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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2014
Ever since I was fourteen and read Tamara Karsavina's Theatre Street, I had wanted to visit the school that she described so endearingly in her autobiography. Finally, in 1973,1 was in Leningrad and had a chance to see what is now known as the Vaganova Choreographic Institute. After several engrossing hours of watching classes, I was called into the office where I was invited to ask questions but was first asked to listen to an explanation. “We know,” said the young man appointed as spokesman, “that you have visited the very modern new school that is now used by the Bolshoi Ballet. We want you to know that we, too, were offered a new building by the Soviet government, but we did not accept it. We told the government that, unlike Moscow, we have a great tradition that was created and nurtured within these walls. We are proud of this tradition and we want to remain here.”
If I had not already loved the Leningrad school because of Karsavina, I would have loved it then.
The film The Children of Theatre Street tries to capture some of this feeling of inheritance, and at times it succeeds. We see the rapt faces of the young students as they stand beneath portrait's of past masters who walked these same halls, beneath views of dancers who preceded them, perhaps at that same space at the barre. The face of tradition, like that of a parent, is both loving and demanding. The children are intensely aware of their responsibility; we respond to their consuming dedication as the film concentrates on the daily lives of two young students, Angelina Armeiskaya and Alec Timoushin. But watching moments of their classes, we long to see more of their dancing. Of course, it is interesting to see the school cafeteria and a dormitory bedroom, but a glimpse would have sufficed.
Author's Note: I want to express special gratitude to my friends and colleagues in the Soviet Union, Vera Krasovskaya and Elisaveta Sourtiz who helped me to locate materials in Russian sources.
1. Vaughan, David. “Films,” Ballet Review VI, 3 (1977–1978), 90–93Google Scholar.
2. Moore, Lillian, ed., Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, tr. Whittaker, Helen (New York: Macmillan, 1968), p. 95Google Scholar. Hereafter referred to as Moore.
3. Moore, p. 101.
4. Moore, p. 28.
5. Marius Petipa: materialy, vospominaniya, stat'i (Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1971), pp. 377–78Google Scholar. Hereafter referred to as Petipa.
6. Le Diable amoureux, ballet pantomime en trois actes et huit tableaux par MM de Saint-Georges at Mazilier, musique de Messieurs Benoist et Réber. Représenté le 23 Septembre 1840 (Paris, 1840).
7. I have not seen the actual libretto, but only the summary of it in Krasovskaya, Vera, Russkii Baletnye Teatr vtoroi poloviny XIX veka (Leningrad-Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1963), p. 217Google Scholar. Hereafter referred to as Krasovskaya.
8. Satanella, ballo fantastico in sei parti di Filippo Taglioni, di rappresentarsi nell' I.R. Teatro alia Scala, la primavera del 1842 (Milan, 1842).
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14. Moore, p. 28.
15. Ezhegodnik Imperatorsky Teatrov, season 1896–1897 (Saint Petersburg, 1898), p. 371Google Scholar. Hereafter referred to as Ezhegodnik.
16. Chaffee, George, “The Balletophile,” Dance Magazine (April, 1945), p. 39Google Scholar.
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18. Odell, George C.D., Annals of the New York Stage (New York, 1927–1949) VI, 314Google Scholar.
19. Charles Durang, “History of the Philadelphia Stage,” chapter 127.
20. Program, Niblo's Garden, New York, 8 November 1854. Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library.
21. Leshkov, D.I., Marius Petipa (1822–1910) (Petrograd: Petrograd Academic Theatres, 1922), p. 17Google Scholar.
22. I am indebted to Vera Krasovskaya, who gave me this information from the poster.
23. Vazem, Ekaterina, Zapiski balerini (Leningrad-Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1937), p. 90Google Scholar.
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25. Petipa, p. 378.
26. Vazem, pp. 78, 80.
27. Quoted in Lauzac. “Ferraris, artiste choregraphique” [1857], p. 295. From an unidentified journal, Dance Collection, The New York Public Library.
28. Pleshcheev, Alexandre, Nash Balet (1673–1899) (St. Petersburg, 1899), p. 184Google Scholar.
