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Agrippina Vaganova with a young Russian ballet student |
The Vaganova Method
What is it? What is it not?
February 12, 2019
Agrippina Vaganova was a dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet who began her teaching career in the 1920's. She developed an innovative approach to ballet training that unified the upper and lower body, removing the traditional focus on the legs and feet of the dancer by synchronizing the placement of the head and shoulders with the placement of the legs and feet. Her approach to technique creates greater fluidity of line, more expressive port de bras and more flexibility of the torso. The position of the head and shoulders always corresponds with the position of the legs and feet. When standing at the ballet barre, as the dancer points her right leg forward in tendu, she simultaneously tilts her head to the right, shifting her shoulders to accommodate her head. When she extends her right leg behind her, she tilts her head to the left, once again shifting her shoulders. The correspondence running from head to toe lengthens the line of the body and also creates the illusion of long legs and height. Before the Vaganova Method was introduced, training had focused primarily on building up the legs and feet so that dancers could pull off the multiple pirouettes and breath taking leaps that, along with all manner of bravura stunts, so dazzled and delighted audiences. The
beauty and power of the Vaganova Method literally breathed life into the dancer above the waist. Today it is taught at all the major ballet schools in Russia, including both the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi, and has been disseminated throughout the West in a number of annexes. Note: The Vaganova Method is a form of instruction that focuses singularly on technique. While the result may be what is called style, it exists for the purposes of training and has nothing whatever to do with sentiment, mood or emotion in dance.
NUTS AND BOLTS: At the ballet barre, when the dancer points his foot/leg forward or backward in a tendu, he shifts his neck, [epaulement] and head at the same angle. By synchronizing the two ends of the body, the dancer acquires the illusion of height and extremehis/her legs seem longer. and thereinforcing the angle of the leg/foot with that of the head, a dancer's legs look longer; reinforcement of the angle of it not only makes athe leg look longer, it lengthens the impression of the entire body. When facing directly forward, the head remains stationary as the leg moves sideways. The shoulders shift to correspond and/or sometimes contrast with the synchronization of the parts of the body in relationship to the direction of the legs/feet. This causes a broadening of the upper body and shoulders, and elongates the neck and arms as well. Strength becomes anchored in the shoulders, providing additional strength and leverage for the dancer.
During the port de bras, the arms are held in a slightly rounded position. The fingers are slightly rounded and separated, the middle finger curving furthest toward the palm than the other fingers. If you were to follow both arms downward from fifth position above the head (en haut) to second position (sideways), the palms would turn upward as they neared the height of the waist line. As the arms continued to descend, the palms would turn downward, the wrist would flex slightly and the fingers would trail for a moment as the arms descended toward first position below (en base), returning to their slightly rounded position. Both in first and fifth position the hands are seen sideways, with the thumb and second finger seen first in first position and the pinkie and fourth finger seen first in fifth position above.
As the synchronization of the head, shoulders, arms, hands, legs/feet is achieved by the student dancer through regular practice, it eventually becomes second-nature to the dancer. The dancer moves this way when given any combination of ballet steps to perform. The head tilts automatically with the projection of the leg in a certain direction, etc. Thus, the unification of the lower and upper body is achieved unconsciously. The Vaganova Method gives a dancer greater means by which to express herself with her arms than ever before. It was a huge innovation in ballet technique for this reason. It gave the dancer a greater vocabulary, in a sense. But again, it is a technique, not a style.
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| Agrippina Vaganova |
This training could be given at the New York City Ballet's school, the School of American Ballet, where dancers are trained specifically in a way that will enable them to dance the Balanchine repertory. With great foresight, Balanchine understood that creating a school that would provide a steady stream of well-trained dancers took precedence over establishing a ballet company; S.A.B. was founded in 1934. The New York City Ballet was founded in 1948. During the interim years various smaller companies were started and folded for financial reasons. There was not yet a large enough group of sophisticated New Yorkers interested in abstract ballets created by Balanchine. When the Ford Foundation provided S.A.B. with a huge endowment in 1970, it was able to expand its efforts to scour the United States for the most talented dancers and bring them to the New York at the age of fourteen to begin training at S.A.B. full-time and attending school in Manhattan. From this point on, the strictness with regard to aesthetic standards for dancer's bodies was strictly enforced. After Balanchine's death Peter Martins allowed this aesthetic to be more inclusive of a wider variety of body types. This was both to his credit and a reflection of the acquired wisdom of several decades of ballet dancers lapsing into anorexia and other eating disorders in order to become extremely thin.
