Teacher Piti is one of those energetic ladies, who goes out and about riding a bicycle and says that gratitude and love are more than enough and she can do without praise and medals. She is not only a great artist, but she is the first Albanian ballerina and woman to teach at the Ballet School and one of the first ballerinas to grace the stage of the “Opera and Ballet Theatre,” which means that she is one of the first founders of this genre and artistic institutions.
ATA team met with teacher Nermin Ahmeti to learn more about her and how she went into this profession.

“The Ballet School opened in 1957 and we were 6 friends from the neighbourhood who decided to give ballet dancing a try. We were selected by the commission made up of professors who had come from Moscow. It was a commission that evaluated in great detail all the physical elements and parameters we had. “Agron Aliaj, Petrit Vorbsi, etc., were the ones who evaluated us, one by one, because the candidates had to meet some parameters to enter this profession, and we were accepted in this school,” teacher Piti says.

The Albanian ballet was still in its infancy and certainly the mentality of the society was not quite favorable.

There were problems because they thought “ballerina”… However my mom was very modern for the time she lived and always wanted her daughters to become either artists or athletes. It was my mother who gave me the strength to move forward,” said the teacher.

Beyond the great challenges, she undertook to be the first teacher in the Ballet School.

“For 6 years running I danced at the Opera Theater as a ballerina, then in the years 1968-1969 I went to the High School of Arts to work as a teacher of the Ballet School. I worked alongside Agron Aliaj, Skënder Selimi, Panajot Kanaçi, etc., but they were not effective and in these years I became the first effective teacher. From then until I retired, we worked with passion and desire. It is a very tiring profession. You also have to exercise at home on Saturdays and Sundays, I tell my students. We happened to teach the best and most educated students, compared to other schools, very correct in all aspect. I was always called the teacher with stick. “I kept it for direction, for rhythm but sometimes also for discipline,” she jokes.

Former students and dancers who have worked with teacher Piti over the years have danced on the largest and most prestigious stages. They appreciate the dedication of their teacher and still maintain contact with her. When telling about this part, teacher Piti feels very proud. She beams with pleasure when speaking about her students and their successes.
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