Talking With Dmitri Roudnev Former Soloist with the Bolshoi Ballet
I first encounter Dmitri's website while searching online for ballet music. As I peruse the photographs and read his insights, I find myself drawn to his methods and theories. I pick up the phone and call the number. After leaving a message on his voicemail, I decide to go back online and order two more of his CDs. Within a few hours, I receive a call back from him. I always take note of people who return their calls quickly. It's so much easier to work with artists when you know they are reliable and dependable. Time is not wasted. I arrange an e-mail interview with Dmitri. Below are the findings.
SL: The photos on your website show the remarkable improvement of your students in a short time with the Vaganova method. All of these problems (in the before photos,) are things I see myself as a teacher when students are taught too much too soon. Many schools teach young children very difficult steps before they have the proper foundation. Do you have any comments?
DR: Note: Training you saw on the site was Vaganova and my own training techniques. Agrippina Vaganova was a brilliant teacher. She incorporated all the best of the French and Italian training. But her real brilliance, I believe, was in her use of tempo to train...building gradually from simple to more complicated combinations. I use the best of Vaganova, and have added my own training techniques to get the kind of results you see on my website. I also had to change (somewhat) the very beginning lessons in Vaganova to make it more fun for the American kids. I started out very slowly with them. I showed them how to use the muscles in the legs to just stand correctly, and how to hold the arms in a beautiful position. I also teach turn-out very carefully. I ask the students to simply hold their leg straight to the side without too much worry of turn-out. It may not look so picture perfect on many girls at first, but you must have patience. By not worrying too much about turn-out the child can work on strength. Once my students developed the strength I let them start to turn the leg out more. Be careful not to let your students show the underside of the foot too much. The beauty of the line is in the nicely arched foot and leg line. When they were ready, I also let them take the leg up higher. After a year's time, I ended up with many students with their leg up by their ear in a la seconde.
I feel we need to wipe out the idea that being a ballet dancer and a ballet teacher is the same. It isn't, it's an entirely different profession. Many wonderful dancers become teachers before they have a chance to go train in a good teaching methodology. It is important to know how to build up the strength in the child before moving on to more difficult steps. Otherwise the technique and upper body will look sloppy, and you will almost always cause injury. I am proud to say, in my seven years at my Chicago school teaching seven to eighteen year olds, I never had a dancer get a new injury. Some even recuperated from their previously brought injuries.
SL: I find this interesting as I have been teaching my own students Vaganova, by the book. I follow exactly the classes as listed in "100 Lessons in Classical Ballet," by Vera S. Kostrovitskaya, and the results have been tremendous, particularly in the younger students...as they are learning the method from the very beginning. The main difference I see in them is their turn out looks easy and natural. I have experimented with teaching my Adult Beginning students the same lessons, and they too, have all become very turned out, without strain or effort. By learning this material with them, I, too, am seeing my hips opening... my back is lengthening and elongating, and my sacrum is shifting so that my pelvis is becoming flatter. It feels like I'm being rolfed or adjusted. (This cracking goes on for hours after the class...even while I'm sleeping.) I now believe that you can develop flat turn out, if you are willing to put in the time and work. Your bones literally move...they make space and separate. Because the female pelvis floats, it is capable of great transformation. The fascia in my lower back has started to release in areas where it was previously glued in a tight, shortened position.
SL: At what age do you teach leg stretch on the barre?
DR: In the Vaganova system of training, they do not do stretches on the barre until about the 5th level, age 13 or 14. I believe that stretching before a class or over stretching at a young age will diminish a child's chances of becoming a great dancer. As a child at the Bolshoi Academy I would sometimes "sneak" to stretch myself for better turn out or higher extension. I know now that this was a mistake. It actually worked against me by lessening my strength to hold the leg up high. Furthermore, the kind of stretches I did, (and that most dancers do to increase turn out,) do not increase turn out in the correct way. Building muscle strength is the correct way to learn to hold the leg high. Finding the correct turn-out muscles to use is the way to have a nice turn out. Furthermore, if you work on lines instead of turn out you will not be as obsessed with yourself and the need to have the perfect turn out.
SL: What about the Stretch Class? For me this has been the key to training under the Vaganova system with an adult Western body. It also has created tremendous and rapid improvement in my students. Do you incorporate this into your training and if so, how many times per week?
DR: Yes, I have a Ballet Stretch class for children and adults... but it focuses more on the strength to build stretch. I do not force any stretching. That is, I do not allow partner stretching, or use of gravity, or use of ones own body, machinery, or bands to stretch. I only allow the dancer to use the internal strength of her muscles, only as much as she can hold it herself to increase extension and proper use of turn out. On occasion, I have had dancers go from 45 degrees to up by the ear in two months by using this way of stretching and training. Others take longer to accomplish these heights. I have met many dancers who stretched intensely every day of their dance lives. They could do the splits, but could never get that leg up in a high developpé. And worse, they never achieved the gracefulness of a true ballerina. The real description of a ballerina is summed up in four words: "Light on her feet." Strength to build stretch is the key ingredient for ballet training.
SL: Do you have any other advice for teachers? I have also found that many dancers now look "over" turned out. For example when holding the leg to the side, many dancers are presenting the bottom of the foot forward to the audience. It is better to show off that lovely arched foot and the lovely line of the leg. Over turning out in a side extension is dangerous and I believe leads to so many of dancers' hip injuries that we hear of today. Dancers are actually twisting the leg to get it turned out, which in turn twists the hip, and pushes the pelvis too far forward. Pushing the pelvis forward so far forward is not such a pretty look either. The beauty of the ballerina is not judged by who has the most turn out or super flexibility. The beauty of the ballerina is in how graceful she is.
I was initially taught to rotate the leg to the side as much as possible, especially in the 90 degree position. It's definitely a different piece of the hip that's working when you highlight the arch. I see, too, that it helps greatly in gaining height on grande ronde de jambe. It lightens the feeling of the leg, so that the hip joint feels oiled. The leg is able to glide smoothly and easily, without that "up and over the hump feeling." Once again, I feel astonished when I apply the "Russian secrets." I remember something Rosemary Valaire said to me once when we were watching the Olympic ice skaters on television. The final couple came out, and they were magnificent. The other skaters couldn't touch them. "Ah, the Russians..." she said, her voice trailing off. She smiled a small, knowing smile, shaking her head...then added, "The Russians are always miles ahead of everyone else."
To order Roudnev Class Music Call
1-773-404-0417 or visit:
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