An Interview with

by Jack Walker

A former principal dancer with the Kirov Ballet and teacher at the world-famous Vaganova Academy of Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, Victoria Novichyonok discusses what it takes to be a ballet dancer, the student years of Kirov star Farouk Ruzimatov, the variations elite dancers make to classical roles, the criteria for selecting young students for the Vaganova Academy, and the transition to a new life after a professional dance career.

---

Victoria Antonovna Novichyonok graduated the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg, then joined the Kirov Ballet Company, where she advanced to principal dancer. At the age of 30 she suffered a serious leg injury which forced her to leave the stage. She studied and became a teacher at the Vaganova Academy.

I visited her in her home in November, 1995. She lives in an old-style, moderate-sized apartment in St. Petersburg. On entrance there is a coat hanging area, then a wide hall that continues down a long way to the kitchen. Since her retirement, she spends hours in this room, cooking every imaginable type of cuisine.

I spoke with her in the large drawing room off to the left just before the kitchen. Far back toward the end wall she had a table set elegantly with a Chinese tea service.

She poured tea and offered small cakes as I set up my tape recorder. She was gracious, congenial, and pleasant. She seemed a little nervous, but this she expressed with increased attentiveness.

As we talked, she forgot herself and was quite open and friendly. As she remembered some of the things in her past, her eyes flickered with a golden spark. The more she became involved in the conversation, the younger she seemed.

---

The Interview

November 20, 1995
The home of Victoria Antonovna Novichyonok
St. Petersburg, Russia

Walker:
This china is very pretty.

Victoria Antonovna:
I was in Singapore once. I got it there and brought it home with me.

You were on tour there with the Kirov?
Yes. In those days we were sometimes lucky, and there were happy moments.

When was that?
In the 70s. I’m retired from dancing about twenty years.

Are you still teaching?
At the moment I’m not working. I stopped when my mother died. She passed away at home.

I’m sorry.
[She nods.]

So you are a veteran of the Soviet Kirov company?
All my life. I have been a laborer in this country for 40 years.

And you have taught?
Yes. When I left dancing, I concentrated on teaching.

What do you think of the new trends in ballet?
I don’t like anything done on the stage recently -- the new ballets. Of St. Petersburg choreographers I like Boris Eifman. He presents modern ballet, and his work is interesting. I like the sensibility of his ballets and the purity of his choreography.

However, I prefer the classical style, and the last person who created classical ballets of great worth was Balanchine. He created pure choreography, and his work was very expressive. He is my favorite. As you know, Balanchinvadze -- this is his Georgian name -- went to the USA.

The old ballets -- Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Bayaderka, Corsair -- are in the traditional classic style. Balanchine created a more expressive, more flowing classical style of his own. His style was complete, right down to changes in basic ballet movements. He adjusted everything to best communicate his vision.

You mentioned Don Quixote. I understand there was some controversy in the theater about four years ago when Farouk Ruzimatov changed some choreography in Don Quixote.
You mean the Basil character?

Yes.
Well, I suppose there were some in the theater who criticized him. He was just coming fully into his own. But then these critics live to find something to criticize. It is their private reason for showing up at work every day.

You know, every ballet star -- even during Soviet times -- each performer, each dancer -- the more their individuality, the more they contribute their own variation to the basic choreography.

Are you talking about Don Quixote or ballets in general?
In general, but Don Quixote is a special example. The Spanish character -- a combination of both classical and character ballet styles -- gives the dancer greater opportunity to make contributions.

Who are the dancers who contributed most their own personality to Don Quixote?
I only saw dancers from Chabukiani on. Before this I was a child in school. As for Chabukiani, he had an incredible combination of masculinity and emotionality. I think his interpretation for Don Quixote was close to perfection.

Nureyev is a different case. When young dancers begin working in the theater, they are adults, but some people treat them as if they are still children. Nureyev, the first time in the theater, did not want to make a big change in this part, but he wanted to make one small change -- a change in the last act variation. He wanted to alter his entrance. This is a very small change, but the teachers didn’t allow it. Not long after Nureyev went to the West.

As for Baryshnikov, he danced very clearly, but I don't consider him unusually gifted as far as a specific individuality. His dancing was extremely bright. He produced vigor and delight when he danced, and the public loved it.

