In the far spring of 1738, in the capital of Russian Empire, Saint-Petersburg, boys and girls have begun learning “foreign step” for the first time. However witnesses remembered that already in the first steps of young dancers it was possible to feel national character. French roots of fine arts and original Russian softness, melodiousness of performance manner, inosculated and creatively comprehended by our ballet school, engender admiration and feelings in the soul of spectator till the present day. And in order not to cut the gold thread of this mastery, during almost three centuries boys and girls stand up to the ballet bar in the city on Neva River every morning.
Today all the world is penetrated with ideas of globalization, and the ballet, of course, has not become an exception. On the one hand, this is an exchange of technical innovations, and from the other hand - averaging out and depersonalization. If the world leading ballet schools succeed to save their individuality, then ballet art will gladden us with its wealth and diversity.
Dance Open workshops – it’s a small part of most important process of saving and distribution of Russian ballet school basics. Its participants come to Saint-Petersburg, motherland of Russian ballet, in order to breathe up heady air of victories, and in the same time, to feel (with every tired, exhausted fiber of their being) not just all stones, but also all sands on the way to this victory.
In order to reach a certain point of mastery, you will need eight years. In the modern world children and their parents often want immediate result: they are used to it – you push the button, and the computer return result. In ballet – it’s not like this! Ballet classes – this is a quite boring learning of ballet alphabet, from which words and phrases of lightsome inspiring dance will be formed. In order to make it happen, a master and an apprentice should practice “calligraphy” of each separate movement. The volume of work is very impressive.
So five days of workshops is not a panacea for “victims of clip thinking”. But exactly during these five days participants experience a real paradigm shift in thinking and attitude, thanks to which next eight years of work will not be wasted.
