National Ballet of Ukraine on Tour
On Weds (Oct. 23), I caught the National Ballet of Ukraine (from Kyiv) and Shumka Ukrainian dancers (from Edmonton) on the stage of the Sarasota Opera . The Kyiv-based dancers traveled from their city to Warsaw by bus before flying to the US for their first US tour since Ukrainian independence. The circumstances of the tour are tragic: their country is under attack, their lives upended by an invasion that makes no sense and is bent on destroying not only a country but a culture. And yet, the dancers soldier on. This gala-like program of excerpts reveals exactly what these dancers need: the peace and freedom to engage with new ideas, absorb new influences and move beyond the Soviet aesthetic that has dominated the Ukrainian scene for so long. The best ballets on the program were Giselle and an excerpt from the comic Ukrainian ballet Chasing Two Hares, by Victor Litvinov. The first, because Giselle has managed to preserve its poetry despite Soviet revisions in a way that other ballets have not. The second, because it reveals a playfulness, wit, and sweetness that seem to be part of the Ukrainian spirit, so different from the Russian one. Shumka's folk dances were a nice addition; I especially enjoyed the Verbunk and the Hopak, most particularly the rhythmic, acrobatic men's dances. (I saw a little bit of Ratmansky's "Wartime Elegy" in the Verbunk.) But my greatest hope is that after the war has ended, the Ukrainian ballet company will have the chance to work with great choregraphers and to open itself up to the world. The dancers, and their country, deserve it.