The End of Our Exams

In the time since I wrote my last blog post, my level had three more dance exams - duet, character, and acting - and now we're done with all of our exams for the year! I enjoyed preparing for and dancing in all of my exams, but it is still a relief to have gotten through (and passed!) all of them.

Having five exams in within the span of a just a month and six days meant that we had a lot to think about and get ready for at the same time. As soon as one exam finished, we began intensified preparations for the next one almost immediately, sometimes even spending our daily ballet class time practicing for character or duet instead of taking our usual class. At the same time, we've also been preparing for our concert, which will happen this afternoon. Though we had a week without rehearsals just before our ballet exam and a lightened rehearsal schedule just before our duet exam, preparations for the concert and for the other exams have been going on simultaneously. I'm a bit tired now, but I'll have time to rest and recover in the coming weeks, since my schedule will be significantly less busy than it has been.

Here are some pictures from my last three exams, starting with duet.

Here is my class with our duet teacher, Mr. Myasnikof. (I'm standing up and am the third from the right).

This picture is of me with Tenke, one of the partners that I danced with during our exam. He's from Japan.

Here I am with Simyon, from Russia, the other partner that I danced with during the exam.

This is from just after our character exam. (I'm standing in the back, directly underneath the portrait hanging on the back wall of the studio).

After each exam, the judging panel takes time to consult and assign a grade to each Russian student and decide whether or not each of the international trainees has passed the exam. Once they have finished, the teacher is given a list of the grades, which they then come and announce to the class. As a way of expressing thanks for their time and wisdom, it is customary for the class to give the teacher a gift of flowers or chocolate.

We took this picture just after giving our character teacher, Ms. Rassadina, her flowers. We were all in a good mood - she was pleased with how we had done and, judging from the grades that the judging panel had assigned to my classmates, the panel was satisfied. This is especially significant and important for all because the eighth year is the last year in which character is studied - the ninth level takes a slightly different set of classes that does not include character dance - and ending things on a good note is always nice.

Next was acting. The exam takes place on the stage of the school theater, and is formatted like a short performance. Either individually or in groups, we performed the short dance pieces and excerpts from ballets that we had prepared during our class time. The requirement is that these pieces focus primarily on acting and expression instead of primarily on technique. We had quite an assortment of pieces, dramatic, tragic, comedic... In one of the pieces that I danced in, the character I was portraying dies after being stabbed with a knife by another character in the scene. The finale, performed by my classmates Nastia and Ilnoor, involved smashing eggs and throwing flour (yes, real flour) all over the stage.

Acting is also a class that is not included in the curriculum for the ninth year of study at the academy. From the number of older students who have come to visit our class just to say hi to our teacher and watch us working, I can tell that it is both a well-loved and, once it is over, much-missed missed class.

Here we are after the exam (I'm all the way on the left), standing in the mess of flour and eggshells (I think the eggs may have been hard-boiled, but that doesn't mean they didn't get messy).

An now, for the concert...

:)