Biography of Tamara Volochkova

I was not yet five years old. But I well remember my impressions both from the theater and from the ballet. Blue with gold, the magnificent hall of the theater struck me with its solemn splendor. He seemed to me like the temple in which my mother and grandmother took me. I greedily examined all the details of theatrical decoration: chandeliers, painting of the plafon, gold stucco molding, velvet chairs.

And this incomparable smell of the holiday and miracle in the air was such a tense atmosphere of expectation that any trifle that came into sight became very important, even a net, stretched under velvet railing of the lodges on which the programs lay. I asked why she was here, and my mother replied that in the old days beautifully dressed ladies put their fans on these nets.

Mom explained to me how to behave in the theater. And I really wanted to be as elegant and look as beautiful and worthy as those ladies. Magic came with him: angels, stars, snowflakes, a fabulous Christmas tree and dancing children. I saw a real New Year holiday on stage. And I heard a melody that I immediately found out, because I heard it before and loved it very much.

In our house, music has always sounded. We had a lot of records. Mom, Tamara Vladimirovna Antonova, was an engineer and worked at the project Institute of the Academy of Sciences. In addition, she managed to graduate from state courses of guides and, in her free time from the main job, conducted wonderful excursions in the summer garden. Despite the modest income, my parents always tried to buy all the best that was needed for professional activities.

This concerned all family members. Dad always had the most modern racket and the best overlays for it. I watched since childhood how he carefully and carefully treated them. Now I often recall this when I am preparing my poinets for the performance or rehearsal. Three years before entering the Vaganov school, I began to accustom myself to the idea that nothing falls from the sky, everything is achieved only by labor.

My permanent employment later grew into the habit of accurately spending time, that is, to engage only in what is really important. At home, I could indulge in dreams. She built a suit from a gauze twisted in several layers, tied with a belt from her mother’s robe, similar to a ballet skirt, a “shop”, and enthusiastically performed dance improvisations in our tiny living room in front of her neighbors.

This is today in a ballet store you can purchase a swimsuit, ballet skirt, leggings or even a suit necessary for classes. At the time of my youth, one could only dream of this. When guests and neighbors gathered with us, I liked to arrange for them, as it seemed to me, whole ideas. The large population of the communal apartment called me only “our Anna Pavlova” and my parents, and now, is very grateful to them for this quite seriously to my childhood desire to become a ballerina.

In the meantime, we decided to develop all my abilities. Musicality in my genes. Dad had an absolute ear. He played the button accordion and was always the soul of the company. He managed to convey to me the love of music and the desire to learn. The first piano teacher was an old pianist, in the past - a teacher of the Leningrad Conservatory, which Papa was ridiculously christened by "Old Woman Isergil." And, I must say, not in vain.

She was very strict and beat me in the hands when I took the wrong note. And she also loved to knock on my back with her long nails, correcting the posture. It was hard and even painful to deal with her. But now I am grateful to her, because she managed to put my hands correctly in a short time. This helped me at the Vaganov school to become one of the best piano students.

Source: A. History of Russian Ballerina. The Livrelady Club is a union of women of different professions, age, marital status and geography.

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