the Danish instructor and choreographer August Bournonville, and even further: to the illustrious French choreographers and dancers of the eighteenth century, including Jean-Georges Noverre. This was the origin of the “French” school of ballet.

The traditional lesson of the French school at the close of the nineteenth century cultivated soft and graceful, but unnecessarily artificial and decorative, movements. Vaganova was later to recall, not without irony, the reproofs she heard from her instructors: “Lightfooted! Lightfooted! Be coquettish!” Deliberately emphasizing the archaic traits of this dance manner, Vaganova writes of its saccharine sweetness, the flaccidity of its poses—the arms with softly sagging or affectedly elevated elbows and “elegantly” outspread fingers. In short, the disregard for the full use of the energy of the arms and body, and the tranquil and measured manner of conducting the exercises restricted balletic virtuosity.

The Italian school differed sharply from this old manner of instruction and performance. This school reached its acme in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It was represented in the classroom by Enrico Cecchetti and on the stage by the guest performers Pierina Legnani, Carlotta Brianza, Antonietta Dell’-Era and many others. The virtuosity of the Italian ballerinas, who sought to astonish their audience with the most difficult steps—for example, the thirty-two consecutive fouettés, demonstrated for the first time—was not received in Russia without reservations. In the brilliant technique of the Italian ballerinas the people concerned with Russian ballet often found a lack of poetry and content.

In the years when Enrico Cecchetti worked for the St. Petersburg stage, the authority of the Italian school rose significantly. Particularly convincing were the swift successes of his Russian pupils. The advantages of the Italian execution became evident; it cultivated reliable aplomb (steadiness), dynamic turns and the strength and endurance of the toes. Another thing that attracted attention was that the conducting of the lesson was well thought out: Cecchetti had a fixed study plan for every day in the week, whereas the majority of instructors worked without a clear program. The immense usefulness of Cecchetti’s lessons is attested by many Russian ballerinas, including Anna Pavlova, who for many years periodically traveled to Milan in order to study with the renowned teacher. Vaganova, too, speaks of Cecchetti with profound respect. She calls Cecchetti’s activity “an event that played a tremendous role in the history of our instruction, and likewise in the history of Russian ballet.”
³
But the merits of the Italian school did not prevent Vaganova from discerning in it tendencies alien to Russian ballet: an excessive angularity of movement, a strained use of the arms—now stretched out too much, now sharply bent at the elbows—and a harsh manner of tucking the legs under in jumps.