Traditions still reign at ballet school

Of poise and beauty: Students practising in a hallway before the start of a class at the academy, known for training some of the best ballerinas in the world. — AFP

IN a vast, light-filled room, a dozen girls in identical lavender leotards, hair in tight chignons, all strike an arabesque pose and share the same dream: to be part of Russia’s legendary Bolshoi Ballet.

Others chatter, legs impossibly splayed in full splits, in the building’s endless corridors. Welcome to the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, churning out talent for one of the world’s leading dance companies.