In 1989 Hans van der Meer stays three weeks at the world-famous ballet academy Agrippina Vaganova of Saint Petersburg, commissioned by the Holland Festival. He photographed the intensive education and master-classes at the 250 years old institute. The photographs were published in the album GRAND PAS CLASSIQUE (Fragment, 1989), together with the ones taken in the American School of Ballet in New York by Michaël Ferron.