Seventeen-year-old Taylor Fikes, of Bowie, is studying ballet, Russian language, history, arts and culture at the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. Did you always know you wanted to be a professional ballerina?
No, I didn’t. I really enjoyed ballet but I actually took two years off and played basketball. Basketball was fun, but I realized later that I wanted to do ballet as a career. I had started ballet at 9, but then quit at 11ish because [of] the scheduling between games and rehearsal.
Is studying Russian difficult?
I think it’s pretty easy, maybe because I’m interested in it. I took French and Spanish but I wasn’t interested in French at all, so I didn’t retain it. All of the teachers here speak Russian and all the classes are in Russian. It’s an international school though, so not everyone is Russian. There are Italians, Portuguese, some know French. There’s no language barrier though, and when there is we use a lot of miming and charades. Everyone is very expressive and ballet has a big part in why [we] understand each other because the gestures are the same.
Do you think black women are underrepresented in ballet?
There are very few African Americans in ballet; there tend to be more [black] men. In general I think they are underrepresented and as you get higher up, you see less. Aside from me, there is one African American girl at Bolshoi. It’s really not common to even see two African Americans here. She’s my roommate; she’s from Michigan.
What’s the difference between ballet culture in America and Russia?
Ballet’s a little bit bigger here. In America, if you’re bored, you got to the mall or something. Here they go to the ballet. It’s more cultural and historical here; if you ask a Russian about their history they know all about it. It’s growing in the U.S. though, especially with the publicity from “Black Swan.”
— Leigh Giangreco
