Our Concert at the Hermitage Theater

On May eleventh, after many months of rehearsals, it came time to perform in the Vaganova Academy's annual concert for international trainees. A lot of hard work was put into preparing the concert, both by the students and by the coaches rehearsing with us, Yulia Kasenkova and Yulia Mahalina.

Throughout May and June, several different concerts take place, each one meant to showcase a different group of students. The international trainees' concert is the first to take place, followed by a concert for the Russian students in the sixth class and then by a concert for the Russian students in the seventh and eighth classes. A bit later on, in June, a series of graduation concerts, meant to showcase the students in the ninth class who have come to the end of their studies at the Academy, will take place. Some of the younger students participate as well, dancing in the corps de ballet and, in certain cases (like with my lovely and extremely talented classmates Nastia and Nika), in solo roles alongside the graduating students.

Most of the concerts take place in the State Hermitage Theater, the only exception being the series of graduation concerts, which are held at the Mariinsky Theater. Though on the smaller side, the Hermitage Theater is gorgeous.

The theater is tucked away inside one of the buildings that make up the State Hermitage Museum, a famous art museum in central Saint Petersburg. This is one of the rooms that we had to walk through to get to the dressing rooms!

We began working with Yulia Kasenkova, a Second Soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet, last fall. At the beginning, our time with her resembled a ballet repertoire class more than actual rehearsals; she taught us dances and variations from a variety of different ballets so that she could figure out what sorts of steps and choreography suited each one of us best. As we progressed through the semester, she began placing people in dances, and the real rehearsal process began.

About halfway through the year, Yulia Mahalina, Principal Dancer with the Mariinsky Ballet, joined Yulia Kasenkova as a coach for our rehearsals. They divided the international trainees in half and each took one group so that they would be able to provide us with more individual attention during our rehearsals. I was in Yulia Kasenkova's group, and I enjoyed getting to work with her. She is very passionate and energetic, and she put her whole self into her work with us.

Here I am (on the left, sitting on the floor) with Yulia Kasenkova (in the center, holding the flowers) and the other students that she worked with.

Several days before our concert was set to take place, we had a просмотр (pronounced prasmotr, means review), which required that we perform all of the pieces that we had rehearsed while almost the entire classical ballet teaching staff watched us. Afterwards, the teachers gathered together to decided which dances would and would not be allowed to be performed in the concert. The teachers were not only making sure that they are happy with the quality of the dances, but they also had to make the concert short enough, since we had prepared far more dances than could reasonably be performed in just one show. This was an extremely stressful day. Though nothing that I was dancing in was cut, there were many things that were, which was a difficult thing to have to witness. This process, the просмотр and subsequent cutting of dances, is something that happens frequently here. There is one before each school concert, and there is also a similar one that takes place so that the casts for the solo parts in the school's production of the Nutcracker can be chosen. Though not the most enjoyable of experiences, the просмотр gave me yet another reason to be grateful for having the opportunity to perform.

I danced a demi-soloist part and variation from the grand pas de deux from Paquita. The demi-soloists perform in pairs - here I am with my buddy, Haruka (Japan) and Yulia Kasenkova.

There are three demi-soloist pairs and corps de ballet. The costumes worn by each pair are different from the corps de ballet's costumes and from the costumes worn by the other demi-soloist pairs. Here's a close-up of my tutu.

This is everyone who performed in the concert with coaches Yulia Kasenkova (standing, left) and Yulia Mahalina (standing, second from the right), and the director of the Vaganova Academy, Nikolai Tsiskaridze (standing, center). I'm the one standing on the right, at the very end of the row (next to Yulia Mahalina :).

Here I am with my friends Juli (Hungary, on the left), Zsofia (Hungary, second from the left), and Roosa (Finland, on the right). We're all dressed up for our different parts in Paquita.



I am happy with how the concert went. I enjoyed performing and I learned a lot during the rehearsal process, which is really the most important thing.