Video: "Hopelessly Perfect": a photo cycle about the exhausting path to Russian ballet
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Ballet is considered one of the visiting cards of Russia, and the Russian ballet school is recognized as one of the best in the world. Photocycle "Desperately Perfect" Rachel Papo talks about the young talents who study at the Academy of Russian Ballet. Vaganova. The grueling hours of training and the sheer fortitude of the dancers are admired by the New York photographer.
The Academy was founded in 1738 by order of Empress Anna Ioannovna and to this day retains the status of one of the best educational institutions in Russia. Among the choreographers who taught in different years at the academy, one should note such dance geniuses as Charles Louis Didlot, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa, Enrico Cecchetti and many other great teachers. French, Italian, Swedish traditions enriched Russian classical dance technique.
After visiting the academy, Rachel Papo was pleasantly amazed that in a country that today is on the path of Westernization, there are institutes in which the old methods of educating young people are preserved. Talented guys and girls between the ages of 10 and 18 do incredible things - they train 12 hours a day, six days a week. Painstaking work over the years gives the result: the graduates of the educational institution are real professionals.
The photographer says that her project aims to show the life of adolescents who are in constant competition with each other without embellishment. The academy often hosts international shows, and each of the students tries to show themselves. True, sometimes many are excluded from participating in competitions if the coaches are not sure that their wards are ready for 100%.
Rachel herself studied ballet for nine years as a child, but she was never the best in the class. She, like no one else, understands what these guys are going through, forcing herself to train again and again, closing her eyes to failures and overcoming physical pain and fatigue. They strive for the ideal, try to hone their skills, their movements become almost identical, but they still persistently try to show their uniqueness.
Henry Leutwyler is another photographer who Films professional ballerinas in their backstage life.
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