Vaganova, Agrippina (Yakovlevna)

(born July 6, 1879, St. Petersburg, Russia—died Nov. 5, 1951, Leningrad) Russian ballet dancer and teacher. In 1897 she joined the Mariinsky Theatre company, where she worked until 1917. She began teaching at the Leningrad Choreographic (formerly Imperial Ballet) school in 1921 and became its director in 1934. Her system of ballet instruction combined classic technique with the athletic, acrobatic post-Revolution style. She wrote the widely used textbook (1934).

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