(Paris) The Kyiv Ballet usually stays on tour for up to nine months a year. But its dancers, who arrived in France the day before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, would never have believed that they would become forced exiles overnight.
Posted at 12:26 p.m.
At the Théâtre du Châtelet, their “refuge” for a few days after having been offered a residence by the town hall of Paris, the troupe tries to put on a good face, despite their eyes reddened by emotion and moments of silence.
With the war, the company finds itself cut in two, a part having remained in Kyiv, while about thirty dancers came to France to present a version for children of Nutcracker.
“The others will try to join us,” whispers Ekaterina Kozlova, deputy director of the troupe she founded in 2012 with her husband Ivan Kozlov.
‘Emotionally exhausted’
Tuesday evening, at the Châtelet, they presented, during a unique evening, a dance class on stage with dancers from the Paris Opera and some dance extracts, the proceeds of which will be donated to the Red Cross at destination from Ukraine.
They were applauded for a long time, especially when dancers dressed in T-shirts in the colors of Ukraine performed a folk choreography, Men from Kyiv. Or when they sang the national anthem, in front of the image of the country’s flag projected on stage.
But behind the scenes, they are quickly caught up in reality.
” It’s very hard. Several times a day, someone starts crying because they have received bad news or because they don’t know anything about their family. […] We have a young mother who has her daughter in Ukraine, ”says Mme Kozlova. “Everyone is stressed, emotionally drained.”
Everything had started so well, however, with the company just beginning to return to touring after the pandemic.
“We arrived in Paris on February 23 and we were so happy, we love being in Paris. We were planning a tour of a few weeks and then going home, ”explains Mme Kozlova.
The next day, they are woken up by an avalanche of text messages and missed calls from family and friends. “Since then, we’ve all been in a state of shock.”
“Keep Spinning”
Like Vladyslav Dobshynskyi, 23. “It’s not possible to forget, even when we’re on stage, we worry about our loved ones,” he says, looking anxious, even if the dance sometimes manages to “distract him”.
“We call our families night and day,” says Olga Posternak, 34, who performed a pas de deux from Swan Lake with the Opera’s star dancer Paul Marque.
She is worried about her husband and brother, even though they are “safe for the moment somewhere near Lviv” (west). The future ? “I can’t answer that question.”
At his side, Mikhailo Shcherbakov, 33, says he wants to stay positive, even if he doesn’t want to hear the word “exile”. “It’s the worst thing that could happen to me.”
What to do to boost the morale of the troop?
“I tell dancers that they have a unique opportunity to be heard. Our job is to bring light and love across the stage”, says Ekaterina Kozlova, specifying that they intend to “continue to tour in Europe and around the world”. For now, they are preparing to dance in Nantes and Tours.
An opportunity that other dance companies in Ukraine do not have for the time being, in particular the prestigious Kyiv National Opera Ballet (170 dancers), completely at a standstill.
Mme Kozlova, whose troop is much smaller than the national company, says she is “overwhelmed” by the generosity of France, which has given them hope.
They also receive housing assistance from individuals and organizations, and dance shops have provided them with pointe shoes and leotards.
With this more to be together. “In Ukraine, they say that where you have family, you are at home. And in this troop, we feel like a big family.