Biography of Inna Spiridonova
A soloist of Crown of Russian Ballet, Inna Spiridonova is a 1996 graduate of Rudolf Nureyev's Ufa Choreographic School. From 1998 to 1999, she participated in a tour choreographed by Grigorovich of the Bolshoi Theater promoted by Columbia.
She is a fourth year graduate student at the pedagogy facility at Russia's renowned National Academy of Theatrical Arts — GITIS Moscow, which was founded in 1878 by theater pioneers Konstantin Stanislavsky and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko. GITIS' ballet department was founded in 1946 under A. Gorsky, R. Zakharov and Leonid Lavaovsky of the Bolshoi Ballet with equal state funding to the Bolshoi. Formed as a training ground for choreographers and directors, it continues its mission to preserve the heritage of Russian classical ballet.
Inna Spiridonova is looking forward to a rewarding cultural exchange when she travels to the United States as a children's ballet mistress for the 2003 season.
"I consider my trip to be an exchange between two cultures," she says. "Russian culture with its grand ballet tradition, and American culture with its developing traditions. I'm looking forward to this trip being very interesting and inspiring."
A soloist of Crown of Russian Ballet and a member of the Corps de Ballet of Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker, Inna Spiridonova was born December 24, 1976.
She was inspired to become a ballerina by the beauty of the ballet Swan Lake, which her mother took her to see when she was a child.
"I was always impressed by ballet; its beauty," she says. "I think it was Swan Lake that inspired me because of its music. It's really hard to explain the reasons that you are inspired as a child, but I think that was the one that touched me."
Inns went on to devote herself to a career in ballet. She is a 1996 graduate of Rudolf Nureyev's Ufa Choreographic School. From 1998 to 1999, she participated in a tour choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich of the Bolshoi Theater promoted by Columbia. A fourth year graduate student at the pedagogy facility at Russia's renowned National Academy of Theatrical Arts- GITIS — Moscow, she was awarded the 3rd prize at the International Ballet Contest in Shezin, Poland.
Inna shares credit for her success with her teachers and mentors: "Working with a teacher, you are one unified energy. Your work is also the work of your ballet teacher."
For this reason, she is especially pleased to have the opportunity to teach American children this summer and fall. She will work with children in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.
"I would advise aspiring dancers that if they're impressed by the beautiful movement of ballet, and if they want to create this, they have to work very hard. They have to rehearse every day, and train every day. You can never be satisfied if you want to reach your goal or you lose what it is to be a ballerina."
For this ballerina, all of the hard work, and the hours of training are well worth it when she has the opportunity to share with an audience.
"The greatest feeling for a ballerina is when you come to the stage and the audience appreciates your performance. That is the best feeling."
Inna hopes that in the short time she spends with her American students she will be able to express both the joy and the hard work of a professional ballet career, and create the kind of "unified energy" she has shared with her own teachers.
"It's very interesting for me, and hopefully for them," she says. "This reciprocal sense of interest can greatly inspire us in the creation of something beautiful and exciting."