Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (pronounced vah-GAH-naw-vah) (Russian: Агриппина Яковлевна Ваганова) (July 6, 1879 - November 5, 1951) was a Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method - the technique which derived from the teaching methods of the old Imperial Ballet School (today the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) under the Premier Maître de Ballet Marius Petipa throughout the mid to late 19th century, though mostly throughout the 1880s and 1890s. It was Vaganova who perfected and cultivated this form of teaching the art of classical ballet into a workable syllabus. Her Fundamentals of the Classical Dance (1934) remains a standard textbook for the instruction of ballet technique. Her technique is one of the most popular techniques today.
Vaganova's whole life was connected with the Imperial Ballet (later the Kirov Ballet) of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. She was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School in 1888, the great institution of classical dance founded by Anna of Russia and funded by the Tsars. She graduated from the Classe de Perfection of the former Prima Ballerina Eugeniia Sokolova (she was also trained by Ekaterina Vazem, Enrico Cecchetti, Christian Johansson, Nikolai Legat, and Pavel Gerdt).
Ballet did not come easily to Vaganova in her first years as a student, but slowly, through the efforts of her own will power, she was able to join the illustrious Imperial Ballet upon her graduation. By the time she attained the rank of soloist, Saint Petersburg balletomanes dubbed her queen of variations, for her unlimited virtuosity and level of technique.
The old Maestro Petipa cared little for Vaganova as a dancer — any mention of her performances in his diaries were usually followed by such comments as "awful" or "dreadful". In 1915 the Ballet Master Nikolai Legat cast Vaganova as the Goddess Niriti in his revival of Petipa's 1889 grand ballet The Talisman. Vaganova's portrayal was a great success, and won her promotion to the rank of Prima. Nevertheless, she chose to retire one year later to concentrate on teaching.
In 1916 Vaganova began teaching at the khortekhnikum, as the Imperial Ballet School was by then known. Though she did have a respectable career as a dancer, her leadership in teaching classical dance was what gave her one of the most respected places in the history of ballet. Her own early struggle with deciphering ballet technique had taught her much. She taught students who would go on to become legends of the dance.
After the Revolution of 1917 the future of ballet in Russia looked grim because of its tradition as court entertainment. Vaganova "fought tooth and nail", as she put it, for the preservation of the legacy of Marius Petipa and the Imperial Ballet. In 1934 she was appointed director of the khortekhnikum, the school which now bears her name: The Vaganova Ballet Academy. This is the school that prepares dancers to perform with the Kirov Ballet.
Among Vaganova's people were the distinguished Soviet ballerinas Natalia Dudinskaya, Marina Semenova, Galina Ulanova, Olga Lepeshinskaya, and Maya Plisetskaya. Her teaching combined the elegant, refined style of the Imperial Ballet which Vaganova had been taught by Enrico Cecchetti with more vigorous dancing developed in the Soviet Union. In 1933, she staged and choreographed the celebrated version of Swan Lake with Ulanova as Odette-Odile.
Famous graduates of the Vaganova Ballet Academy include many who achieved international recognition: Ninel Kurgapkina, Rudolf Nureyev, Valery Panov, Irina Kolpakova, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, Yuri Soloviev, Varvara P. Mey, Galina Mezentseva, Altynai Asylmuratova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Olga Esina and Svetlana Zakharova, among many others.