Kirov Academy of Ballet

The Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, D.C. is a ballet school that serves students in grades 7 through 12 and offers a high school diploma in addition to its dance instruction. It was founded to train dancers in a pedagogy based on that of the Vaganova Ballet Academy and the performance aesthetic of The Kirov Ballet (now the Mariinsky). It was founded in 1990 under its original name, The Universal Ballet Academy, due to its affiliation with The Universal Ballet in Seoul, South Korea. The name was changed to Kirov when Oleg Vinogradov (former director of the Mariinsky Theatre became the artistic director. The name was changed back to The Universal Ballet Academy, and in September 2006 the name again became The Kirov Academy of...