Ballet Lessons : Perform a Pirouette
25th August
When performing a pirouette in ballet, allow the head to move freely, keep the arms in the port de bras position and keep the legs on the balls of the feet. Avoid doing a flat-footed pirouette turn with help from an experienced dance instructor in this free video ballet lesson.
Expert: Lauri Gregoire
Contact: www.bellevuedancecenter.com
Bio: Lauri Gregoire is the owner and director of the Bellevue Dance Center.
Filmmaker: Dimitri LaBarge
Duration : 0:2:5
This 6 part documentary on the Moscow Choreographic Academy , the actual name of the Bolshoi Ballet school , looks at the 2002/2003 ballet school year. There are four different students that this film focuses on. The main student is Natalia Osipova , who was 16 years old in 2002 and after finishing her seventh, and next to last year in the school, was 17 years old. After briefly showing Osipova in a school performance, they show the tryouts of the applicants for the first year of the school. Then it skips to the first day of the school year in September and progresses during the year. Osipova, is shown in class, in rehearsal and in performance at the graduation exams. She is shown dancing the Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty. She is also seen winning the grand prize at the Luxembourg ballet competition. The youngest student shown is the first year boy, Pasha Kozlov . It is interesting that when his parents come to Moscow to see their son in his graduation exams, his father mentions that he has never been in Moscow before. If Pasha is still at the school, he would have just finished his 6th year, with two years left. The final students are very unique in terms of what has happened to their careers. They are Kirill Safin and his younger brother, Igor Safin. Kirill graduated in 2006 and Igor 2007. They took a very unusual route in their ballet careers from the Moscow Choreographic school, ending up at the Mariinsky Theater. Igor has finished his first year with the Mariinsky (I like to call it Kirov ) and Kirill finished his second year. Both are in the corps de ballet, but Kirill has danced many solo roles. Kirill has been rehearsing Solor , so there is a possibility that he might have his first principal role in the upcoming year in Bayadere . His coach, the former Kirov star, Sergei Vikhulov , expects a promising career for Kirill. The director of the Bolshoi school is Marina Leonova, who is shown often in this documentary. I am not certain, but one of the parts in these videos ends and the next video starts with a boys class that Leonova enters. I think the teacher is the former Bolshoi ballet star, Yuri Vasyuchenko .
This 6 part documentary on the Moscow Choreographic Academy , the actual name of the Bolshoi Ballet school , looks at the 2002/2003 ballet school year. There are four different students that this film focuses on. The main student is Natalia Osipova , who was 16 years old in 2002 and after finishing her seventh, and next to last year in the school, was 17 years old. After briefly showing Osipova in a school performance, they show the tryouts of the applicants for the first year of the school. Then it skips to the first day of the school year in September and progresses during the year. Osipova, is shown in class, in rehearsal and in performance at the graduation exams. She is shown dancing the Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty. She is also seen winning the grand prize at the Luxembourg ballet competition. The youngest student shown is the first year boy, Pasha Kozlov . It is interesting that when his parents come to Moscow to see their son in his graduation exams, his father mentions that he has never been in Moscow before. If Pasha is still at the school, he would have just finished his 6th year, with two years left. The final students are very unique in terms of what has happened to their careers. They are Kirill Safin and his younger brother, Igor Safin. Kirill graduated in 2006 and Igor 2007. They took a very unusual route in their ballet careers from the Moscow Choreographic school, ending up at the Mariinsky Theater. Igor has finished his first year with the Mariinsky (I like to call it Kirov ) and Kirill finished his second year. Both are in the corps de ballet, but Kirill has danced many solo roles. Kirill has been rehearsing Solor , so there is a possibility that he might have his first principal role in the upcoming year in Bayadere . His coach, the former Kirov star, Sergei Vikhulov , expects a promising career for Kirill. The director of the Bolshoi school is Marina Leonova, who is shown often in this documentary. I am not certain, but one of the parts in these videos ends and the next video starts with a boys class that Leonova enters. I think the teacher is the former Bolshoi ballet star, Yuri Vasyuchenko .
This video is from an 8 class series of videos (every video is approximately two hours long and the 8th is close to 3 hours), starring former Kirov Mariinsky ballerina , Galina Mezentseva , demonstrating ballet class lessons from beginner to advanced level over an 8 year program. Mezentseva graduated from the Vaganova Academy School which had an 8 year program, based on the teaching of Agrippina Vaganova . This Educational Ballet DVD is entitled: “Classical Ballet Lesson” End of Advanced Level (The end of the 8th Class of the 8 Year Program for the Study of Classical Dance) is written, narrated and directed by Professor Peggy Willis-Aarnio and demonstrated by Prima Ballerina Galina Mezentseva and two of Prof. Peggy Willis-Aarnio’s students. It is the eight and final in a series of eight DVD’s showing a demonstration lesson from each of the 8 years for the Study of Classical Dance. It is for demonstration purposes only and not meant to be copied or imitated. Any teacher interested in learning how to teach classical ballet should contact Prof. Willis-Aarnio at wiballet@msn.com. Anyone who wishes to purchase any or all of these Educational DVD’s should contact: wiballet@msn.com, or go to their website at www.willisballet.com and click on the button “Products”. “. INCIDENTALLY, I HAVE NEVER MET PEGGY.
Sylvie Guillem at 14, in class, at Paris Opera Ballet School 
Darcey Bussell teaches the cygnets pas de quatre from Swan Lake (actually a pas de cinq here) to pupils at the Royal Ballet School. 2006 