The sun., 1916-10-15
PAvLOwA TALKS OF BALLET.
II II . subj~ct she IL Supposed -
Understan nd.

pae million rubles or approximately
5000 600 is the price Russia pays every
year To- maintain her ballet %organiza-
ton. which gives to the world the
most artistic dancers and dancing ever
known, among them Anna ravlowa.
This huge sum Is carried In the an
n,al Government budget. for the ballet
in Russia is a Government institution
n Is provided for In the came man.
ner as the army. navy or any other
department Of Government
In the beginning the Russian ballet
was largely Italian. In fact, all the
ballet masters were foreign. coming
mainly from Italy. while most of the
balierinos and premieres danseuses
came from there and other foreign
countries. The lesser members OF the
ballet troupcs were, however. Russian.
The training that these troupcs got
under their foreign masters has borne
fruit, for from those visitors were de-
veloped the trainers and they have
trained only Russians, Up to 1860 the
foreign stars were paramount. This
was the period of the immortal Ia
glioni and Fanny El,sler. both of whom
Were r~apturously received by the Rus
sians. but since TaGlioni the Russian
billerinos have gradually very sue
c"ssfully supplanted all other foreign
crs In popular favor.
Training a dancer is "A long and So
we're process. according to Mime
Paviowa. Children enter whe They
are eight or ten years of age m they
remain there from seven Ia ten YEAR.
Once each year 100 boys and girls pre-
sent themselves at the ballet depart
ment of the Imperial Theatre school
in Petrograd. The youngsters are
given a most carful physical eNami-
nation and those who are not physi-
cally III are quickly eliminated. Then
the remainder are examined 10y a COM
mission of dancers and ballet masters.
The children are made to walk. run.
dance and do various exercises
which will give some hint of their
grace. Finally the entire 40 applicants
are cut down TO twenty. and these
are put on trial IN the school for "A
year. Al the end of the year another
examination is held and eight Of the
children who show the least promise are
eliminated. There are usually sixteen
never more than cightccn-Vacan-
cies in the ballet to he iil,cd, So the ap-
plicants for these positions must be
the very best and must have almost
perfect averages IN dancing and men
tai attachments as we'll.
Forty-eight girls and thirty-four
boys board at the imperial school.
Twenty-Five other girls and twenty
boys live at home with their parents.
All receive the same instruction. The
boys are taught In ono class and the
girls in another.
The life Of the pupils Is absolutely
regular. They arise exactly at 3
o'clock every morning. go through a
set Of exercises to put them in good
condition. then take shower baths and
then have a simple breakfast. At mid
day the entire school goes for a long
walk. The mornings are devoted to
physical training and dancing. the
afternoons to the study OF languages.
geography, arithmetic. drawing and
history and other elementary branches.
Finally the pupils arc taught the art
OF makeup" fencing. mining. and. in
fact. all hat goes toward making u
ballet dancer.
In addition to learning ballet dane
ing and the Russian folk danccs stu
dents of the imperial school must learn
the dances of every other nation ana
people. That's the reason a Russian
can interpret a Spanish dance or u
South American tango as easily and rs
well-possibly better-than the natives
Of those countries. A Russian pre-
miere danseuse could easily take the
honors In a prize waltz contest, and
the waltz is not generally known In
Russia.
The production OF an entirely new
ballet costs from nifty thousand Il
: seyenty-tive thousand ruhlcs, or ap-
p~roXimately twenty-five Thousand L.
forty thousand dollars. ~l'Sually tw,
new ballets are produced 'acli year
/, Contrast this with the ballet whici
Nine. iaNlowa has produced at IA,
IIippodronIe. and which lasts but
twenty-five minutes. The cost of this
: production, with its Bakst investiture
: was $72 900. This fact alone gives q
; comprehensive estimate Of the differ
ence between producing here and II
, IRuBnin.