Solovyov had a style similar to Baryshnikov’s and was perhaps even better. He is not so well known, because he stayed in Leningrad, and because he shot himself and had a short career.

Another dancer of the same period, but with a completely different style, was Panov. His fluidity and plasticity, his expressiveness, were a marvel. Some people preferred him over both Baryshnikov and Solovyov.

Have you seen Ruzimatov...
[Interrupting] ... yes, I love Ruzimatov...

... have you seen Ruzimatov dance Don Quixote?
During all the time he has danced this ballet, he has changed details. He does one thing for half a year, and then when it is perfect for him, he changes it again or changes something else, moves in a more interesting way.

He changes details, but not the overall picture. He changes beginnings, and he presents some slightly different endings, or in another section he uses a slightly different approach than is typical. His alterations are all very distinct, but he always keeps the general pattern of the original choreography. In the last section of the Adagio [Basil and Kitry], he adds very high level movements and heightened virtuosity -- to both his individual parts and to the lifts.

What specifically characterizes the individuality Ruzimatov brings to his work?
When I see him on the stage, I can see his attitude toward the work, toward the dance. A dancer must give a big part of his life to the work. He must make a gift of his life to ballet. When I see Ruzimatov on stage, I can see that he has made this gift. I can see that he has spent much time in the rehearsal hall.

The last time I watched him dance in Sheherazade the most important aspects of his dance were his emotional expression, his attitude and temperament, and his clean, clear, and pure technique.

When Farouk was a kid, he was very thin, small, and short. But God must have looked down on him, saw how much work he did, and then gave him the gift of growing up. It seems God rewarded Farouk’s desire to improve.

I was studying to be a teacher when Farouk began school. I saw him every day, and I remember him well. He had very bright, big eyes. He had the grayish-white skin from never being outside that all the students had. He was very tiny.

You know, he not only has inborn talent, but he has heart, ambition, and a willingness to work. A dancer with less talent than Ruzimatov has to work twice as hard. Ruzimatov has the talent, plus he works twice as hard, so he is that much better. And he concentrates all his thoughts, efforts, and energy to the result we can see on stage.

In general it’s impossible to advance in ballet without total concentration, without putting on blinders to everything else that can be a distraction.

Ruzimatov is from Tajikistan and was brought to Leningrad by the Vaganova scouts? How did they decide who they would bring from outside Russia to study at the Academy.
Some expert teachers were assigned to that task. They collected a group, usually 20 students -- 10 boys and 10 girls -- from a specific area of the country. Every year this special group came from a different republic. This was in the time of the USSR.

The primary matter was whether the parents would permit their child to leave home and live in Leningrad the next 8 years. You know it’s difficult for parents to let their 8 or 9 year old child go away. If the parents have a desire to have their child become a ballet dancer, they let their child leave.

The teachers would look for certain features in the children they invited. However, a child who seems to have everything can turn out to be a hopeless dancer. On the other hand, Ruzimatov had some of the basic qualities desired in a new student, but he did not at first appear to have as much potential as he turned out to have. He was tiny, and he had a poor arch in his foot. When a child, he was somewhat plain, but as he became older his face became bright, and he emerged from within himself to be very emotionally expressive.

A big group is needed for a class, because you cannot predict the physical looks of a small girl or boy several years ahead. Nevertheless, the teacher must have some ability to look into the future, to judge how the child’s physical proportions will develop and change. The small boy or girl must have the ability to move with music, to jump, and to stretch. The arch of the pointed foot must be reasonable, and so forth.

There are three basics looked for in a potential dancer: the proper physical build, the ability to dance, and the dancer's brain -- a brain that accepts direction, that can direct the body to move as desired, and that can remember body position.

To put it another way, when we accept people, there are certain external features, of course, like the step and the jump, flexibility and the raise of legs. But everything else is considered as well: the child’s receptivity, interest in relation to dance, and quickness of mind.

You may give all the attention in the world to some children, and there will be little or no response, even if they seem to have natural ability. But other children will take to a single word of encouragement or direction as if propelled by a rocket. This is the main reason Farouk was accepted into the school: he had an unbelievable eagerness to be a ballet dancer.

You mentioned that Farouk had a problem with the arch of his feet. When I see him now his arch is outstanding?
Yes, and that brings up what I have seen to be the most important attribute for a developing dancer to have. It is the one characteristic that most often portends success.

