Apogee Honors the Traditions of the Perm Ballet School with Twelve Excellence Awards for Gifted Students, Graduates and Faculty
May 30, 2006
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Apogee Honors the Traditions of the Perm Ballet School with Twelve Excellence Awards for Gifted Students, Graduates and Faculty
The Apogee Foundation today announced that it had granted its Achievement Award to Ninel Silvanovich, one of Russia’s most revered ballet instructors, and in her honor also awarded the top students in Ms. Silvanovich’s graduating class with special editions of the Foundation’s Rising Star Award. This brings the number of Excellence Awards provided by Apogee to Perm’s students, graduates and faculty during the 2005/2006 academic year to a total of twelve.
New York May 30, 2006 -– The Apogee Foundation is providing three Excellence Awards to Ninel Danilovna Silvanovich and the top two students in her graduating class at the Perm State Ballet School. Ms. Silvanovich’s historic teaching career at the Perm School spans more than 50 years, in the course of which she has incorporated and passed on the greatest traditions of ballet’s “Russian School.”
Ms. Silvanovich received her own training in St. Petersburg under some of the most celebrated instructors in history, including Agrappina Vaganova, who is credited with the invention of the “Russian School.” She subsequently began her own teaching career under the direction of the Perm School’s founder, Ekaterina Geidenreikh. During the ensuing half century, Ms. Silvanovich has preserved and passed on the greatness of these traditions to hundreds of students and instructors in Perm and throughout Russia.
Apogee’s Achievement Award is designated for instructors and directors who have consistently realized the potential of elite performing artists throughout the course of their life work. The special edition of the Foundation’s Achievement Award provided to Ms. Silvanovich is titled the “Geidenreikh Honorarium for Excellence in Education,” in recognition and in honor of the Perm’s School’s historic traditions.
In further recognition of Ms. Silvanovich’s lifetime of achievement, the Foundation simultaneously provided its Rising Star Award to Ms. Silvanovich’s top two graduating students in Perm’s Class of 2006: Marina Shirinkina and Anna Scherbakova. Apogee’s Rising Star Award is designated for world class artists reaching the apogee of human excellence at an early stage in their professional careers. Shortly after being selected for these awards, Ms. Shirinkina was engaged to perform with the Marinsky (Kirov) Ballet in St. Petersburg for the coming season, while Ms. Scherbakova received offers from the major ballet companies in Moscow, Perm, Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Minsk.
Both Ms. Shirinkina and Ms. Scherbakova were recipients of Apogee Merit Scholarships from the earliest years of their training in Perm. Their ongoing success again demonstrates the aim and the ability of the Foundation to identify gifted artists at the early stages of their careers and to successfully foster their development.
These awards bring the number of Excellence Awards provided at the Perm State Ballet School for the 2005/2006 academic year to a total of eight student scholarships, two artist grants, and two faculty awards. The total number of such awards provided by the Foundation to laureates of the Perm School since 1999 now totals over 50 student scholarships, 6 artist grants, and 10 faculty awards. Each of these awards includes an element of financial assistance as well as ongoing career support.
Ludmila Shevchenko, Director of the Perm State Ballet School, said: “Our long term partnership with Ken Schneider and the Apogee Foundation has greatly benefited our students, graduates and faculty. We welcome this partnership not only for what it means to our most talented participants while training within the walls of our School, but also for the difference it makes in their lives and careers on the world stage.”
Apogee President Kenneth Schneider said: “The Perm Ballet School is one of the crown jewels of the Russian performing arts world, and we are proud to have formed such a productive partnership with its administration and faculty for such a long period of time. It is a great privilege for us to be associated with such good and talented people, and to be able to recognize and assist them in carrying on and furthering the Perm School’s great traditions.”
For more information on other Excellence Award laureates recognized by the Foundation during Perm’s 2005/2006 academic year, please refer to the Foundation’s earlier press release: http://www.apogeefoundation.org/awareness/press/pr050712.php
Detailed information describing Apogee’s award programs in both the English and Russian languages can be found on the Foundation’s website at: http://www.ApogeeFoundation.org/awards/index.php and http://www.ApogeeFoundation.org/r_awards/r_index.php
Both English and Russian language versions of this news release with full photographic content, as well as printer friendly and PDF formats, can be found at: http://www.ApogeeFoundation.org/awareness/press/pr060531.php and http://www.ApogeeFoundation.org/r_awareness/r_press/r_pr060531.php
About the Perm State Ballet School
The Perm State Ballet School was founded in 1941, when Russia’s leading ballet company and school were evacuated to Perm from Leningrad — bringing with them such dance luminaries as Natalia Dudinskaya, Konstantin Sergeyev and Galina Ulanova together with other great historical figures such as composer Sergei Prokofiev. Since that time, Perm has remained one of Russia’s three leading ballet training institutions and the foremost school of its kind in all of central and eastern Russia.
About The Apogee Foundation ®
The Apogee Foundation began activities in Russia in 1997 and was incorporated in the United States in 2004 as a New York based not-for-profit corporation. Apogee is dedicated to the development of human excellence in the performing arts. It supports cultural institutions and individual artists, providing administrative, promotional, and financial support to help talented individuals achieve their full potential, and enabling this potential to be showcased to the world.
Contact
The Apogee Foundation ®
Kenneth Schneider, President
1001 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10018-5411 ( USA)
+1.646.461.6196 or +1.888.APOGEE.8
Fax: +1.646.292.5101
www.ApogeeFoundation.org