New academy brings Bolshoi system to Australian dance

Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet will open its first dance academy outside of Russia in Melbourne, Australia, next year.

The academy, to open in February, will train about 30 Australian dancers the first year, then open to international applications the second year.

The Bolshoi, which produced dancers such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Maya Plisetskaya and Rudolf Nureyev, is known for its outstanding training system.

"The Bolshoi training, the true and pure Russian training, develops musicality, artistry, and it does not create injury, which is a marvellous benefit," said Susan Thomson, a former dancer who trained at the Kirov Academy.

Thomson has been chosen as director and principal of the Australasian Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Melbourne.

"The training is slow and careful — the body is worked on as an instrument," she said.

"Many dancers in Australia are finished at 22 to 24. Bolshoi dancers can go on, most go on until they're 40, and the leading dancers go on until they are often 50-52."

The idea of a Bolshoi academy in Australia emerged out of a trip the Russian ballet corps made to Australia in 1994.

Promoter Graham Hutchison, prima ballerina Marina Semyonova and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich began a series of discussions, but it took 15 years to finalize a licensing deal.

Thomson said the school will produce new world-class dancers, as well as attracting some talent back to Australia.

"It will provide training for students who are otherwise travelling overseas to get this type of training," she said.

Australia has always had a great deal of dance talent, she said, but dancers who go overseas to train are often scooped up by European ballet corps and don't return.

Australia's international standing in the ballet world will be raised as a result of the Bolshoi training, Thomson said.