Accademia Nazionale di Danza

Wanted by Jia Ruskaja, the Academy was founded in 1940 under the name of Regia School of Dance, admitted to the National Academy of Dramatic Art. With the Legislative Decree of 1948, the National School of Dance gained teaching and administrative autonomy. The course of studies, for which Ruskaja has been inspired by various Italian and European educational contexts, is articulated in eight years and is followed by a three-year course of improvement (Launch of Dance, founded in 1951). Progressively several theoretical subjects are introduced; In addition, the training experience is enhanced thanks to the many internationally renowned guests: Sakharoff, Lichin, Jooss, Massine, Kniaseff, Cullberg, Cébron ... Determinant for the school is the transfer in 1951 to the Castello dei Cesari, The Directorate went on to Giuliana Penzi in 1970, which gave new impulses to the coreutic studies, both on the technical and the theoretical side, inter alia by setting up the first male classes in 1973. Therefore, the courses are reorganized and the teaching of Modern Dance Technique is introduced; Also the experimental high school is born. Penzi also restores the "Stable Group", which was founded by Ruskaja, and thanks to which the best students have the opportunity to be seen in public and criticism. In the 1980s, the collaboration with Zarko Prebil, a dancer formed at Moscow's Gitis, led to the systematic study of Russian technique and the staging of extracts from the most important ballets of the Russian repertory of the nineteenth century.