Farouk had a bad arch. He practiced raising his foot, rolling it on a bottle, and other things for hours. He did much more work than asked of him by his teachers, and he got greater results than his teachers expected.

My opinion is that the desire and ability to work is the most important condition to exist in a child for ending up with a good result. The ability for work is the first quality of the potential dancer. One needs good-looking legs, an appropriate body and so on, but the main thing one needs is the ability to work.

Of course the public is more interested in seeing the external appearance, but the desire to work is what is most important for the dancer to have inside.

You mentioned that the students from republics outside Russia were in separate classes. How did this work?
Each year we would start two Russian groups and a third ethnic group from a particular area of the Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, or Ossetia. It seems that one political purpose for this was to show friendship to all the nations in the Soviet Union. It was part of the Soviet policy.

In the last ten years or so, the St. Petersburg Vaganova school has ended this system. Now every republic has a theater in its main city, and they have a studio inside this theater. One or two very talented students are sent to St. Petersburg, but the bulk of the education for most students takes place in the individual nations.

We left behind the policy of ethnic educational groups both for political reasons -- it is racist to make divisions based on ethnicity -- and because of the appearance of local dance schools near the big theaters.

[Editor's Note: A Russian Vaganova student (1976-1984) remembers that everything was okay between groups. When the ethnic students would use their native languages to talk about the Russian kids, and the Russians didn’t understand the jokes, there were occasional difficulties. But this went both ways. Similarly, as the ethnic students were learning Russian, they spoke slowly and were made fun of once in a while. When all were fluent in the same language these frictions disappeared. Since everybody had to learn French from scratch, the Russian kids got a chance to see what it was like to learn a new language.]

In regard to ballet, I understand the students were highly competitive with each other.
It is good for a teacher when the students have this attitude. When each student has the attitude he or she wants to be the best, the individual desire for improvement is enhanced.

Farouk told me that because of this competition it was not a chore to work hard. The students inspired each other.
Yes, of course. At the end of eight years, every class was more or less strong depending on how good the best one or two students were. The best in the class set the standard for the rest of the class. A class that had no especially outstanding students was much duller overall. Two students of the same ability could end up with quite different results depending on the standard set in a particular class.

Did teachers favor some students over others?
A teacher may have seven students.

[Editor's note: An initial class of 20 or 25 would drastically thin out in the first years of school.]

In order to show their talent as teachers, teachers try to do the best for everybody. The teacher has the same basic attitude toward everyone. However, one student may put in more work and get better results. Special help from the teacher is not necessary.

Of course, it is basic human nature to be have a positive reaction toward students who are most receptive. And a teacher may give extra attention to a child with a famous parent, but the in the final result, if a child isn’t talented, nothing can help.

In the last years of school, ballet students are like athletes competing at the highest level. They hide minor injuries and use other tricks to gain a psychological edge. They commonly make personal sacrifices. They use every small advantage they have to get ahead.

What is the teacher’s influence in getting an opportunity for students to show their talent?
This is a difficult part of a teacher’s work. For example, if I see a big talent in my class, but the other teachers don’t see the talent, I need to find proof that will influence the other teachers. I need to convince the other teachers that this child will have a future. And if the others don’t believe in the talent of my student, they will not give my student the opportunity to dance.

A student with the ability to dance must also have the opportunity to show it. If the teacher doesn't get the opportunity for the student, no matter how talented the student, the student will be put on a lower level or track and will never reach full potential.

What factor is most important in making the transition from student to star performer with a major company?
There are very many factors that influence the career of the artist. It’s fate, it’s people’s help, it’s the lap of God, it’s talent, it’s politics, it’s everything. Nobody knows which is more important. And at any moment, some unexpected happening can stop everything.

Do students study anything besides dance in ballet school?
They learn to read and write, they get a music and art education, they study mathematics, history, piano, and so on. The students also put in a lot of extra study time outside of school.

The past 2 or 3 years piano has no longer been included in the regular studies. There are still courses, but they must be paid for separately. I think this is unfortunate.

[Editor's note: In addition to the 8 hour a day, 6 days a week spent in school, it was typical for a good student to spend 2 to 3 hours a night doing academic homework. Some of the students had private ballet lessons on Sundays in addition.]

