Book-album ‘Choreography’ by Vladimir Stepanov in the Formation of Classical Dance Method in Russia

Abstract

The article focuses on the unveiling of Vladimir Stepanov’s “Choreography”, which is preserved in the Cabinet of History of Russian Ballet, named after M. Frangopulo at the Vaganova Ballet Academy. However, this book has not been previously discussed in scholarly literature and memoiristics. It serves as a manual and photographic guide to Stepanov’s dance notation. The research revealed that at the age of 15, while he was still a student at the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, he began assisting in the rehearsal process, which was the starting point in developing his dance notation. It hypothesizes that Jean-Martin Charcot and his photographic method of recording movements influenced Stepanov’s “Choreography”. Through biographical and historical analysis, the article attempts to establish the date of its creation. During the research, the biography of E. A. Kuzmina, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, posing in the photographs of the book-album, was reconstructed. The illustrations in “Choreography” also provide valuable supplementary material for interpreting V. Stepanov’s 1895 classical dance curriculum, as demonstrated through a stylistic analysis of the seven arm positions and arabesques that reveal the distinct characteristics of the late 19th-century classical dance aesthetics. The pictures presented in “Choreography” are of particular value, forming a unique systematized illustrated classical dance manual.