May 4: The first Russian ballet school

On May 4, 1738, the Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna founded the first "Her Imperial Majesty's Dance School" in the Russian Empire in St. Petersburg. The initiator of its creation was the French dance master Jean-Baptiste Landé. In specially equipped rooms of the Winter Palace, he began training twelve Russian boys and girls.

Today, the first dance school in Russia is named after the ballet dancer, choreographer, teacher and founder of ballet theory Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova.