Imperial School Graduating Classes of 1914-1919

[Mme. Hermine]

And what years they were! I had this in a very old email and don't even remember why.

I can only read part of these names, though.

Anyone else care to contribute?

1914

Вронская (Янушкевич) Алиса-Юлия

Глинская (Гасперская) Мария-Евгения-Анна

Гопп Александра

Евгеньева Нина

Кундзина Владимир

Простаков Лав

1915

Вильтзак Анатолий

Гейденрейх Екатерина

Зайцева Зинаида

Кожухова Мария

Кусова Елена

Облакова Ольга

Рыжков Сергей

1916

Вилль Зента

Зуйков Константин

Иванова Валентина

Иванова Ксения

Лопухов Андрей

Морозов Анатолий

Петрушенко Александр

Ревская Валентина

Трояновская Таисия

1917

Алексеева Мария

Андреев Леонид

Басанина Лидия

Вошкарева Милица

Вадимова Групильон Дора

Кирхгейм Борис

Комарова Татьяна

Меркулова Нина

Облакова Лидия

Панфилова Александра

Прокофьев Евгений

Рождественский Николай

Рыхлякова Мария

Седов Константин

Тюнтина Лидия

Чупрова Зинаида

1918

Бараш Татьяна

Войтович Елена

Горева Клавдия

Евграфова Мария

Кобелев Николай

Кривалев Василий

Петров Леонид

Петрова Елизавета

Рива Нина

Томсон Владимир

Ушаков Виктор

Шавров Бори

1919

Беляева Татьяна

Бочарова Ольга

Вайнонен Василий

Григорьева Екатерина

Иванова Зинаида

Иванова Тамара

Каукаль Мария

Киреев Иван

Лисовская Наталья

Малый Мария

Павлова Лидия

Пангина Лидия

[Andrei]

I can tell about some of the names above.

1915 - Anatoly Viltzak and Ekaterina Geidenreih. They became soloists and later on teachers in Vaganova school.

1916 - Andrei Lopuhov, who is the younger brother of Feodor Lopuhov, the choreographer.

1917 - Lidia Tyuntina, soloist and later a teacher and a coach of little children for Mariinsky's productions.

1918 - Boris Shavrov, very good classical soloist, who was famous for his duet with Elena Lyukom. The teacher of Yuri Soloviev.

1919 - Vassily Vainonen - choreographer of "Flames of Paris" and "Nutcracker".

[Mme. Hermine]

Although they hadn't graduated yet, this being the period during which people like Balanchine and Danilova were in the school, correct?

Was there a period after the Revolution or during when the school had no graduates, or did it ever cease operations even for a short while? Andrei?

[rg]

Lydia Tiuntina was also a member of Georgi Balachivadze's YOUNG BALLET - see cat. entry no. 16 in CHOREOGARPHY BY BALANCHINE for the appearance of her name.

i have a few photo cards of her.

others will know more authoritatively but i don't think there was a pause in graduating dancers from the petrograd school, tho' conditions certainly worsened in these trying times, but i may be wrong.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Lydia Tiuntina was also a member of Georgi Balachivadze's YOUNG BALLET

I just love to read or hear of Balanchivadze being addressed by his real name...But back to the Imperial School topic...

[Andrei]

The school never was closed. It was renamed in 1921 as Petrograd State Choreographic College, the same year when Balanchivadze and Danilova graduated and Vaganova became Artistic Director of the school.

[Mashinka]

Wasn't Elena Voitovitch one of the young Nureyev's teachers in Ufa?

I'm intrigued by the name Vladimir Thomson, clearly a young man of mixed parentage; I wonder what became of him.

Geidenreich, married at one time to Leonid Lavrovsky was sentenced to the Gulags during WW2, though she managed to survive and later taught ballet in Perm. Actually I know she wasn't the only one to fall foul of Stalin's purges and I often wonder about the ballet dancers that Evgenia Ginzburg encountered in the prison camps and writes about in her book 'Into the Whirlwind'.

[Mel Johnson]

It's especially interesting to see Vasily Vainonen in there in 1919! He certainly moved up fast! But was Vilzak's tenure at the Maryinsky kind of short? He went west and married Ludmilla Schollar and taught at the School of American Ballet and his own school in Steinway Hall in NYC.

[Andrei]

Vladimir Thomson danced all his life in Mariinsky, after retirement worked in the office, given salary to dancers.

[Mme. Hermine]

It's especially interesting to see Vasily Vainonen in there in 1919! He certainly moved up fast! But was Vilzak's tenure at the Maryinsky kind of short? He went west and married Ludmilla Schollar and taught at the School of American Ballet and his own school in Steinway Hall in NYC.

and then for a long time at san francisco ballet!

[Natalia]

From notes in my own catalogue on the graduation classes:

1915 - Geidenreich - grad from class of Claudia Kulichevskaya. Principal at Mariinsky/Kirov '15-'35 best known for Gamzatti, Lilac Fairy & Tsar-Maiden in Humpbacked Horse. Imprissoned by KGB in 1935. Later, one of the original teachers of the Perm Ballet Academy. Techer-repetitor for many years at the Leningrad Maly Th.

1915 - Vilzak - grad. fm class of Leonid Leontiev & Mikhail Fokine. Artist of Marrinski through 1921, dancing most male leading roles, e.g., Desire, Jean, Conrad. Moved to the west with wife, Lyudmilla Schollar and became great teachers.

1916 - A. Lopukhov - class of Samuel Andrianov & A. Shiryaev. Character principal at Mariinsky/Kirov through 1945. Was the first Nur-Ali in Bakh Fontan.

1917 - Tyutina - class of Kulichevskaya; then 1938, grad from pedagogical school, class of Vaganova. Artist of Marrinsky/Kirov through 1947. Best known as teacher, her famous students included Fedicheva, Bolshakova & Evteeva.

1918 - L. Petrov - class of Leontiev (must have been most popular male teacher of the era!) - artist of Marrinsky/Kirov through 1937. A noted Bluebird in SB.

1919 - Vainonen - class of Leontiev & Shiryaev. Artist of MT through 1938. As pointed out by others, a celebrated choreographer, whose works include The Flames of Paris and THE 'standard' version of Nutcracker in the territory of the former USSR.

Balanchine, Danilova & Ivanova graduated in 1921. Balanchine's teachers were P. Gerdt, Leontiev & Andrianov; Danilova & Ivanova's grad class was taught by Olga Preobrazhenskaya.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!!!

[chiapuris]

He went west and married Ludmilla Schollar and taught at the School of American Ballet and his own school in Steinway Hall in NYC.

Vilzak also taught (after the closing of the Vilzak-Schollar School on 57th) at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo School, on W 54th St., through the era of the fifties and early sixties- until that school closed.

Besides technique classes he taught variations and pas de deux. Wonderful classes.

[rg]

Schollar and Viltzak as Columbine and Harlequin in an undated photo card from a Petrograd production of CARNAVAL

[Mel Johnson]

Great picture, rg! Vilzak also taught at the old Ballet Theatre School, giving him a record of having taught at all three major institutional schools in NYC.

[rg]

this fotocard from petrograd w/ its handwritten captioning in the negative nearly impossible to read is said to show Lydia Mikhailovna Tiuntina. i can't say for certain if this is correct.

in any case, a possible face to one of the names given above.

[Andrei]

Of course, it's difficult to compare 18 years old with 60 years old ( the time when I saw Tiuntina the first time in my life), but I have a lot of doubts that she is on this picture.