“I am a soldier of Russian ballet”

“Back then, in childhood, attending ballet class in my small Romanian mountain town, we regarded Russian ballet as a miracle,” says Christina-Maria. “And I am glad I have opportunity to contribute into development of this miracle. I am a soldier of Russian ballet and ready to serve it as best as I can.”

The Russian group under guidance of the Romanian teacher stages performances after Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, holding on to traditions thereat. And they bring their art and skills to audiences in Vologda midlands, which are rarely able to see ballet at the stage. However now the group is excitedly preparing to its first trip abroad – they are going to Italy in spring.

Five year ago, quitting life on the move for the first time since she was nine, Christina-Maria decided to start teaching. “It is a natural course of things,” she says. “My whole life I have been working, learning something, and now the time is here to share it.”

She went to HR department of Cherepovets sports school bringing along all her diplomas, international awards and idea to open a ballet studio. The artist of European stage was warmly welcomed and given a children group. This is how “Art-classic” studio was born. Today more than thirty girls of different ages attend it.

Christina-Maria fell in love with Russian ballet when she was a child, that time it was often on TV.

“I’ll be honest with you: back then I didn’t see Russian ballet dancers as ordinary people, which someone could meet walking down the street,” she says. “They seemed to be some kind of ethereal creatures – tall, dignified, and all those movements of theirs! There was a feeling that they soared in the air not touching the ground. My ballet-mates, irrespective of country I worked in, thought that no one was ever able to dance like Russians did. Everybody wants to, but no one is able. That is the common opinion in our realm. Russian ballerinas have always been a role model for us, and choreography of the Bolshoi Theatre, as well as other Russian theaters, has been our tutorial. In my Romania ballerinas are eager to achieve new heights, but they end up in a local theater and that’s the limit. But Russia does not have any limit, do you understand?”

Her path to the greater ballet stage was not an easy one. Christina-Maria was born in the mountain town of Piatra Neamț in Romania; her father was a steelworker, her mother was an accountant. “I have spent a lifetime in ballet, since I was three; my mom brought me to the class because I was lively,” she recalls. “After the class I joined Professional ballet school in Cluj-Napoca; this school is famous in Romania. It happened in an interesting way. My teacher came to my mom and told her that I should have gone to Cluj-Napoca; I was only nine then. My mom didn’t agree – I was the only child, and still very young, how she could let me go. But the teacher insisted and said: “If you don’t bring her there, I will do, pack her things.” My mom surrendered and brought me there herself. So I have lived independently since I was nine.”

“The 1990s were tough not only for you,” the ballerina goes on. “Life was pretty hard for us in Romania that time. I dreamt of ballet, greater stage, but had to survive somehow as well. At 18, after leaving the ballet school, I joined Opera and Ballet Theatre in the town of Brașov; however I did not work there for long and went abroad. The house was half empty; people showed little interest in ballet: there were more important things to think about, everybody went after money. Theater experienced huge shortage of male artists. We mostly performed for school children. Though performances were pretty nice, good classics was staged.”

Then she worked as an assistant of one famous illusionist in Germany, after that in circus corps de ballet in Holland, where Christina-Maria met her husband from Russia. “How did we meet? He was an acrobat and came to Holland through the Russian State Circus Company to work in a circus; performers from all over the world work there,” she shares. “It was impossible not to get to know each other, because we were always together – at rehearsals, performances, after shows. Our communication language was English, though he did not talk much. But it was enough for us to become a couple.”

One year later the contract finished, performing artists went back to their homes. The Russian acrobat made proposal in her home town: he came and asked Christina-Maria’s mother permission to marry her daughter in his broken English. Christina-Maria answered “Yes” to her darling though it was clear: her life would have to be changed dramatically. “I knew he would never leave his country,” she says. And in the early aughts the Romanian felt that Russia was more terrifying than a circus tiger, despite all her love for Russian ballet.

Christina-Maria confesses: she used to think that ballet cult could be found everywhere in Russia, including school lessons with barre exercises, plenty of studios, ballet schools and high enrollment competition in them. But reality turned out to be different. “What puzzle me is that many people in Russia don’t like ballet, they hardly know anything about it,” she says.

Working with children in accordance with standards of Russian ballet, Christina-Maria consciously violates them in one aspect: she hardly pays any attention to natural capabilities and accepts everyone. She says that desire to dance is more important than inherent parameters, and everyone shall be given a chance. Many of her students were rejected in other studios. They may not become ballet dancers, let’s assume that, but rather all-round enthusiastic individuals. “I accept everybody, though very few of them stay, because real ballet requires hard work,” she says. “There’s a reason they say that ballet is a small army. Everyone is surprised that my children are “off-standard”. I am “off-standard” myself; as a child I wouldn’t have been admitted to Russian ballet. Most people in our area, I mean in Romania, are of short height. There are more of tall people in Russia, even at-a-glance. Yes, and there is much greater variety of choices – the country is huge; many people live in it.”

Christina-Mariais is excellent speaker of Russian – she easily grasps compound sentences with adverbial participial phrases, as well as proverbial expressions; only her light accent could give a hint that she is a foreigner. But learning Russian was, perhaps, even more complicated task than Russian ballet. And back in 2001, when the Romanian came to Cherepovets for the first time, she did not speak any Russian at all.

“Trying to learn the language, I used to watch TV a lot; I went to shops, listened to people’s talks,” she says. “Then came the time when I was like some kind of puppy: I understood everything, but could not say anything. People used to come to me, say something; I nodded my head and then stated: “I don’t speak Russian”. Many thought I mocked at them.”

Now she writes in Russian pretty well, almost without errors. Those she still makes relate to cases and declensions. Her written language improved greatly with help of ABC books, which she used while learning together with her children; they were born in Cherepovets, by the way.  Christina-Maria read Marshak and Chukovskiy’s books together with her little ones building syllables and taking delight in forming words with letters. And when children went to school, their over-scrupulous mom studied the Russian school program as well – they hit the books together.

“My elder daughter followed in her father’s footsteps and entered acrobatics department of Moscow State Circus College, and my son is a school-boy,” Christina-Maria proudly shares. Christina-Maria’s mother, who lives in Romania, still has not managed to come to Russia. But she has met her grandchildren – they visit Romania from time to time.

Currently “Art-classic”, the most unorthodox, but at the same time the most passionate children ballet group in the Vologda Region, rehearses dances for a trip to Italy where it will represent Russia. And then, maybe some day, they will perform in Romania, so Christina-Maria’s teachers are able to see them. And her mother would rejoice – Christina-Maria has made it.