ARTIS is a small classical ballet studio in Vienna’s 1st district, run by professional dancers. Its founders trained at the Vaganova Academy in Saint Petersburg and danced with the Mariinsky Ballet, the Bayerisches Staatsballett and the Wiener Staatsballett before opening a school of their own in Vienna. What they teach is the method they were taught — and what they insist on is that every student, from a three-year-old to an adult beginner, is corrected individually, by name, in a group small enough for that to be true.
Classes are taught in English, German and Russian, in groups of at most eight. Adults train at three levels from absolute beginner to advanced; children from three to fourteen in age groups; pointe, private lessons and a pre-professional junior group complete the programme.
Alexandra Somova — founder, artistic director
Six seasons with the Mariinsky Ballet formed the first major chapter of Alexandra Somova’s stage career, with performances and tours across the United States, Italy, Germany, Brazil and China. Her training began at the Vaganova Academy in Saint Petersburg under Professor Ludmila Kovaleva. In Munich, at the Bayerisches Staatsballett, her repertoire expanded through works by Balanchine, Wheeldon, Neumeier and McGregor. She later co-founded ARTIS in Vienna and serves as its artistic director; she leads the children’s programme and teaches the pre-professional group herself.
Alexey Popov — co-founder, First Soloist of the Wiener Staatsballett
From Saint Petersburg to Munich and Vienna, Alexey Popov’s career has moved through three major companies: the Mariinsky Ballet, the Bayerisches Staatsballett and the Wiener Staatsballett. He won First Prize at the International Yuri Grigorovich Ballet Competition in Sochi in 2014, was promoted to principal in Munich in 2019, and has been First Soloist in Vienna since the 2021/22 season. His repertoire spans the classical canon as well as works by Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor.
Alina Somova — Principal of the Mariinsky Ballet
At the Mariinsky Ballet, Alina Somova became a soloist after one season and was promoted to principal in 2008 as the company’s youngest prima ballerina. She entered the company in 2003 with an honours diploma from the Vaganova Academy. A Golden Mask winner for Alexei Ratmansky’s The Little Humpbacked Horse, she was also a guest star at La Scala from 2009 to 2016. Her leading roles include Swan Lake, Giselle, Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet and Jewels on stages from Vienna and Milan to New York, London and Asia. She is part of the ARTIS team.
How we teach
- The Vaganova method, the Saint Petersburg school of classical ballet: a fixed progression of exercises at the barre and in the centre, taught the same way to a beginner and to a professional, at different speeds.
- Groups of at most eight, so that every exercise is corrected individually. Primary Ballet, the one exception, takes ten.
- Adults are grouped by experience (absolute beginners, beginners with some training, intermediate to advanced), never by age. Children are grouped by age, from three.
- Children who want to go further can move into the pre-professional group; adults who want pointe are prepared for it properly, in a class of their own.
The studio
One studio at Rockhgasse 1, between Schottentor and the Freyung, open daily from 10:00 to 21:00. Everything — timetable, booking, memberships, payment — runs through the ARTIS app; every adult class can be booked as a single class, and children start with a trial class arranged through the studio.