^AB Vaganova was a student at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg, graduating in 1897 to dance professionally with the schools parent company, the Imperial Russian Ballet. She retired from dancing in 1916 to pursue a teaching career. Following the Russian revolution of 1917, she returned to the school as a teacher in 1921, although it had by then been re-established as the Leningrad Choreographic School by the Soviet government. The Imperial Russian Ballet was also disbanded and was re-established as the Soviet Ballet. http://ow.ly/i/bEydT