Open World Dance Foundation founder Ekaterina Shchelkanova with students
This summer, dancers and teachers in the United States can attend an intensive Russian ballet workshop led by dancers who studied under Agrippina Vaganova herself.
The event will be hosted by Open World Dance Foundation, which focuses on preserving Russian ballet traditions while providing training opportunities to orphaned children in Russia.
The New York City faculty includes three of the last living students of Vaganova: Ludmila Safronova, a former Mikhailovsky Theatre principal; Irina Kolpakova, a student in Vaganova’s final graduating class and ballet mistress at American Ballet Theatre; and Irina Trofimova who, after graduating from the Vaganova Academy, trained specifically in the style’s pedagogy.
This unique summer intensive offers three weeks of training for dancers age 10 to young professional, as well as a two-week teacher-training seminar for instructors. During two previous summer programs abroad, four dancers—including two Russian orphans—have been selected to study fulltime at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg.
The program runs July 13–August 1, 2015, for dancers and July 13–25 for teachers. The application deadline is March 1. Visit openworlddancefoundation.com for more information.
Photo courtesy of Ekaterina Shchelkanova