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The Vaganova Method is a technique used to teach classical ballet that was invented by Agrippina Iakovlevna Vaganova.
Agrippina Iakovlevna Vaganova
(Soviet dancer and dance teacher, Saint-Petersburg, 1879 – Leningrad, 1951)First dancer at the Mariinski Theater in Saint-Petersburg, Agrippina Vaganova abandoned dancing to dedicate herself to teaching. A brilliant pedagogue, she trained most of the popular soviet dancers. Her teaching method combined the best of the ancient imperial style – the romantic esthetic and the Italian valor – with a more athletic movement. This approach became popular and was named after her: the Vaganova Method. It had the particularity of conceiving the movement of the body in its entirety rather than in isolated movements.
Director of the Kirov from 1931 to 1937, then of the school named after her, Agrippina Vaganova used her important position in both institutions to fight for the survival of classical ballet all of her life. She was also the writer of a book titled The Basic Principles of Classical Ballet (1931).