More than 1,600 students sat this year’s Russian Classical Ballet Examination in Sri Lanka — the largest number ever to take the examination in the country, The Island reported on Sunday.
The examinations ran in Colombo from 5 to 18 October, with a separate sitting in Galle on 10 October. The Colombo schedule concluded on the day the result was reported.
Candidates were aged four and above. They were examined by Dr. Oxana Karnovich of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, described as an academic and curator.
Where the candidates came from
The entry was drawn from across the island rather than concentrated in the capital. The report names Colombo, Galle, Gampaha, Negombo, Matara, Kelaniya, Panadura, Wattala, Kiribathgoda, Ratnapura, Kandy, Kurunegala, Bandarawela and Badulla — fourteen locations, and the list is given as a partial one.
That spread runs from the western coastal belt through the hill country to Uva, and is the detail that carries the record figure: 1,600 candidates is a national entry, not a Colombo one.
The students are taught by 15 teachers trained in the Vaganova method, the Russian system of classical ballet training named for Agrippina Vaganova and used as the standard syllabus of the Russian academies.
A school with a 25-year run
The Russian School of Ballet and Dancing was established in 2001 by Michael Ustinov, Buddhapriya Ramanayake and Chandi Aluvihare, with Galina Pleshakova as its founding instructor.
It is now led by Director Maria Popova, who is also a Counsellor at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Sri Lanka — placing the school’s direction inside the Russian diplomatic mission rather than alongside it.
Not reported
The report gives no comparison figure for previous years, so the size of the increase that makes this a record is not quantifiable from it. Nor does it state how many candidates passed, what grades or levels were examined, when results are due, or whether the 15 teachers work solely for the Russian School of Ballet and Dancing.
No other verified newsroom had covered the examination at the time of writing, and searches returned no second account; this article is single-sourced. The Island’s page sits behind a challenge gateway that blocks direct retrieval from this desk, and the date above was taken from the article’s own “Published on 2026/10/18” byline together with its image filename, both of which give 18 October.
