Agrippina Vaganova (1879–1951)

Agrippina Vaganova was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and studied at the Imperial Ballet School there, where she was taught by several legendary teachers, including Lev Ivanov, Christian Johansson, and Nikolai Legat. On graduating in 1897, she joined the Maryinsky Ballet, where she became known for her soaring leaps and brilliant footwork. She danced the leading roles of Odette-Odile in Swan Lake and the Tsar-Maiden in The Little Humpbacked Horse, but did not receive official ballerina ranking until 1915, the year before her retirement from the stage. After her performing career ended, Vaganova entered upon a second, brilliant career as a ballet teacher at her alma mater, the Imperial Ballet School, then called the Petrograd State Ballet School. There she created a new teaching method that emphasized harmony and coordination of all parts of the body and particularly developed the spine and neck. This system enabled her students to maintain a seemingly effortless elegance, beauty, and stability while dancing. The Vaganova method eventually became the basis for all Soviet ballet training. Her pupils including many who went on to become famous ballerinas. As the artistic director of the Maryinsky Ballet (then called the Kirov State Academic Theatre) from 1931 to 1937, she created revivals of classical ballet and also encouraged modern dance. From 1946 to 1951, she taught choreography at the Leningrad Conservatory. Vaganova's writings included a landmark textbook published in 1934. It was translated into English in 1946 and published as Basic Principles of Classical Ballet in 1969. The Leningrad Choreographic School (formerly the Petrograd State Ballet School) was renamed the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in her honor in 1957.