VAGANOVA Agrippina Yakovlevna (1879, St. Petersburg - 1951, Leningrad), ballet-dancer, pedagogue, choreographer, People's Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1954). Upon graduating from the Petersburg Drama School, where she had studied under P.A. Gerdt, she danced at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1897-1916. Gave brilliant variations on many ballet performances, and played the roles of Queen of Water (The Little Humpbacked Horse), and Lady of Dryads (Don Quixote, both by A.A. Gorsky). By the end of her career - having acted the leading parts in M.I. Petipa and L.I. Ivanov's Swan Lake, Gorsky's The Little Humpbacked Horse, Giselle by Petipa - she achieved the title of ballerina. In 1920, Vaganova started teaching at the Russian Ballet School under the guidance of A.L. Volynsky; from 1921, she was a teacher of the Petrograd (Leningrad) Choreographic School (see Academy of Russian Ballet). She integrated her stage experience with her predecessor's lessons and created her own teaching method (expounded on in her book Basic Principles of Classical Ballet, Leningrad; Moscow., 1934; several editions), which put emphasis on newer developments and technique in classical dance. Among her students were M.T. Semenova, G.S. Ulanova, O.G. Iordan, T.M. Vecheslova, N.M. Dudinskaya, F.I. Balabina, A.Y. Shelest, N.A. Petrova, N.A. Kurgapkina, O.N. Moiseeva, I.G. Hensler, A.E. Osipenko, and I.A. Kolpakova. The Choreographic School was named after Vaganova in 1957. In 1931-1937, Vaganova was an art director for the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre's ballet troupe, where she choreographed Petipa and Ivanov's ballet Swan Lake (1933) and J. Perrot's Esmeralda (1935). She was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946. In 1937-51, Vaganova lived at 4 Dzerzhinskogo Street (today Gorokhovaya Street, memorial plaque installed). Buried at Literatorskie Mostky.
References: Богданов-Березовский В. М. А. Я. Ваганова. М.; Л., 1950; Агриппина Яковлевна Ваганова: Статьи. Воспоминания. Материалы. Л.; М., 1958; Красовская В. М. Ваганова. Л., 1989.
G. N. Dobrovolskaya.
