The Moscow State Academy of Choreography, commonly known as The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools of ballet in the world, located in Moscow, Russia. It is the affiliate school of the Bolshoi Ballet. Founded on December 23, 1773 as the second ballet school in Russia, it entered into a contract with the Italian teacher-choreographer Filippo Becari, regarded as “the most capable of teaching” children to learn “to dance with all possible precision and to show themselves publicly in all pantomime ballets”.