The Kyiv City Ballet will make its first tour of the United States this fall, the company announced on Tuesday. Since February, the company has been in France, temporarily residing in the Chatelet in Paris, and holding charity concerts nationwide to help Ukrainian citizens.
US tour starting September 16th. Kyiv City Ballet “Swan Lake” and a repertoire program of 3 works will be performed. Thirteen cities, including Chicago, Detroit and Charlotte, have been announced as stops, and additional locations may be added later. Among them is the New York City Center, which was founded in 2012 and participates in the Fall for Dance Festival.
The company’s star ballerinas Krystina Kadashevych and Oksana Bondarenko will be on tour, as will Vsevolod Maevskiy, a former soloist of the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg and now the principal of the troupe.
The day after Kyiv City Ballet arrived in Paris on the “Nutcracker” tour, the dancers learned of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company’s artistic director, Ivan Kozlov, said in an interview that some dancers returned to serve the Ukrainian army but resigned due to lack of experience.
“They need someone on the scene to help,” Kozlov said. Not someone who “needs to be helped”.
According to Kozlov, dancers who frequently call and keep in touch with their families are leaning on each other for emotional support. He said he wants the US tour not only to showcase their art, but to prove that nothing can break them.
“They are about to get up,” he said, “to work and help his family,” he said.
Kristopher McDowell, founding partner of Rhizome Consulting, who produces the tour, said the Kyiv city ballet company wants to share the story of Ukraine with young Americans through workshops, master classes and conversations between dancers.
“I’ve never been told that this company needs a holiday or that it takes three or four days to sit in a hotel room,” he said. “They want to get involved in community work.”
At Fall for Dance, the Kyiv City Ballet will perform contemporary ballet “Thoughts” and folk dance “Men of Kyiv”. Stanford Maxi, Vice President of the City Center and Artistic Director of the Dance Program, said: meaningful. “
According to Maxi, the City Center is funded by the Mutual Understanding Trust, which grants grants to support arts and the environment, to support travel expenses in Kyiv City Ballet. He said many presentation organizations, such as the City Center, are working together to offset the cost of large tours.
Mr Kozlov said it does not matter which part of the country Russia invaded, as Russian troops invaded the Luhansk region, one of the two states of Donbus in eastern Ukraine. If someone attacks your home, he said it doesn’t matter if the attack is in the kitchen, bathroom, or hallway.
“It’s the same as a country,” he said. “The border must be in the same position as before.”