First Day at Vaganova

I made it to St. Petersburg, Russia, yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, my luggage luck held out and all of my bags arrived with me, even the one I was forced to gate-check at the start of my last flight. (If my bags had gotten lost, I would have arrived here with three leotards, two pairs of tights, technique shoes, a partially-used pair of pointe shoes, a few books, my wallet, and almost nothing else, the idea of which made me a bit nervous).

A woman from the Vaganova Academy met me after I had retrieved my luggage and come through customs. We took a taxi to the school, and, though I was feeling nauseous, I spent the entire car ride trying to read as many signs as I possibly could to practice my Russian. The taxi dropped us off on Rossi Street (below), where the Academy is located. The entrance to the school is immediately to the left of where I was standing when I took this picture.

We unloaded my bags and began dragging them into the building. The international trainees have a separate dorm from the Russian students. Though small, the area it takes up is more vertical than horizontal, and it spans four separate floors (two through five). My room is on the fourth floor, and I am very grateful for the man who carried my suitcases up the seven flights of stairs that one must climb in order to reach it.

I headed up to my room to take a look around and start to meet people. A lot of the international trainees are returning students, so they already know how things work and where things are, which is extremely helpful. After I unpacked, one offered to give me and another new student a tour around the school. 

The school is massive and extremely confusing, but it has just about everything I could ever need in it (if I am able to find it)- the dorms, the studios, the cafeteria, medical  offices, even a Grishko store (which I have yet to visit only because it was closed yesterday and I just got lost when I tried to find it just now; Grishko is the brand of pointe shoes I wear and they make other dance clothes that I like, too).

We went through the floors of the school and saw the studios. Some are big, some are small, but they are all beautiful.

This is the studio where the older levels have their exams. I have been told that the mirrors in the front of the studio are the original ones from when it was built.

We finished our tour with the front entrance before heading out for a visit to the grocery and an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a Russian SIM card.

This morning began with an opening ceremony for the new school year. All of the students were gathered in the courtyard, along with many parents. Several important figures from the academy faculty spoke, but I understood almost nothing because the ceremony was conducted in Russian.  When the international trainees were mentioned, they translated what was said into English, so I was able to understand that part.

At the end of the ceremony, everyone who had a balloon let them float away, and then all of the students headed off to start their first class of the year.

We had our first ballet class today. Prior to our arrivals, the academy staff placed us in classes as best as they could based off of our video auditions, and so the first days serve as an experiment to see how well the class assignment works. We just have classical ballet class this week (the other disciplines begin next week) and Russian language classes don't begin until the ballet class placements for the new trainees have been decided for sure. I enjoyed the class; it was challenging, the class was small, and the other girls were nice. We were in this large and beautiful studio, which I enjoyed.

It also happens to be one of the two studios in the school that has a level (rather than raked) floor. That made my life a bit easier since I was free to concentrate solely on trying to understand the Russian that was being spoken rather that having to put much of my efforts into simply remaining upright.