What happens to ballet dancers when they retire? Are there any particular mental or emotional problems associated with the end of a ballet career?
It was very difficult for me. For five or six years it was some kind of perestroika or transformation of my whole organism. A friend who wanted to help me during this period asked me to go classes and exercise to help with this transformation. But I thought, how can I go to these classes. The others will want to work, and my presence will disturb them.

When you retire you're allowed to visit the classes. You work, but with restrictions. You try to make a smooth transition to a new life. You need to condition, slowly, your organism for a new life. You may need to visit every morning for 3 months. You need the pressure. You need the atmosphere. You have a 10, 20, or 30 year habit for strenuous, daily exercise. You need to feel the sweat on your body. You do what you can, but the fact remains that you have to stop dancing.

The very difficult moves you don’t do and you stop mid-exercise. The result is that you disturb the line. Some of the dancers don’t like this, and while they don’t say anything directly, they use every little opportunity to show you they are displeased and wish you would disappear and die in peace, away from them. This last part is why I didn’t go to the classes.

Plisetskaya, who keeps herself on the stage until now, past 70, is an extreme. Nearly everyone else needs to know their age limitation. But the mind plays tricks. At 20, you will dance to 30, at 30 until 40, at 40 you think you can hold on to 50, and if you make it to 50 maybe you can dance forever.

Some dancers look in the mirror and say, “If I work hard, I can keep it together for another five years....” Some dancers believe this, others say it with half a smile. Probably more of them believe it.

And there is a group with the most clever minds: They remember their image in the mirror of the day before as their image at their birth. They never get more than one day older. They dance until they drop on the stage. They get dragged off.

When you are totally concentrated on dance, you cannot estimate yourself well, but it is imperative to have in the back of your mind that retirement must come sometime.

The younger dancers are more interesting, are nicer to look at, and this always plays a factor as a career gets longer and longer. Plisetskaya has a high opinion of her position in the Russian ballet, and it is not possible for her to leave the stage.

I don’t know why someone takes the stage for the last time. Anyway, all our lives we give everything we have to be on that stage. But in the end, you can’t give more of yourself than you have.

After retirement, what do ballet dancers do?
Each has a different path. Some become teachers and choreographers. Some go into sports, like gymnastics or ice skating, and become choreographers there. Some just go broke and die alone in a small cheap apartment. It depends on how your life goes.

Clever ones use every contact and connection they have, no matter what business or endeavor it might be in, and they start a whole new life. If somebody invites you in, you can find a new path. However, sometimes nobody invites you for new work. Some dancers try to support themselves, to go it alone on their own and be accepted. But some just don’t make it. Isn’t this like all of life, like any affair?

Are there certain personality traits or a special temperament that are typical of dancers?
I think the power of ballet over a person has more influence than what is native in the person. Ballet takes much out of a person. It tramples dancers into submission. Understating the case: one expends much effort doing this business.

There is a different effect on men and woman. Men have an easier time of being single-minded and one-track, of pretending they are the master in a situation where they are really a slave. Women’s lives seem to be more complicated, with different issues in conflict. This is something that is difficult to explain, but it is obvious when lived.

Outsiders who make lofty theories about human nature and then judge the foibles of their fellows need to get some life experience for themselves. Maybe I don't make sense. People should just live their own lives and not someone else’s. Of course a society needs a code of values, but that's not what I'm talking about. And of course a ballerina with a demanding husband and children will have special problems. Sometimes dancers don’t have families for this reason.

Does a ballet dancer make a good mate?
Think about this example. You come back after the performance, and you are nervous, hyper, wide awake. You are married to an engineer who gets up at 6 a.m. to go to work. You arrive home at 3 a.m. Do I need to explain? Naturally, there are great difficulties. To make this scenario successful, one of you had better be very strong and resourceful.

What has been the happiest time of your career?
When I danced principal roles. I was happy then. Isn’t that why anyone endures the torture and pain of a ballet life? Now I enjoy cooking. It’s my passion today. Everyone needs a passion to live a meaningful life.

Back to Archives

Comments are welcomed at
jack@kirov.com

---

Copyright © 1996 Jack Walker. All rights reserved.

P.O. Box 1816, Hollywood, CA 91507, U.S.A.

e-mail: jack@kirov.com