Forget the Royal Ballet School or the The School of American Ballet, Nikolai Tsiskaridze says there are only three real ballet schools in the world: the Paris Opera Ballet School, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and the Vaganova Ballet Academy, which he is currently running.
I always said there are only three schools in the world: if you want to be a real ballet artist, you must train in Paris, St Petersburg or Moscow. That’s it! These are the three main centres for ballet culture,
Interfax reported him as saying.
Tsiskaridze – who will shortly return to the stage as Widow Simone in Ashton’s La fille mal gardée at the Mikhailovsky Theatre – went on to say,
Graduates at the Vaganova Ballet Academy have no problems in finding employment. Graduates often go to work in smaller companies because they have the opportunity to dance lead roles.
I was invited to many different places, but there was only one theatre for me: the Bolshoi. I had dreamt of dancing there since I was a child. Some people said that I may get into the corps de ballet at the Bolshoi, but for me that was unimportant because it would still be at the Bolshoi Theatre.
Tsiskaridze, who seems passionate about his position as acting head of the school, is proud that its graduates are now free to take up a post anywhere in the world.
We have no law that says our graduates must go to a certain theatre, they have freedom of choice which those who came before them fought for.
He said that the Vaganova Ballet Academy diploma was a guarantee for the entire career:
It is more than just a piece of paper, but more like a piece of armour… armour to protect the dancer during a career. The diploma awarded here in St Petersburg is more valuable than any other in the world.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
What about the ballet academies in Britain and America?
Really, there are relatively few dancers that the larger academies in the UK or US have produced over recent years – in Russia they produce FAR more dancers with FAR better techniques. Also in the Ukraine! Even Cuba, when its size is taken into account, produces many more top dancers than the Royal Ballet School! Sorry, don’t like the guy, but it seems that he’s right on this point.
Ah but he didn’t include Cuba or Ukraine in his list of “Real” schools either. Neither did he include Denmark, home to Bournonville. The operative phrase in the missive was: “which he is currently running.”
Bournonville is the other special kind of classical ballet. Prove)
What about the hundred of schools in Latinamerica Cuba Venezuela Argentina Brazil. Every single major company in the world have a soloist our principal dancer or even a etoile from Latin America
And what the heck means REAL BALLET DANCER
He is sort of right, though I hate to admit it. RB school, La Scala etc do produce fantastic dancers every now and then, but nothing can compare with the overwhelming numbers that the Russian and Ukranian schools churn out. It can’t just be the training, can it? DNA.
What do you mean “real ballet dancers”? So ABT, the royal balet and such dont have “real dancers”? There is no real dancer. Thats like saying we all have to ONE body type. we arent robots. we are artists. and whats beautiful about art is that it is up to the artist to impersonate his or her character in whatever way he wants. Russian, american or british (and etc) we all have the same goal in mind.
“Real ballet dancers” means dancers that are trained to embody artistry through movement, and presence on the stage. If you call a clean technique that appears clearly robotic – ballet; then you have not experienced the real ballet. American ballet is obsessed with acro and extremes of turns, jumps etc. They went beyond allowing Balachine style to influence their classical ballet and turned it into a methodology..?? fast/crossed, and fast..forget about quality of movement. Since a style developed for a neoclassical ballet has turned into a methodology- leading to strain, and injuries…what justifiable reasons do you have to debate the claim the Russian made in this article? He is right!
Guys, don’t be fooled. He is just stating some controversial statements in order to generate attention. He thinks of himself as a celebrity and he’s is now trying hard to be a charismatic director.
The sad truth is — speaking in general terms — Russian trained ballet dancers are very dry; RB trained dancers think too highly of themselves; Paris Opera trained dancers like to do things so meticulously that they no longer know what is dance.
You go to the theatre and you’d know what I mean. I just wouldn’t waste my time.
He is absolutely right. The three schools mentioned have been consistently producing high level professional ballet dancers for CENTURIES. And right again, those dancers have no problem with employment anywhere in the world. Cuban ballet was staffed with Russian teaches for decades as Cuba as a country was heavily dependent and influenced on pretty much everything back in the Soviet years. They have very strong and beautiful ballet school. As well as Latin America, as well as some schools in US. However, nobody can compete with the force of Bolshoi, Vaganova and Paris schools. It is like Montessori, just the method is not enough, you have to have an established generations when one “feeds” the next one.
What a tragedy that he decided against a career in diplomacy.
LOL! Well said Max Vero. Putin should enlist him in the diplomatic corps.
Mr Tsiskaridze,
Thank you for staying to create, nurture and support the art of ballet at VAGANOVA academy. You have made great contributions and knowing you needed to give back is possibly your greatest. Thank you sir. thank you so much! Thank you for bringing Spartacus to the usa most recently. What a timely choice!
I agree those cities are THE cultural havens for ballet dancers and the schools are incredibly good. However ballet is an art and extremely talented and well trained dancers and teachers can be found across the globe.
Thank you, Master.
People, no need to get offended. What Tsiskaridze meant was that only the BBA, Vaganova school and POB school could produce truly classical artists. They are the oldest, most culturally and historically endowed. The Russian and French methods are classical, rigid and require extreme discipline. Not only do they teach the technique, they teach the history of the music they dance to, the origins of the ballets themselves, the choreographers, the costuming, etc.. They have the students read up books in the libraries about the long history of ballet and study previous stars. Only Moscow, St Petersburg and Paris could produce ballet artists with pure classical technique, versatility, virtuosity and artistry. You can compare any ABT, NYBC or RB dancer with any other dancer with French or Russian training. The distinction is crystal clear. You really want to tell me that these companies have produced stars like Sylvie Guillem, Maya Plisetskaya and Uliana Lopatkina?