LUCKY BALLET-DANCERS.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 20 September 1911, Page 7

LUCKY BALLET-DANCERS.

It may not be generally, known that children trained to become bal-let-dancers in Russia are educated, clothed, and fed at the expense of the (lovernment. and retire on a pension at thirty-five. The balletdnnrer of Russia begins early and leads a strenuous life. At nine years the child—boy or girl—is presented to the school, and, and if the candidate passes the easy entrance examination and satisfies the physical requirements as to growth and development, may be accepted. A considerable portion of the pupils are the children of dancers, but the school is open to all classes. Parental responsibility practically ends here. The child is entirely brought up at the cost of the State and receives a very fair secondary education, is well cared for and looked after, and is thoroughly trained in the art that is to become the work of his or her life. Four hours a day are devoted to dancing during the eight years the pupil is at school.

Any child who proves incapable, or who grows too tall or does not grow enough, may be sent away without right of appeal. While still at school the pupils frequently appear on the stage in dances created specially for children. They also take part in the "crowds" in opeVas where children are needed, ns in the first act of Tschaikovsky's "Dame de Pique." At seventeen they must start their careers as members of the corps dc ballet.

Every pupil can count on an engagement, and after dancing C ahteen years retires with a pension at thirty-five, only exceptional artistes being permitted to continue after that age. In the small country houses, to which all Russians of any means resort in the summer, danders will cause bars and ropes to be put up, and practice for many hours daily during all the months the theatres are closed, and they desist only when every detail of the difficult technique is thoroughly mastered.