04-07-2012, 05:39 PM
i love to see such talent and hard work rewarded! i am so impressed with this lovely young lady~~the Bolshoi is the ultimate world-class ballet company for any ballerina to aspire to. i am very proud of this American girl to achieve this honor~~
A 17-year-old student from Texas is to become the first American to graduate from the world's leading ballet school, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
Joy Womack has lived by herself in Moscow, Russia, for three years, more than 6,000 miles away from her home in Austin, to attend the school.
Now, after years of dancing for 10 hours a day and six days a week, Joy is preparing to sit her finals and graduate in May.
she was hand-picked by the Bolshoi Ballet Academy to train in the Russian dancers department for $18,000 a year, reports NBC.
'When I first arrived here, nobody had heard of me. Everybody thought, ‘Here is this new American coming into the Russian class,’ she said.
'It was hard the first six months, because the girls did not want to talk to me, did not want to be my friends,' she said.
The school which first opened in 1776 has long since established itself as a premier training ground for classical Russian ballet dancers.
The school's tough focus on discipline saw the dedicated teen dancing up to 10 hours a day, six days a week.
Joy was cast as the lead in the Academy's production 'La Fille Mal Gardee' which won best student show in the theatre and landed the school an award from the Russian government.
After she completes her finals in acting, classical ballet, character dance, and duet, Joy will dance in one final performance with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, the lead in 'Paquita' and will wait to see if she's invited to join its regular troupe.
![[Image: article-2126565-1281B0D3000005DC-486_634x423.jpg]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/07/article-2126565-1281B0D3000005DC-486_634x423.jpg)
![[Image: article-2126565-1281B84F000005DC-823_634x448.jpg]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/07/article-2126565-1281B84F000005DC-823_634x448.jpg)
![[Image: article-2126565-1281B263000005DC-913_634x340.jpg]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/07/article-2126565-1281B263000005DC-913_634x340.jpg)
![[Image: article-2126565-1281B847000005DC-518_306x423.jpg]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/07/article-2126565-1281B847000005DC-518_306x423.jpg)
![[Image: article-2126565-1281B84B000005DC-356_306x423.jpg]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/07/article-2126565-1281B84B000005DC-356_306x423.jpg)
![[Image: article-2126565-1281B2D7000005DC-697_634x348.jpg]](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/07/article-2126565-1281B2D7000005DC-697_634x348.jpg)
A 17-year-old student from Texas is to become the first American to graduate from the world's leading ballet school, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy.
Joy Womack has lived by herself in Moscow, Russia, for three years, more than 6,000 miles away from her home in Austin, to attend the school.
Now, after years of dancing for 10 hours a day and six days a week, Joy is preparing to sit her finals and graduate in May.
she was hand-picked by the Bolshoi Ballet Academy to train in the Russian dancers department for $18,000 a year, reports NBC.
'When I first arrived here, nobody had heard of me. Everybody thought, ‘Here is this new American coming into the Russian class,’ she said.
'It was hard the first six months, because the girls did not want to talk to me, did not want to be my friends,' she said.
The school which first opened in 1776 has long since established itself as a premier training ground for classical Russian ballet dancers.
The school's tough focus on discipline saw the dedicated teen dancing up to 10 hours a day, six days a week.
Joy was cast as the lead in the Academy's production 'La Fille Mal Gardee' which won best student show in the theatre and landed the school an award from the Russian government.
After she completes her finals in acting, classical ballet, character dance, and duet, Joy will dance in one final performance with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, the lead in 'Paquita' and will wait to see if she's invited to join its regular troupe.
