Vladimir Issaev, Choreographer and Ballet Master proudly presents this second DVD of The Vaganova Ballet Academy, featuring an authentic Character Class at the prestigious Vaganova Ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

This graduation character class is conducted by former soloist of the Kirov Ballet Mme. Yelena Sherstnieva.

Ms. Sherstnieva says:

The Character dance will exist as long as the Classical Ballet will exist.

In a character class we are not only learning Mazurkas, Russian dances or Middle Eastern dances but we are also learning freedom of movement and developing coordination of movements in dance.

Classical ballet is a very strict type of dance, in character dance there is more freedom of movement, depending of course in the nationality that it represents.

Many times in a classical ballet performance, some movements seem not to belong to classical ballet, those are Character movements. We often see positions of the legs en dedans or even a twisted foot which is perfectly allowed in character dance or movements en dedans that end en dehors.