IN GOOD FORM

Even though she was the first partner of both, Ninel Kurgapkina cannot teach Nureyev’s magnetism nor Baryshnikov’s grace. But she can teach the foundation of their forms. So, the principal ballet mistress of the Kirov (now Maryinsky) Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, came to the Ballet Ecarte studio in Culver City and taught the Kirov Vaganova method to 80 students.

The revered technique differs from those taught in the West by emphasizing the distribution of weight over the entire body. Nadezhda Kalmanovskaya, Ecarte’s co-founder who invited her longtime friend to teach, attributes her 28 years of injury-free dancing to Kirov training. And, Kalmanovskaya says, Kurgapkina is also teaching her legacy, adding: “I’m a firm believer that you’ve got to pass on religiously what you’ve learned.”