Lyudmila Kovaleva’s ballet class (2016 video)

Marking the anniversary of Lyudmila Kovaleva, we are happy to share with you this archive video of 2016 Ballet critic Olga Makarova: On the stage, Lyudmila Valentinovna Kovaleva appeared as Princess Florine, the Queen of the Dryads, Myrtha and Syuimbike, and in the famous Pas de Quatre she dazzled with elegance and ease as Lucile Grahn. Having ended her stage career at the Kirov Theatre, she moved into teaching and for over forty years has taught at the Vaganova Ballet Academy, with each year’s graduating class launching the stage careers of brilliant new dancers. As she once gifted the young Aurora tenderness and playfulness as the Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, so now in her class does Lyudmila Kovaleva give her students the most important qualities needed for the profession – classical training, the freedom to exist in varied and differing plastique styles and, most importantly, through her dedication to art and her belief in her students she inspires them to love their work. Kovaleva’s students today appear with the world’s greatest ballet companies. Many of them, having long since graduated from school and gone on to win international renown and star status, continue to come to Lyudmila Kovaleva for advice. Diana Vishneva was the first whose success made people speak of Kovaleva’s staggering talent as a teacher. The graduates of her class regularly emerge to become such brightly shining stars as Ekaterina Borchenko, Olga Esina, Olga Smirnova, Kristina Shapran, Anastasia Lukina and Maria Khoreva.