What My Teacher Taught Me: Daniil Simkin
January 8, 2016
Daniil Simkin with Céline Cassone
American Ballet Theatre principal Daniil Simkin trained privately with his mother, Russian ballerina Olga Aleksandrova, from age 9 to 19. To motivate him during his adolescent years, she used creative incentives.
“She knew how to work with me. I remember one time when she bribed me. I wanted this computer game, SimCity 3000, and my mom said, ‘OK, I’ll get you this computer game if you are able to sit in the splits. So inevitably I sat in the splits in a matter of two days.”
Daniil Simkin’s INTENSIO runs at The Joyce Theater in New York City through Sunday, January 10.
Photo by NYC Dance Project: Ken Browar and Deborah Ory, courtesy of Daniil Simkin’s INTENSIO
