Keepers of the Flame
by Michail Baryshnikov

No other school can boast the talent that St. Petersburg's "Vaganova Ballet Academy" had unleashed on the world stage: Pavlova, Nijinsky, Nureyev, and Balanchine, to name just a few.

In his article, published in Vanity Fair magazine's September 2006 issue, another alumnus, Mikhail Baryshnikov, spotlights the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia as a training ground for generations of legends.

In my mind there's no question about it - the Vaganova Ballet Academy, in St. Peterburg, is still the best ballet school in the world. It has produced - to name a few - Pavlova, Karsavina, Nijinsky, Ulanova, Semenova, Kolpakova, Makarova, and the incomparable Nureyev. Even today's troika of reigning ballerinas - Lopatkina, Zakharova, and Vishneva - are products of this 200- plus-year-old institution.

With an almost spiritual connection to the art form of ballet, the school has survived the demise of Imperial Russia, the constrictions of the Soviet years, and the turbulence of the present day. So what's the secret of its longevity? Where's the magic?

Location isn't a bad place to start. Nestled behind Alexandrinsky Theatre on one side of the famously symmetrical Rossi Street (formerly known as Theatre street and renamed after its Italian architect, Carlo Rossi), the building has a soft yellow facade with two tiers of tall, arched windows that allow St. Petersburg's watery luminescence to flood in. There is a gallery where in my day students used to look down and watch company members take class - getting a glimpsof their future and an extra incentive to work hard.

Next door, the Theatre Museum stands like a textbook for students to reference. Philarmonic Hall, the ussion Museum, and the Hermitage are within walking distance, and nearby is a grand Nevsky Prospect, one of the city's main arteries and a miracle of classical proportion and restraint. (Peter the Great must have understood that light and graceful design would serve his audacious awampland city from the gloom of Russian winters). So this is the students' seedbed, where they soak up beauty every time they walk down the street.

Then there are the teachers - generations of them, with decades of experience to pass on, not just to the students, but to aspiring teachers as well. The school is named after one of the finest, Agrippina Vaganova, who codified the Russian style in her book, Basic Principles of Classical Ballet, but in fact it's a product of dozens of teachers with a unified vision of exellence.

During the students" eight-year stay, in addition to regular academic courses, they study French, piano, character dance, mime, dance history, and, of course, ballet technique and partnering skills. They see countless performances at the Maryinsky Theatre, and the most promising will be chosen to perform as sprites, bugs, party guests, and the like. By graduation, the teaches will have instilled a curiosity about art, architecture, drama, music, and literature - a spirit for the life's adventure, so to speak - because the truth is, just making people dance doesn't make them dancers.

Given Russia's current politics, these young artists will have the opportunity to take their skills anywhere they choose. It's hard to say if they realize that their training has "gone global." In the ohotographs their faces look very innocent, but beneath the innocence one detects a certain wordliness. With their combination of old-world training and youthful inexperience, Vaganova-school graduates are at the age of discovering that they know everything - and nothing - simultaneously.

There's the neoclassicism of George Balanchine to explore (did I mention that he was also an alum of the school?) and, perhaps, the influence of western contemporary dance to consider. Nonetheless, they are ready.

So the magic isn't really magical at all. It's work and dedication and enthusiasm, and it's in the face and body of each student. They are the chosen ones, and know it. In the same way that certain hillsides in France produce excellent grapes, and Cohiba cigars capture the aroma of Cuba, the Fates have conspired to make the Vaganova school a nearly perfect instrument for creating dancers with an artist's malleability and a soldier's discipline.

These dancers are Balanchine's dream: they have the modernity he fostered with the old world perfume he loved. The future is theirs.