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| Melnie Kij, Vaganova trained at the Royale Dance Academy performing a grand Jete |
By Bernadine De Mike
He was a fat Italian man, a fine dancer, but later, a brilliant theoretician. His name was Enrico Cecchetti and his "Italian" method of training became the norm for most of the ballet world. He never taught beginners but the most talented advanced dancers and of course the great Anna Pavlova. Cecchetti had a different class for each day of the week so that everything was covered for the dancers technical needs. He taught in Russia for awhile and his very exercises can be seen in ballets such as "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty". Later in England, the method was broken down into seven grades and teachers were given certification.
It was while teaching at my home studio that I decide to begin studying the grades which were available through the Cecchetti Council of America. My colleague, Norma Ferrara and I hired a professional coach who happened to live in our area and agreed to give us private lessons. We both acquired five grades and were about to take grade six when a major breakthrough came about - at least for me. Norma was a dyed-in-the-wool Cecchetti advocate and would never acknowledge this foreign ballet syllabus. After all, who could compare with Enrico's clean, careful. exact sterile grades?
Now we have two camps, the Italians vs the Russians, for when Vaganova came on the scene, the war began (and continues to this day). Actually, Agrippina Vaganova had studied all the Cecchetti technique, but when the iron curtain closed on Russia, she was forced to go underground and then revolutionized the whole method of teaching.
If Cecchetti was brilliant, Vaganova was genius! She actually looked in the mirror, saw what the finished prima ballerina looked like and then took every gesture, each finished product of greatness and broke it down to the level of the stark beginner. She went from the top down as opposed to all other methods which began with dull, sterile blah, dull exercises, hoping that someday, this highly trained technician would add the qualities needed to be a dancer. "NO" thought Vaganova, "We must begin with the perfect movements, sensing of the back, dramatic quality, fluid arms and stunning technique by dissecting what must end up as prima ballerina material." It worked. There emerged the unbelievable Nureyev's Barishnikov's, Plitseskaya, and a bevy of the most stunning dancers the world had ever seen.
Although I was six months pregnant at the time (with my sixth child), I packed my bags and headed for New York at the first glimpse of a tiny ad in Dance Magazine where the entire Vaganova method was being offered. John Barker spent thousands of hard-earned money to study with the director of the choreographic schools, Vera Kostravitskaya. He was a demanding, harsh, thorough and totally passionate teacher, giving every detail for all nine grades or the condensed six which I learned from a total of six years of study at his teacher training sessions. It was different, extraordinary, artistically brilliant and it developed a highly professional and elegant student, dancer and future teacher.
Vaganova technique can be found at the finest schools in the world and thankfully at my academy, thanks to the cooperation of my family and the dedication of a perfectionist. Though not well appreciated by the New York scene, he was adored by teachers who traveled many miles throughout the U.S. and even Europe to study at his humble studio near Carnegie Hall. Some say they teach "Vaganova" by reading a few books, but I can truly say, there is nothing like hearing Mr. Barker, six years in a row yell, "Life is short people, do it right!"
Now we have two camps, the Italians vs the Russians, for when Vaganova came on the scene, the war began (and continues to this day). Actually, Agrippina Vaganova had studied all the Cecchetti technique, but when the iron curtain closed on Russia, she was forced to go underground and then revolutionized the whole method of teaching.
If Cecchetti was brilliant, Vaganova was genius! She actually looked in the mirror, saw what the finished prima ballerina looked like and then took every gesture, each finished product of greatness and broke it down to the level of the stark beginner. She went from the top down as opposed to all other methods which began with dull, sterile blah, dull exercises, hoping that someday, this highly trained technician would add the qualities needed to be a dancer. "NO" thought Vaganova, "We must begin with the perfect movements, sensing of the back, dramatic quality, fluid arms and stunning technique by dissecting what must end up as prima ballerina material." It worked. There emerged the unbelievable Nureyev's Barishnikov's, Plitseskaya, and a bevy of the most stunning dancers the world had ever seen.
Although I was six months pregnant at the time (with my sixth child), I packed my bags and headed for New York at the first glimpse of a tiny ad in Dance Magazine where the entire Vaganova method was being offered. John Barker spent thousands of hard-earned money to study with the director of the choreographic schools, Vera Kostravitskaya. He was a demanding, harsh, thorough and totally passionate teacher, giving every detail for all nine grades or the condensed six which I learned from a total of six years of study at his teacher training sessions. It was different, extraordinary, artistically brilliant and it developed a highly professional and elegant student, dancer and future teacher.
Vaganova technique can be found at the finest schools in the world and thankfully at my academy, thanks to the cooperation of my family and the dedication of a perfectionist. Though not well appreciated by the New York scene, he was adored by teachers who traveled many miles throughout the U.S. and even Europe to study at his humble studio near Carnegie Hall. Some say they teach "Vaganova" by reading a few books, but I can truly say, there is nothing like hearing Mr. Barker, six years in a row yell, "Life is short people, do it right!"
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