Digital Ballet: Bolshoi Brazil Offering Open Classes to the World

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – One of the most disputed ballet schools in the world, the Bolshoi, with its only branch outside Russia in Brazil, has introduced online classes. Every year, thousands of candidates try to join the school. Now, the whole world can follow the classes, which were opened on Instagram.

Because of the worldwide pandemic, the Bolshoi school, located in Joinville, Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, has opened the classes that have been accessed by hundreds of thousands of eager fans of classical ballet.

In-person classes are suspended, with no deadline to return, following the Santa Catarina State Government guidelines due to the coronavirus. “Therefore, we are working to offer our students content and maintenance classes. The teachers are preparing materials and activities for the theoretical classes, which are provided through a digital platform,” said the school in a public statement.

In addition, the school has recorded videos with class-specific classical dance lessons. The intention is “to aim at the technical and physical maintenance of the student dancers, considering their health and the space available for them to take the classes at home”.

“All of this is being monitored by the artistic, educational, health and communication groups, which aim to provide better conditions and continue to provide quality teaching to students,” says a release released by the Bolshoi.

Experience in the renowned school

Brazilian teacher Eta Spadari is at the head of the Bolshoi professional ballet corps, the ‘Companhia Jovem’ (Youth Company), and has been involved in online classes. According to her, the experience has been rewarding, although “I can’t grab the students’ feet,” she said in an exclusive interview with The Rio Times.

Spadari is excited and grateful to work at the Bolshoi. “It’s a privilege to be working in these rooms, in this structure, with dancers who really want to be professionals working seriously, taking our art as a profession,” she says.

The teacher also points out that the teachers have study groups to keep themselves updated. “And it’s the best thing in life, working here, no doubt”, she says excitedly.

However, traditional ballet is marked by intense training, exhaustive and long classes. The Bolshoi professional ballet corps typically has classes and rehearsals every day. But now the “model”, had to be changed.

“Regarding the online classes, for me it was a challenge, because between the computer aspect and the fact where you’re away from the dancer it’s difficult, because you want to get there, you want to correct them. It only keeps you from getting to the dancer and correct them, fixing the en dehors,” she says, referring to the French term that means “outwards”. In other words, it works the rotation of ballet steps outward or inward. The “en dehor” is one of the basics of ballet.

Spadari points out that online classes open up the opportunity for anyone interested to follow them from around the world. “It has provided them with several classes, with professionals, dancers, from all over the world, I think that’s the positive side of this situation we are in today”.

Ballerina wants to star on stage in Russia

One of the Bolshoi Brazil’s leading dancers, young Laura Vasconcelos, says the experience with online classes has been “different”. The main reason is the absence of audience in open rehearsals. “As a ballerina I grew up for the stage, I grew up for the audience, for the now, for ‘live’. And with this new experience I get my feedback from the audience, but in the comments”.

Laura points out that despite digitally, it is rewarding to “take the art to the audience”. “We have to make it inspiring, as much as the other reality, the reality of the scene, of the stage”.

Asked about her dreams, Laura Vasconcelos is straightforward when she says she intends to dance on Russian stages. “I’ll keep trying. Taking art to all those who embrace this idea, because art is there for us to build something, no matter the situation. And my dream is to work in Russia, as a ballerina. My dream is to honor my school and what I have learned here. And I hope that one day everything will happen the way it’s supposed to”.