Much of what marks the Balanchine technique amounts to style, with the exception of the innovation of the back leg in fourth position, which is held straight when in demi-plié. Were the Vaganova Method to be incorporated with Balanchine training, with the exception of the unique approach to fourth position, which could be introduced from the beginning, Vaganova training could simply precede introduction to Balanchine style. It would ideally be emphasized during the first four years of training from the age of eight, for girls. Certainly it should ingrained in female dancers before they go on pointe at the age of twelve, which requires four years of frequent and regular classes in order to strengthen the back and feet and allow the bones of each to mature fully enough to bear the weight of the body on the tips of the toes. Balanchine style, which focuses mainly on idiosyncratic use of the arms, can be introduced as late as the age of twelve or fourteen. The descent of the arms from fifth position to first position is marked by the elongation of the elbows and straightening of the entire arm as it approaches the height of the waist line, the exaggerated flexing of the wrist and flapping of the entire hand as it trails after the arm making its descent to first position. After Balanchine's demise the importance of pressing down the shoulders to elevate the neck from the body was abandoned for some reason; perhaps many of the teachers from the Mariinsky passed on and this lapse can be attributed to that. Actually, it can first be spotted in the dancing of Merrill Ashley, a tall, unusually large-boned virtuoso of Balanchine's who did not clutter her straightforward, cowgirl kind of dancing with regal elevation of the head or languorous posing. The tendency of dancers at the NYCB to forget to press their shoulders down was epitomized by the gnome like dancing of Kyra Nichols, whose hunched shoulders made her short neck look even shorter. I don't recall a single critic or fan ever noting this, much to my puzzlement. Later Balanchine dancers who heralded what was called the "revival" of the New York City Ballet after its period of dormancy following Balanchine's death, such as Sara Mearns, Maria Kowrowski and Teresa Reichlin, have returned pressing their shoulders down. Their long necked appearances and control of the upper body gives a dancer both grace and strength. At any rate, the eccentricity of Balanchine's highly stylized port de bras, which underscores the overt sexuality in much of his choreography, does not conflict in any way with the Vaganova Method. If anything, early training in the Vaganova technique would endow City Ballet dancers with a larger vocabulary for their port de bras. The combination of the Vaganova Method with regard to arms and the eccentricities of Balanchine arms would be most appealing.
At any rate, when a student receives Vaganova training early and consistently for at least 2-3 years, it becomes engrained in their execution of ballet steps and combinations. Beautiful port de bras is the ultimate reward. It becomes second-nature to such dancers as performers, unconscious, as it were. The dancer would have to work very hard to turn off the synchronized tilting of the head and use of the special sculpting of the epaulement. How does one recognize Vaganova training in a dancer? Thalia Mara taught it in New York in the 1960's at the National Academy of Ballet and Theater Arts, a school that was modeled after the Russian state school, the Vaganova Academy. Jolinda Menendez, a former principal dancer with ABT and Clark Tippet, a former soloist of ABT (now deceased) trained at NABTA. But for the most part, the Vaganova Methodd is disseminated through the Russian schools and Russian teachers and their annexes of such schools in the west.
The easiest way for the layman who is an avid fan of ballet to spot the Vaganova Method among dancers is to watch the corps de ballet of the Bolshoi Ballet in a performance of Swan Lake. When the swans line up in two long rows, making snakelike formations on either side of the stage, they move their arms unison. At this moment it is easy to distinguish the brand of the Vaganova Method in the port de bras of the swans. In reverse, an individual trained in the Vaganova Method as a student can often spot the Vaganova training in an individual dancer. However, while it has much to offer, the Vaganova technique itself does not determine the strength or weakness of the dancer. Ideally, the student dancer begins sooner than later, and with a female dancer, no later than the age of eight or nine. Classes must be taken frequently and regularly with no interruption. During the first four years of training, a female dancer prepares to go on pointe at the age of twelve. Prior to this, the bones are not fully enough formed; any teacher who puts a dancer on pointe before twelve is a dangerous person. Female dancers who begin their training too late often struggle with the demanding pointe work required of dancers today. It is virtually impossible to make up for lost time. There are a few exceptions to this rule but, generally speaking, it can be applied with complete strictness. Things must be done in a timely manner; even great talent cannot make up for deficiencies in training. Gillian Murphy wowed audiences with her stunt-fouettés in 2005, raising the bar for dancers all over America, but she had the artistry to match her technical proficiency. Any female dancer who does not begin dancing until the age of thirteen or fourteen cannot possibly hope to attain Murphy's technical prowess. Nor should she be expected to. Such a dancer may have other things to offer. At any rate, if a dancer has begun training early enough and had good training regularly without interruption, by the age of fourteen she should have all of the tools that she needs at her finger tips in order to develop an an impressive technique. By this stage, all of the colors of the palette are at her disposal. It becomes a question of how hard the dancer wants to work, how great a facility she has for focusing on details and how much energy and drive she has to dance. It can take anywhere from two to four years to achieve a professional technique. And from then on, the dancer will continue growing. The longevity of a dancer's career comes down to training and genetics. But in the end, we must resort to the immortal words of Galina Ulanova, "Talent is work."
In recent years, a lot of talk has gone on about how ballet dancers today have surpassed the technical limits of their predecessors. However, when the Royal Ballet visited New York throughout the 1960's, the pointe work of the average female member of the corps de ballet exceeded anything we see today in any company in America today. When it came to turns, clean landings were of utmost importance as; a full turn separated the great from the good. No one on stage was under pressure to raise their leg to their ear or do hypo-extended splits while tumbling through the air. In the 1980's, excessive athleticism became popular in American ballet and generations of dancers began straining on stage on a regular basis; it is very disturbing to watch. Every time a ballerina strikes an arabesque or an attitude, she need not feel the pressure to balance endlessly on pointe just because she can. Multiple turns performed by male dancers need not run into double digits every single time. Many of the so called "great turners" of today are actually spinning, not turning, robbing the audience of sensuality and suspense of a well-executed pirouette. The dancers raises up slightly on the bottom of his foot, standing just shy of demi-pointe and tears off 12, 13 or 14 turns. This is a sham. The foot should be fully-flexed in relevé, the entire weight of the ball of the foot pressing flush against the floor as he completes each revolution. It takes both speed and control and is immensely satisfying to watch. Dancers should strive to create beauty of form before they attack virtuosity; Herculean feats performed under a strain create much stress in the course of an evening. Dancers should aim to transported their audiences to another world and forget about stunt dancing.
