What do you think?
Rate this book
The English Girl in Leningrad.: Four years at the Vaganova Ballet Academy
The English Girl in Leningrad
In 1957, at the height of the Cold War, Anna Wooster, a seventeen-year-old English girl, realises her dream to study at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad, now St Petersburg. She describes life in the ballet school and hostel, the dance lessons, rehearsals, concerts and thrilling performances at the Kirov Theatre. She is undeterred by the austere living conditions, rigorous teachers, and a demanding school curriculum undertaken entirely in Russian. Anna establishes a profound relationship with her ballet teacher O.G. Iordan, to whom these memoirs are dedicated. At school she assimilates the ethical ideals and animating principles of the Academy but these cannot conceal entirely the dread of despotism in the country at large.
This is a rare eye-witness account of an English girl’s experience of the world’s most famous ballet school seen from the inside.
In 1957, at the height of the Cold War, Anna Wooster, a seventeen-year-old English girl, realises her dream to study at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in Leningrad, now St Petersburg. She describes life in the ballet school and hostel, the dance lessons, rehearsals, concerts and thrilling performances at the Kirov Theatre. She is undeterred by the austere living conditions, rigorous teachers, and a demanding school curriculum undertaken entirely in Russian. Anna establishes a profound relationship with her ballet teacher O.G. Iordan, to whom these memoirs are dedicated. At school she assimilates the ethical ideals and animating principles of the Academy but these cannot conceal entirely the dread of despotism in the country at large.
This is a rare eye-witness account of an English girl’s experience of the world’s most famous ballet school seen from the inside.
367 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 29, 2022
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 11, 2026
Memoir Hot and Cold
This reader is interested in ballet history and the perspective from artists in this world. Anna Wooster’s experiences in a Russian ballet school ran hot and cold for me. I found her difficulties in navigating the Russian protocols for a foreigner during the Cold War of the late 50s and early 60s on point to what I imagined. Her description of the White Nights along the Neva River in St Petersburg was fascinating. Her interactions with Russian friends and mentors gave substance to her life there. However, I did get bogged down with the detail ballet terms. I looked up how to do some of the steps in google but eventually skimmed by these sections.
This reader is interested in ballet history and the perspective from artists in this world. Anna Wooster’s experiences in a Russian ballet school ran hot and cold for me. I found her difficulties in navigating the Russian protocols for a foreigner during the Cold War of the late 50s and early 60s on point to what I imagined. Her description of the White Nights along the Neva River in St Petersburg was fascinating. Her interactions with Russian friends and mentors gave substance to her life there. However, I did get bogged down with the detail ballet terms. I looked up how to do some of the steps in google but eventually skimmed by these sections.
Displaying 1 of 1 review