by Helen Lock, B. Mus. (McGill), B.Ed. (Hons.) (U. of Edinburgh, Scotland),
Ont. Teach. Cert.

Having taught in high schools and elementary schools, both public and private, in Great Britain and in Canada, I thought that there could be few surprises left for me in the world of education. As teachers in Ontario can still retire relatively early, many of us feel a certainwish or even obligation to undertake voluntary work in the community. I initially chose to volunteer in a hospital setting, for a change. An acquaintance persuaded me to help out in a school.

Nothing in my past prepared me for what I saw here, at the VBA Day School. The inclusion of ballet in the curriculum I imagined to be simply an interesting facet of the school, a particular emphasis.

Yet this school is unique in my experience: the school’s environment is a continuous state of the evolution of beauty. The beauty of classical dance spreads its power over seemingly every aspect of the individuals who teach and learn here. Of the founders of the school, one is the principal and the other, his wife, is the principal ballet teacher. These two are responsible for this energy of beauty which is indeed the school’s foundation.

This beauty is insidious and pervasive. It draws one in, it is magnetic. What is this power? It is the supremacy of what is good and therefore beautiful over what is mediocre or even flawed. It is a world where good people inspire goodness in others. It is where the spirit thrives on goodness and the goodness is beautiful. It reaches out and touches everyone who works here – teacher or pupil – and it has two sources. One, is the quality of the two persons who founded the school and the second, I believe, is the ballet itself. Here, goodness is beauty and beauty melds with culture.

Victoria Mironova has come to Canada with a training in ballet that only the best Russian ballet school can provide; who in Europe or the ‘New World’ has ever questioned the outstanding reputation of Russia, held for countless generations, in the art of classical ballet? The Academy of Russian Ballet, founded 300 years ago in St. Petersburg, utilizes the Vaganova method of learning and teaching ballet, and counts among its illustrious students Nureyev, Barishnikov, Plisetskaya, to name only a few. It has also produced Mironova. There she has also been taught to be a teacher of ballet. Victoria Mironova is a generous and kind person. Ballet without decency and integrity is empty.   Kindness, honesty and integrity are this school’s values. Yes, it will produce famous ballet dancers, but it will be the source of nourishment to all its pupils.

Ballet bestows on our children countless rewards. Here are a few:

• the ability to co-ordinate the body and movement
• the ability to control expression of emotions
• the ability to hear and understand music

The effects of such training are:

• to improve stamina, and to provide an instinctive desire for hard work
• to enhance longevity
• to clear and cleanse the mind
• to inspire the mind and the spirit

The scope and range of these rewards is vast. A heartless or unscrupulous teacher cannot edify and enlighten in such an environment, where the souls of the pupils are continually touched at such profound levels. Indeed, these rewards endow the whole person, their learning of every subject taught at school, and almost every aspect of behaviour. The students are intelligent, cultured and very well educated in an impressive variety of subjects within the humanities, the sciences, creative arts – including music: all of these, including the various types of dance taught, even those in the after school program, are certified by the Ministry of Education.

Both staff and students are without arrogance; they do not consider themselves superior. They have self-esteem and self-respect, and they respect others. These pupils are happy; they know little of laziness or boredom.  They are kind, they are honest; their life is full and they love life. They strive for inward and outward beauty and hence these pupils are, indeed, beautiful. It is with joy that I contemplate what they will offer society as adults, whatever their sphere of work.

Testimonial by J.D.
Located in the heart of Thornhill, Ontario, Victoria Ballet Academy is a private day school that also has afternoon and weekend classes for children in ballet, ballet gymnastics, character dance and jazz.  They also offer music and art lessons.  My daughter has been a student in the weekend and afternoon program for the past two and a half years.  Read more …