Script Ballerina

Ugh, your extensions are so beautiful! Do you have any tips on getting stronger/ better at dance in general? I'm going to YAGP in a month, so any advice would be great! P.S. I'm in love with you and the way you dance!!!

As far as getting stronger, being a better technician, try harder, it’s always a matter of trying harder when it doesn’t feel like you can….I think what happens a lot is that technique is difficult already and we get wrapped up in the idea that we are “already” working, because we are already sweating, struggling, etc. but we can always push harder, it’s all about the mind.

To become a better dancer though, I would separate that. Being a good dancer is not about technique, as with my belief about all art, it’s about whether what you’re doing truly comes from the heart or not. At the end of the day, art is about expression and bringing what’s on the inside that you can’t otherwise show people into the real world where it can indeed be observed by others. It truly does not matter what anybody thinks about it, just the simple fact of what it is makes it art. If you want to be a great dancer, make sure you’re living life, getting experience outside the studio…because how can you show what Giselle’s broken heart looks like if you haven’t ever been anywhere close in real life?

I notice that so much of dance today is about technique and sometimes going through the motions of what artistry looks like. It’s good to explore yourself, how you as an individual move within the parameters of the choreography. That’s my advice!!!

Hi Ryan! I'm in a dance academy and it's getting really hard to stay positive about myself. I know I work hard, am serious and concentrated in class, but it still feels like I'm not enough. Do you have any experiences with this or any tips? Or do you think it's just a matter of changing my attitude about this?

I think always the best solution is to have somewhat of a passion outside of dance. I really think that what ultimately kills your ability to really get a lot from ballet is fixating on it, I see lots of these people end up quitting completely and pursuing other things because it gets to be too consuming. I think it’s because when ballet disappoints you, which it always does at some point for everyone to some degree, it’s much more debilitating to recover from if it’s all you think about. Sometimes you just have to let the river take you, you really can’t try to manhandle your life too much because it will drive you crazy. Honestly, you will start to feel better and be able to improve more if you give yourself the room. Best of luck to you ❤

(First of all, I hope this doesn't sound like a loaded question. I do mean it sincerely.) Do you know why thinner ballerinas are preferred nowadays? I've been looking at photos of Vaganova when she was teaching, and her students didn't look as lean as the current students at the academy. It seems strange to me, because Agrippina Vaganova's standards seem to be otherwise worshipped.

I think it’s a great question! I have a theory on why the standards have changed so much but, as always, I welcome other input. Here’s what I think happened:

Beauty standards have changed

What we consider beautiful has changed a great deal in the past 100 years. At the turn of the 19th century, when consumption was laying waste to the European population, thinness was associated with sickness. It was an undesirable trait, and women were often criticised for it. For example, the great Sarah Bernhardt was the target of many terrible insults because she was slim.

If I’m not mistaken, Anna Pavlova almost wasn’t accepted into the Imperial Theatre School (now Vaganova Ballet Academy) because she was very skinny. You can see how different she looks compared to her classmates in this photo (taken in the 1890s):

The ballet of the olden days favoured a more sturdy (and therefore, healthy) physique. Whereas now we find long, thin limbs, high arches, flat torsos more aesthetically pleasing. Think of the way your eye glides over Svetlana Zakharova’s body.

Genetics have changed

Humans as a species are in an evolutionary fast-lane. This means that we’re changing at an incredible pace. Even now, whenever Tsiskaridze recalls what ballet kids looked like (physically) in his day compared to what they’re like now, the difference is staggering. And the generations he’s comparing are only 30-ish years apart! By the way, according to Nikolai, the health of Russian children is rapidly deteriorating from generation to generation. I’m going to do a separate post about it later.

Ballet itself has changed

As you said, the standards set by Agrippina Vaganova are still very highly regarded. However, some elements of her teaching have been (and continue to be) discarded because they have become obsolete. For instance, according to Vaganova, the ballerina mustn’t raise her leg above 45 degrees. Clearly, no one’s going to follow that rule anymore. Both the technique and the overall aesthetic have become more… streamlined, I guess.

Additionally, men have a much harder job now than they had one hundred years ago. Partnering has become a lot trickier. The lifts are more difficult and there are far more of them. This means that the ballerina needs to be smaller and slimmer, otherwise the feat becomes physically impossible.

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