Home Endorsement

https://www.newschool.edu/lang/faculty/elizabeth-kendall/

“I have known Mr. Fomkin since 2006, when I spent six months in St. Petersburg, Russia, on a Fulbright Research grant, working in multiple Russian archives on the childhood and young manhood of Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine (co-founder of the New York City Ballet).  Mr. Fomkin was of great help to my research, opening the very rich archives of the Vaganova Academy to me (a rare privilege for a scholar), and even more importantly, helping me re-imagine the physical and psychological nature of the Academy in the volatile years when Balanchine was a student there (1913-1921).  This was something that only Mr. Fomkin could have done because he is a fellow ballet history enthusiast. One who took his role very seriously as the head of this architecturally beautiful and significant institution at the heart of the architecturally extraordinary city of St. Petersburg.”

“There is no doubt that Mr. Fomkin is a prominent figure in the world of Russian ballet. He himself is a graduate of the Vaganova Ballet Academy.  After his graduation, he was accepted into the troupe of the famous Mariinsky Theater – an honor bestowed only on a small fraction of the Academy’s graduating students; that is, on the most talented graduates. After retiring as a dancer, Mr. Fomkin continued to grow as a ballet professional and in 2000 graduated from the same Vaganova Ballet Academy with a Master’s Degree as a Ballet Researcher, Critique, and Teacher, majoring in the History and Theory of the Art of Choreography. Furthermore, he went on to earn a Ph.D. degree in Pedagogy and then added another degree in Psychology, becoming a very rare (and very needed!) specialist in the area of ballet education and the development of educational programs and techniques.”

“As a pedagogue, Mr. Fomkin raised generations of ballet dancers, including many who rose up themselves to become soloists and principal dancers at the Mariinsky Ballet.  He served on many commissions created to examine the nature of Russian ballet education – again, the list in his CV is detailed and impressive.  He was invited to become a member of the jury for the extremely prestigious Russia-wide “Golden Mask” national theater award.”

“His joint experience in the actual pedagogy of the Vaganova system as well as his own further inquiries into the way such a pedagogy impacts the psychological health of ballet students is unique.  It is this joint experience that especially qualifies him to work in the U.S., where the Vaganova system of training is one of only a few coherent systems of training young dancers.”